Comments on: Meeting With Our Lawyer Wednesday - Updating Our Wills

By: Chief Family Officer

Chief Family Officer — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:57:59 +0000

NCN - It’s not so much “adding” a kid as putting the kid’s name in there. I think the wording in both our will and our trust is “Alex and Tyler and all other children” or something like that (sorry, I don’t have time to dig out the documents right now). But we did want to have Tyler’s name in there for clarity, just so no one could say that our intent changed after he was born. Plus we did make a few changes in terms of distribution and guardianship.

@James - As attorneys ourselves, my husband and I never considered *not* going to an attorney who specializes in estate planning. For us it was easy, because we went straight to my husband’s Wills & Trusts professor, who also happens to be a good friend of his dad. He gave us a 50% discount, which worked out to $300, if I recall correctly - and I’m sure that most attorneys would readily give you a discount if you’re not doing anything complicated. It’s easy work for them, after all, since they do it all the time. Come to think of it, I don’t think our attorney even charged us for the revision we did after Tyler was born.

By: James

James — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:12:23 +0000

My wife and I had another child on October 4th and we are looking at doing our first wills. We have been torn between attempting to do it ourselves using something like USLEGALFORMS online or going to a lawyer. I would be interested to know what folks are paying at a lawyer’s office for this service. I am leaning more and more toward going to a lawyer for the service just because it appears to be something to important to have a major loophole in.

By: NCN

NCN — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:52:14 +0000

RR - I have 2 kids now… adding another makes 3… and that’s 50% more than 2!
NCN

By: RR

RR — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:49:16 +0000

Curious about how your child-related expenses will go up by 50%…

and yes, a properly structured will should allow for more children to be born. Unless, that is, you want to disinherit one of them:-).

Keep us updated on the term life insurance search!

By: NCN

NCN — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:25:59 +0000

CFO… It’s my understanding that I don’t have to “add” individual kids.. the will should be structured so that all of our kids will be “covered”… I’ll check into that while I’m there, though…
NCN

By: Chief Family Officer

Chief Family Officer — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:00:12 +0000

I am all for updating your will and getting more life insurance. But if I recall correctly, you can’t really put the baby into your will until after s/he is born, so I would wait to make any changes til after the birth (that way you don’t have to pay your lawyer twice) - though as long as he isn’t charging you for the meeting, it’s a great idea to go.