If you are a Parent Why You Need a Will.

Being a father has been a wonderful experience. I have two young boys and find so much pride in helping them and watching them grow. The more I look around and meet other parents I know this pride we all share. I see other parents constantly giving so of themselves to make sure their children are happy and healthy. Whether it is helping with homework, volunteering in class, or driving them to afterschool classes I am amazed these parents still have time to work, cook meals and maintain a house. After watching these parents give so much of their time I am surprised how few have created a Will. So much of life is out of our control and by not creating a Will we are leaving our children's future up to chance.

I understand creating a Will is a challenging subject especially when you have young children. It is one of those things in life we all know we should have but there is always a reason to put it off. Even as an attorney I always seemed to find an excuse. My wife and I probably talked about it a dozen times before we sat down and creating our Will. Looking back now I have to admit we never really had a good reason to put it off. When we finally decided to create a Will I was surprised how simple the process was. We did not have any complicated goals to accomplish. No elaborate family trusts or tax shelters. We just wanted to make sure our children would be taken care of if something ever happened to us.

For us, the most important issue for us was to nominate guardians for our children. We are blessed to have multiple people who would be willing to care for our sons, but for a combination of reasons we chose to nominate my mother as their guardian. Her ability to care for them physically, financially and morally made her the right choice for us. We felt she would be the best candidate to provide our sons with the love and care they deserved.

We had an additional concern about nominating a guardian. Our sons are from different marriages and it is likely if something ever happened they would end up living in different homes. We needed to have something in writing to make sure they could continue their realtionship even without us to hold them together. We added a clause to our Will instructing any guardian to make sure our sons continued to play an active part in each other's life. This includes asking the court for visitation rights if necessary. This issue was something that bothered my wife and I greatly and it was relieving to feel we had taken the right steps to make sure our sons would always be brothers.

After we were confident our sons would be taken care of we had to make decisions regarding our property. We both own little things that we want to see handed down. Without a Will it is likely our property be inventoried and sold off with each person getting a check. Sentimental value is a funny thing and to limit what we pass down to only the monetary worth of our property deprives them of many important memories and mementos. For me there are two things I feel this way about. The first is my parent's grandfathers clock. It was a fixture of my childhood and one of very few things that survived my parent's divorces and financial hardships. That clock symbolizes some stability to me that I needed as a child and to this day it puts me at ease and makes me feel at home. The second is an antique map my wife gave me a few years back. It is a map of Scotland showing where my family can be traced back to. Neither item is incredibly valuable but I would consider it a great loss to see them sold and the proceeds divided. By taking the time to find out what the real value of our property is, we have a great opportunity to preserve our family heritage and make sure our loved ones will always have something to remember us by.

The last thing for us to decide was who would take care of our final affairs. When a person dies they leave us with many memories and some sadness, but they also leave many tough decisions and responsibilities that must be taken care of. It was important for us to choose a person we trusted and somebody that we felt could handle it. I trust my mother with the well being of my children, but it would be borderline cruel to expect her to pull the plug on me. So I made my feelings known about health care decisions in writing and in person then left those decisions to be handled by my wife or father. We never want to burden on our loved ones with stress they cannot handle so it is important to make sure we choose wisely when we decide who will take care of our final affairs.

This whole process of creating a Will was challenging. Discussing our children's lives without us there to protect them was very hard. However I came out of it with a piece of mind that my family would be cared for no matter what happened. I see how much parents are willing to do for their children and the sacrifices they make on a daily basis. I urge every parent to do what comes so natural to them and protect you children by creating a Will. An attorney can help you create a very affordable Will and estate plan. If money is an issue you can find statutory and attorney drafted forms online to help create a simple will. There is no reason with all you give to your family that something this important should go undone.

Choosing the right person as your Executor is an important aspect of Estate Planning. Your executor will be the person who takes care of all your final affairs. It is a vast job that entails numerous responsibilities. Choosing somebody who is reliable and trustworthy is important.
The Executor's responsibilities will include making funeral arrangements, preparing final tax returns, distributing assets, cancelling credit cards, paying debts, filing your will with the court for a probate proceeding and helping resolve conflicts between loved ones.
This is not an easy job and you should ask the person you choose to make sure they are willing to accept the duty. Also choosing somebody local can help lessen the burned. Your Executor will be required to attend court and participate so limiting travel would greatly benefit them.
It is hard to accept we will not always be around to make our own decisions, but it is important to make sure somebody you trust is there is make decisions for you in your absence. Please spend the appropriate amount of time and care choosing an Executor for your estate.
Law Offices of Keith Dysart are available to help the people of Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley with their estate planning needs. Santa Cruz Estate Planning Attorney