Will to benefit minor child.

[Nika]

I started thinking about a will (responsible thing to do).
If DH or me die, the will will be easy, as it is all straighforward and luckily either one of us are equipped to manage finances.

However, if both of us die, it is getting insanely complicated. Not to mention rules regarding minors inhereting, how to set up distributions, what happens to IRAs and Rothes, so, so many things.

I wanted to clear up as much as possible, so that when we do meet with a lawer we have a good idea of how things work and don't have to pay for too much of his time.

Anybody has done this type of will and can share any interesting facts they've learned, or what they did, or some advantages of structuring something in a particular way?

[disneysteve]

You need to designate who will get custody of the children until they are adults. You can then make that person(s) trustee of the funds the child inherits or you can designate a separate trustee though that can get complicated.

What you need to do before meeting with the lawyer is determining the guardian for the child. You and your husband need to discuss that first and then meet with the intended guardian to make sure they are agreeable. We designated a couple we have been friends with since high school who have 3 kids of their own all around the same age as ours. They are also good people, have a large home and are well off so having our daughter wouldn't be a burden in any way.

[jpg7n16]

Couple of additional tips:

1) Make sure you go to an Estate Attorney. Seems pretty obvious, but some people go to a general attorney for estate issues rather than a specialist. Lawyers have their areas of expertise. Moral of the story - don't go to a corporate lawyer for an estate issue.

2) Pay close attention to beneficiaries. They're on all sorts of accounts and policies. And they override your will (technically they bypass the will, but still). Assets pass to any designated beneficiary first, and then to the probate estate - and the will only deals with things left to the probate estate. Moral of the story - if you pay a bunch of money to make your will say "leave my IRA to my spouse", but the beneficiary on the IRA says "my children," the IRA will go to the children and the money/time you spent on the will will be wasted.

[snafu]

We found it helpful to review the Will Kits available on-line. These gave us a 'head's up' to figure out what we needed to decide. I bought a kit at the stationer's and we filled it out to clarify our thinking. We took those papers to the lawyer and were surprised when he suggested it be signed and witnessed as it was very thorough.

When you work on this project keep details vague like 'our residence' rather than a specific address as you might move sometime in the future making your Will obsolete. Keep details of your retirement plan non specific using words like 'holdings, portfolio, savings plan, retirement account' etc. as you may make changes over time. We used fudge words like Assets and have a separate list of financial holdings and stuff of value. We review that list every five years and update it as it changes quite a lot.