some more questions involving wills...$$$ stuff

ghm

I'm not exactly looking for $ figures here, but I'm curious about finances if both parents should pass.

What did you take into account? College, living expenses, medical expenses? Weddings? 

Right now all we have in place are life insurance policies which I think are more than enough, but maybe I'm wrong. 

Rebekah1021

Good question. This makes me rethink what we need to do. 

 

ridesbuttons

Between life insurance and existing assets should DH and I both die, the kids would be well taken care of.

If we were buying insurance to cover expenses, I would take into account university education, living expenses to age 25 (I cannot comment on medical) and a stipend for the caregivers (like a bonus for changing their lives for our kids).  Weddings, etc. would not be a consideration.

KatieLG04

We have several life insurance policies, but I was also just thinking that any DC would also receive your social security benefits, so that would also help with monthly expenses.  I've only thought about living expenses.  We had a very inexpensive wedding (around 6k) so that wouldn't have been anything that even crossed my mind. 

ghm

KatieLG04:

We have several life insurance policies, but I was also just thinking that any DC would also receive your social security benefits, so that would also help with monthly expenses.  I've only thought about living expenses.  We had a very inexpensive wedding (around 6k) so that wouldn't have been anything that even crossed my mind. 

Our wedding was even cheaper than that!

 I'm mainly concerned with living expenses, and also hopefully affording a private middle/high school education if at all possible, plus college.  

littlemermaid

 When you created your wills, did you also create a Living Trust since minors cannot collect life insurance benefits, the proceeds would go into the trust to be used by the guardians or however you set it up.  Also once your estate is settled the Trust would receive any proceeds from that too.

ghm

i'm going to make an appt with an attorney to help us write a new one. our old one sucks and is outdated (we didn't own our home, our guardians have changed, etc).

we had nothing of any monetary value when we created our wills--it only is our living will, guardianship, and has a clause about grandparent rights in there.  

littlemermaid

ghm:

i'm going to make an appt with an attorney to help us write a new one. our old one sucks and is outdated (we didn't own our home, our guardians have changed, etc).

we had nothing of any monetary value when we created our wills--it only is our living will, guardianship, and has a clause about grandparent rights in there.  

Have them create a Living Trust.  This will protect all your assets and make sure its protected for your child(ren) and you can state when they can receive the funds and how the guardians are to use the funds for them.  For example, we put what the guardians can use the money for in caring for the children, then when the children turn adults they can have access to the money at XX age(you wouldn't want an 18 year old to have full access to all the money), they can request funds from executor for education, housing  etc.  We made it quite thorough.  Then in your Will make sure you state guardians and backup guardians.  

ghm

Thanks so much for the input! I know the attorney will go over this stuff with us but it's better to go in prepared. I'm going to call my cousin tomorrow or Wednesday to ask her to be the backup guardian.

AggieCouple

littlemermaid:

 When you created your wills, did you also create a Living Trust since minors cannot collect life insurance benefits, the proceeds would go into the trust to be used by the guardians or however you set it up.  Also once your estate is settled the Trust would receive any proceeds from that too.

This is what we did.  My brother is their guardian as he is the most responsible, trustworthy person on the face of the planet, and he's kind and loves our kids to boot.  We know he will always do the right thing and respect our wishes, but adjust wisely as needed.  

ML's and TB's college is paid for and the money is tucked in a state run fund, so they can't use it for anything else even if we wanted them to.  Our life insurance policies should take care of their living expenses until AM is at least 18.  We didn't account for anything else specifically, other than asking my brother to make those decisions as needed.

mikeandmonica

We covered the house, the cars, and student loans. Plus a little more on the top to be invested wisely to get them through life. Not college (necessarily), but who knows what the future will hold.