Writing A Will Made Easy – What You Need to Do to Get Started

Putting together your Will doesn’t have to be a difficult process, but it can be overwhelming if you’ve never handled this type of legal document in the past. To make it easier, we’ve broken it down into steps. It is important to dedicate some time to this process, as it could take at least a day or two to make the important decisions and gather all of the necessary information. It is also important to decide whether you are going to use a lawyer or an online will guidance service. Some sort of help when creating the document is crucial to making sure that it is legal and that it has your best interests in mind. Here’s what you need to do to create a basic will.

Decide who your beneficiaries will be and how they will split your property.
The first thing you will need to do is decide who is going to receive your property. Beneficiaries can be anyone, and they typically include family and close friends. You’ll also need to decide how they are going to split your assets – who is going to receive what, and what proportion of your finances will each beneficiary receive? This may entail going through your finances to determine exactly what you have that will need to be distributed.

Choose a guardian for your children.
This is something that can be heart-wrenching to think about, and is not a decision to be made lightly. If you have minor children, you’ll need to think about who in your life can adequately provide for them, both financially and emotionally. This is most often a family member, but in some cases it could be a close friend that has spent an extensive amount of time with your kids as well. In any case, you’ll want to be absolutely sure of your decision. Although you technically don’t need permission to appoint someone as the guardian of your children, this is still an important discussion that you should have with them.

Choose an executor.
Your executor is the person who will make sure that your will is carried out according to your wishes, and also who will handle the legal and financial responsibilities of your will as well. This can be someone close to you – many people choose a family member or close friend – or it can be a lawyer or a bank as well. Lawyers and banks typically charge a fee for executor services. If you choose to go with someone in your life, you will likely also want to include provisions in your will about how they are to be compensated for their work. Serving as an executor can be very time consuming, and while it isn’t mandatory to compensate them, it can make this arduous task much easier. It is very important to have a discussion with your executor about all of these things to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Find witnesses.
You will need at least two, sometimes three people to witness your will to make it legal. This is a very important part of the process, because if your will ends up contested in court, these witnesses can testify and make sure that your wishes are carried out correctly. The only requirement is that the witnesses are at least 18 years old, so adult relatives or friends are a good bet.

After your will is ready, make sure it is stored somewhere safe where beneficiaries can find it in the event of your passing. You will also want to make sure that your will gets updated every few years if necessary to account for any changes in your life.