A good estate attorney will ask you to bring a list of important topics with you when it is time to draft your will. Your attorney is a professional who can help you put together a will that represents your wishes, but an attorney is not a mind reader. As you prepare to put together your will, be sure to dedicate some time to the most common things people miss when they are putting together their final instructions.
Anyone who lives with a family knows that their pets will be cared for when they pass on. But if you live alone, then the courts will decide what will happen to your furry friends. You can avoid the complications that can occur with determining pet ownership for a deceased pet parent by putting provisions in your will to care for your pets. Not only should you designate who you want to take your pets, but you might also want to set aside extra funds to make sure your pets get the kind of attention and care they are used to.
Many people dedicate hours of their week and thousands of dollars of their own money to taking care of family members who have become housebound or otherwise disabled. If something should happen to you, the relative you are caring for could find themselves being taken in by the state. Discuss what will happen with dependent relatives with your family and then put provisions in your will to make sure that those arrangements are properly funded and carried out.
You should never assume that your family will continue to support your charitable organizations of choice after you have passed on. Some people buy life insurance policies and make their favorite charitable organization the beneficiary, while others set aside funding in their wills. You can leave a lump sum to your favorite charity, or you can set up an annuity that pays out monthly to continually fund your favorite humanitarian group.
It is generous of you to leave your brother a percentage of your estate when you pass on, but what if your brother is in the same car accident that took your life? People often forget to do contingency planning when they put together their wills, and that means designating secondary beneficiaries if something should happen to the primary beneficiaries.
Do you own and run websites as part of your revenue? Then you should make sure that those online properties are passed on to the person who would benefit from them the most. Blogs, websites, and domain names you own but have not developed can all have value that should be considered when you are making up your will.
A will is essentially a summary of everything that is important in your life and how you want those items handled when you pass on. When you leave out items, you are leaving the fate of those items to the probate courts. You should never leave anything to chance when drafting a will, and that is why you should take the time to make sure that you cover all of your bases before your will is filed.
