Where There's a Will . . .

Molly Writes -

I've been thinking about wills lately - John and I need to rewrite ours.  We originally wrote wills after Peter and Roger were born, and then updated them when the boys were in middle school.   Now that both are grown, we need to go over things to be sure that our business is handled as easily for the grown kids as we hoped it would be for the young 'uns.

It isn't my mission to give you legal advice - I'm a legal vacuum - but to encourage you to get a little bit for yourselves.  Whether you do something with an attorney or Legal Zoom or some other vehicle, it's important for you to put into writing how you want things managed if you die before your children are adults.  

We had two areas of concern - who would raise our children in the event of our deaths and how their support would be provided.  We found a good attorney and wrote a simple will, listing family members who were most likely to provide a home atmosphere similar to the one we provided.  We also made sure our life insurance was in order and our personal affairs in order.  It was actually quite easy.

Before we made a decision about guardians, we spoke with various family members to be sure that they were on board with this.  We chose a guardian and also indicated an alternate.  We upped John's life insurance, and, since I was a mom-at-home, initiated insurance on myself as well. We stuck with term life since we were already investing money in retirement programs, etc.  This was all done long before I was diagnosed with MS, and we are glad we did this, since obviously after the diagnosis, getting life insurance would have been problematic.

It's nice to have your ducks in a row, it gives you a feeling of empowerment.  Also having adequate life insurance, wills and guardians in order, we felt almost immortal.  Murphy's law being what it is, nothing could possibly happen to us when we were so prepared for any possibility.

So, enough of my sorry pragmatic self!  Get your ducks in a row, then go have some fun.