My girlfriend’s mother just passed unexpectedly this week. She hasn’t updated her will since the mid 80s, she had no medical directive, and seemingly did not have her life insurance long enough that they would cover anything, they are just refunding what she has paid to the present.
This has us both thinking about getting ourselves set up properly just in case. We haven’t paid it much mind until now as we don’t have all that much, and no kids, but now that we are seeing the difficulty not having those things brings when people least need added stress, we want to start pursuing it.
What have you done to prepare your family for these types of events and how did you determine what sort of insurance and plans you needed for your situation. Also have you ever either had to deal with a relative leaving no plans behind, or did someone do something that made the situation much easier?
I’m in the US. Like 10 years ago I went to one of those “storefront legal document preparation” places that help you fill out legal forms. They gave me a form to fill out, answered some questions I had, then they prepared the will and I signed. I think they were paralegals but they consulted with a lawyer as needed.
About 2 years ago my great-aunt was re-doing her will and I took the opportunity to do mine again too. This was with a real lawyer, it was a bit more expensive (but I had a good job at the time.)
Supposedly you can just buy a workbook and fill out some forms, but I always figured I’d mess it up somehow.
I know I’ve heard that it was something one could basically do themselves, but with legal stuff I’m leary of the DIY approach. Like you said, I’d be worried about screwing something up.
Without kids, we basically don’t want to lose stuff to the state if something should happen to us together.