There have been some family changes, and I needed to redo my estate planning documents.  What are those?  Those are things like Wills, Power of Attorneys, Healthcare Proxy’s, and other documents that pertain to things I wanted allocated at the end of my life.  I had done this about seven years ago and had been advised at that time that those documents might need to be reviewed after three to five or so years, so I was overdue.

Hubby and I made an appointment with an attorney and went to see him to complete that review.  Yes, I see stuff on the internet all the time about doing your own very inexpensively which might work if you don’t have a lot of assets or specific wishes that you want to include.  In all honesty, the attorney came up with some great ideas I had never considered in the past and I went with many of his suggestions.  Was it expensive?  Well, I guess that depends on what you think it’s worth to you to have your assets and money divided as you see fit.  And, because each attorney will probably have their own set of fees, I will not provide what we are spending to redo our documents.  However, to have the peace of mind knowing that our wishes will be done the way we feel they should be, it’s worth every penny we are spending.

So, what did we do?  We each got new Wills, Power of Attorney documents and Healthcare Proxy’s.  I also set up a couple of trusts for funds that may or may not be needed after my death.  These trusts are set up for expenses that might be incurred going forward that can’t be foreseen right now.  Or they may be funds that you choose to leave to grandchildren who aren’t old enough to inherit money.  You may want to make the wait until they’re a certain age to gain access.  Additionally, I set up a Revocable (a.k.a. Living) Trust which will help my heirs avoid Probate Court, among other things.  

This type of trust can be changed, revoked while I’m still alive, and gives me the ability to manage and protect my assets while I’m still living.  There are several other benefits to having a Revocable Trust so if you’re interested, I recommend you talk to an attorney to see if this is right for you.

So, what is the moral of this story?  It is never too soon or too late to do estate planning.  If you have young children, you want to ensure that they are taken care of long term in the manner you feel appropriate.  If you are older, you want to determine how, when and where your assets will be divided.  I chose to use an attorney as I felt my needs were a little more complicated.  I felt paying the cost for professional advice was worth it to get everything arranged the way I wanted them.  You will have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it to you or if you’re willing to do documents using an internet site.