How do my husband and I make up a Will that is legal?

Godsgirl: How do my husband and I make up a Will that is legal?
I have a child from a previous marriage and my husband has two. We also have four children together. How do we ensure that the 4 younger children are taken care of financially in the event of the death or one or both of us? The older children are 20 and 16. Will the life insurance and estate be split equally amongst the seven children or will more go to the younger ones because we have already put the 20 year old through college?

BTW: His 16 year old still lives with his mother and step father. The 20 year old is out on his own and my 16 year old lives with us.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Billy M
Looks like you need some shyster lawyer to really make a mess of what is already a mess. My Dad trusted me and put my name on everything he owned. When he died it was easy for me to give each what my Dad intended to give. No problem but then I had a lot more than what he left. I retired at age 40.

Answer by Chris
Given your blended family, your best bet is to consult an attorney so that your estate is distributed they way you want. Your state will have certain intestacy laws that determine how your estate is distributed if you die without a will. It is not likely to be in a manner that you might normally expect (and almost certainly not “divided equally”). According to your state’s law, your life insurance is probably not contemplated as part of the estate. Additionally, again given your blended family, if you find a good lawyer for your will now, your probate expense will likely be less than if you die without one. A will should not be unreasonably expensive.

Answer by Dick Eney
You can specify which child gets what. (Either explicitly or as a percentage of the estate.) I would suggest spelling out amounts for all but one and saying that he/she receives the “residue”. There are books at your local library which contain models for the wording of a will. Once you have it done, you should have it reviewed by a lawyer, then get it notarized and put it on file with the appropriate authorities — the County Clerk’s office is usually the place to file it.

Answer by Tara R
I suggest you call a lawyer. I know, I know, the expense and hassle! Believe me I know. We have gone to see 3 lawyers in 5 months and still have no will. The 4th promises she will take care of it. We’ll see. But when it comes to your kids pay the expense, indure the hassle. They are the most important thing in your life. And I know you want them taken care of. You need to name an executor as well as guardians for your minor children. You need to spell our how the money will be devided. If you don’t want it divided until your youngest is out of college you need to state it. If you don’t want any of the kids to get money until they are 25 state it. A lawyer can help, with all of that. Good luck I hope you do not have to go through the hassle we have to get ours done. And if anyone knows a good lawyer in NC that will do what they say they are going to do and do it in a reasonable time frame, not two months when they promised 2 weeks let me know so I can call them if this lady falls through also.

Answer by branaly
You need to contact a lawyer and just ask what you would need to do legally to be sure that everything goes where you need it to go. You would also need to find a family member or close friend who is not part of your will that you trust to keep a copy in case anything would happen to one or both of you. Also one word of advice is when you do your will you should both sign a clause that it can not be changed under any circumstances if one of you pass and the other one is still living. I’ve seen bad things happen and people try to make things different when one parent passes. Sometimes the step children get the shaft! Good luck. You may even want to try to get a lawyer pro bono. They will do one case pro bono a year.

Answer by abqdan
You can get a will kit at OfficeMax, or you can buy a book about this from the NOLO Press. That will show you how to make a valid will in your state without an attorney.

Answer by strangedaze23
Wills depend on state laws as to what you can and cannot do, or how they are executed.

But the long and short of it is that if you draft a will you can split up your estate in anyway you desire. For Life insurance you decided the beneficiaries and how it is divided.

Now, there are certian more complicated rules that occur state to state if the child was born after the will was drafted, or if you are divorced and never changed your will. But you ultimately have control so long as you execute the will in accordance with state laws.

Answer by J T
See an experienced attorney in your state. It will be much cheaper to pay to have your wills set up right from the start than to force your children to pay a lawyer a lot more money to fix any errors made if you do not hire a qualified attorney to write a valid will. It may cost you (depending on where you live) about $ 1000 to get a complicated will done. If you die without one and the kids have to fix problems, it will cost them at least $ 10,000 to fix it. (It takes more time and effort to fix something than to do it right from the beginning.)

For example – there are strict rules about how a legal, valid will is prepared. Miss any step and what you create is not a will and thrown out by the probate court. Also, if you already have a will, just writing a new one does NOT void the first one – there are special rules you must follow to void a previous will.

Those “will kits” are very risky. For years I told my father-in-law (and I am an attorney) to get a lawyer in his state to make sure the “will kit” he used complied with his state’s laws. All he did was read the box and tell me yes, it says right here it works in my state. Well, guess what, the “will” he created turned out to be garbage, just like I thought it would be. The only reason his entire estate is not going to pay hefty amounts of money to an attorney to fix the problems of his dying without a will is that an attorney friend of the family has taken over the job.