Wills & Legal Guardianship

[jene]

We are meeting with an attorney in a couple of weeks to get everything set up.

ETA: we have decided who will be guardian. We wanted to have all that in place prior to birth.

[JayhawkGirl]

We did ours when we got married, so two years before DS was born. I would line that up,along with health care directive and power of attorney, before baby comes. Also make sure your life insurance is at a level you're comfortable with.

[saltypearl]

Please please do this before and as soon as possible! Dealing with an estate, esspecially one with minor children is beyond difficult and the Public Trustee often treats the remaining parent poorly (it's almost like you are a criminal). It's so so much worse should both parents pass.
I speak from experience, please put your affairs in order in case something tragic should happen.

[Odonata]

God, we don't even have wills and never thought about it. My head is swimming.

[pinotgrig]

We're working on creating our wills now. My parents will be the guardians if something happens to both of us.

Definitely depressing, but I feel better having a plan.

[katiek]

We created our wills right after we got married. This post reminded me to update for the baby! Hopefully it will be relatively easy, since everything else is in place.

Guardianship is harder, because we're the first of our friends and siblings to be settled and have kids, so I think we'll ask my parents. It's such a strange thing to think about.

Also, don't forget to update life insurance. We're still in the process, but having a kid adds so much to the amount you need.

[katiek]

Mar 17, 2014 9:35:31 GMT -5 jjwritergirl said:

Mar 17, 2014 9:31:12 GMT -5 katiek said:

We created our wills right after we got married. This post reminded me to update for the baby! Hopefully it will be relatively easy, since everything else is in place.

Guardianship is harder, because we're the first of our friends and siblings to be settled and have kids, so I think we'll ask my parents. It's such a strange thing to think about.

Also, don't forget to update life insurance. We're still in the process, but having a kid adds so much to the amount you need.

Yes, we are looking at our life insurance numbers too. I asked a few people what numbers they felt comfortable with, and why, to help us determine whether our plans are sufficient or not. 

That's good! I hope the process goes smoother for you than it has for us!

[bowies]

We're stuck in the same boat...no idea who to pick for guardianship. My parents are visiting us next month and plan to discuss their own financial affairs with us, so that will be a good opportunity.

I'm curious how much life insurance people have taken out.

[CrazyLucky]

We updated ours after our first child was born. Anywhere there is mention of him, it says "all legal children." So we didn't have to update it after DD was born, and she has equal claim should we both die.

[pinotgrig]

Mar 17, 2014 10:30:56 GMT -5 bowies said:

We're stuck in the same boat...no idea who to pick for guardianship. My parents are visiting us next month and plan to discuss their own financial affairs with us, so that will be a good opportunity.

I'm curious how much life insurance people have taken out.

H and I will be at $2M total once we finish up the new applications we have open now. We had each have $250k 30 yr term policies after we bought a house/got married. We're both adding a $750k 30 yr term policy in preparation for kids. This doesn't count the life ins we get through work.