Thank you for all your replies. Wife divorced me last year so she's out of the picture.
Oldest son and wife make four times the money I made and way more than my middle son.
Planned on leaving everything to my middle son with the instructions that he divides
my gun collection and my garage full of tools with the oldest son. He will do that.
Probably give power of attorney to my oldest son. He is a CPA and works for Krogers.
I'll ask him if he knows attorneys but he's always so busy LOL. Probably leave half
my 401k's to him too.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Our attorney did a will, POA, medical POA, & some weird TX thing assigning who does what with your body for both of us and it was about $800.

I want to echo what MikeinNC said. If you're old enough to need a will, you should also consider a general POA and medical power of attorney. I don't need to explain why the medical POA and general POA are a good idea.

I chose an attorney based on the recommendation from a friend. He charged the same amount as MikeinNC's guy, $800. This was for all three documents for both my wife and I. We got ours done three years ago, so I'm sure it would be a little more expensive now.

If my son doesn't know an attorney, I'll do what spunk639 said and call
the Bar Association and ask for a referral.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Thank you for all your replies. Wife divorced me last year so she's out of the picture.

Are you sure she has no claims to your estate? I remember during my brother's divorce the main sticking point was getting her to agree to no share of his pension. If this wasn't specifically negotiated she may still have a way back in.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Thank you for all your replies. Wife divorced me last year so she's out of the picture.

Are you sure she has no claims to your estate? I remember during my brother's divorce the main sticking point was getting her to agree to no share of his pension. If this wasn't specifically negotiated she may still have a way back in.

I hope so. She only wanted half the value of the house. Came to me with papers from her attorney and said if I don't sign within three days she would go after my 401k's. I said give me a pen. She had no idea how much I had saved.
The last ten years I saved 35-40 percent of pay in 401k and cash.

There is some good advice in this thread. All of it that involves consulting an attorney is good. The rest is a mixed bag.

Your divorce is reason enough to consult an E&T attorney.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I would look for a wills and estates specialist. Some generalists will do wills, but will specialists shouldn't be hard to find. Simple wills shouldn't exceed $1000, including related documents. Maybe less.

Our daughter works for such a firm in NC. The firm only does trust and estate law. She was recruited by them for her unique skill set of a Masters in English, being a paralegal, and having several years of experience at a large financial services company.

The wife and I updated our wills and estate plan including our advance medical directives a few years ago and it was a few hundred dollars. Our personal attorney took care of it for us.

I have an attorney that just rewrote our wills, medical and general POAs. Very important to get the POA's done. When my dad needed his stuff updated in another state, I called the local Agency on the Aging. They had local attorneys they recommended. Worked out great.

For bank account, you can usually designate someone to be paid on death (POD). For 401Ks, you can designate a beneficiary. You don’t need a will for either of those, and they go to the beneficiary outside of the estate process. All the person will need is a death certificate to get the funds.

As others have said consult a trusts and estates attorney. Discuss everything you want done after you die. Be specific as to who gets what and when. Don't leave things to "I'm pretty sure X will do what I think he'll do" put it in writing. Make sure the ex wife situation is crystal clear. Take care of power of attorney and medical directives while you're at it. A competent attorney should bring this up as part of the process. Leave as little as possible to guessing what you would have wanted to happen. You don't need to leave specific guns to specific sons unless you want to but you should have something spelled out beyond split them up evenly. Is evenly by appraised value or count? What about sentimental value? Same with your other stuff. You might have a conversation with your sons about what each of them might like or even expects.

I'm currently dealing with the estate of a relative who left everything in the "whatever happens happens" camp and it's about to blow up some relationships. What the law allows and what's right can be very different. A couple thousand dollars and a written plan avoid the mess.