At What Age

[BarryBobPosthole]

Might be a personal question, so tell me to MMOGDB if you want.

At what age did you/will you make your end of life preparations. Like a trust, will, etc? I just talked to a lawyer this past week about starting the process to do ours. Still don't know what the final thing will look like, but I have a good picture of what we want.

BKB

[Hombre]

Probably right when I retire. If you get time give Terry a call, he's done his might have some advise or lessons learned.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Good idea. I'll do that. I need to get him out in my boat to do some fishing this fall.

Of course, I can't guarantee he'll make it back to the ramp......

bKb

[Hombre]

I'll text you his number but he's gotta make it back to the ramp....No matter how old you get your dad has always been through the years you are now...so I still need him quite a bit from time to time.....unless it is a question about electronics...then he needs me :D

[Big Muddy]

We took care of that stuff years ago....however, no matter what you do, here's a word of advice for both you and your wife....do NOT leave your estate and belongings to your heirs in "joint ownership"....have it all separated and spelled out, in advance....either, let each heir tell you what they want handed down to them, before you kick the bucket, or separate it yourself.

I've never seen it fail that, after a family member dies, some of the family heirs, who are normally wonderful people, become Satan's azzholes, when joint ownership is involved....jmho.

[Chicken Dinner]

I've had a will, living will and advanced medical directive since my wife was pregnant with our first. It's fairly generic and envisions an even distribution among my any children and provides for their care if they're still minors. I'll probably get it updated once they reach adulthood or finish college and I have a better idea of their needs.

[Bwana]

Much like CD, we did it when the kids were small to make sure they would be taken care of, and to point out who would be in charge of them.

[jb]

Had it done about 10 years ago, basically a "Living Trust", home, cars, investments, etc are listed. When we buy a new car it titles into the trust.
Met with the three families and they elected #2 to handle all matters even though all three are listed.
Don't have millions, but enough to make a little difference in their lives when it's time.

Here's a related question.
At what time do you start to release your wealth. Kay's parents always had a nice little nest egg. When her dad died she moved closer to us, his retirement and SS was more than enough to keep her very comfortable and she never had to look toward their investments as anything but investments.
We always thought it would have been nice if she would have given part of her investments to the grand kids while she was alive so she could enjoy seeing it used, but like a lot of folks she never did.
Now we are in the same situation, very comfortable in retirement and our investments are just that, not needed to maintain our life style, we're talking about it, but that's all we're doing for now.
So when do you start the distribution of your wealth ?

[BarryBobPosthole]

Our goals are much like what JB and Muddy said. Our main goal is to make everything flow without probate, arguments, or other family fights over stuff. Its really not that we think they'll fight over what we have as much as we want to remove any opportunity for that happening. We are looking at the trust route with our wills being a part of that. We'll also have one of the kids have power of attorney for doing the things spelled out in trust and will.

As far as doing things for grandkids now, we're to the point now where our monthly income gives us the opportunity to sock some away for grandkids' college and whatnot. I'm not sure how that'll work, but what little debt we have needs to get taken care of first and then we'll try to figure out how to set our grandkids up while we're (hopefully) still alive.
And I hope a new boat is in there somewhere.
BKB

[Captain]

We did ours years ago and meet with our attorney each spring to make sure there is no need for revisions in our Heath care power of attorney and our trust.
Everything is separated out except one small 50 acre tract of land we left them together to harvest timber (for quick cash) and then sell or replant.
If one wants to buy the other out on that tract (either before or after the timber harvest) the attorney sets the buy/sell value and it is a buy at that price or sell jointly. No squabble over that issue.

[Chicken Dinner]

Family property or businesses like Cap and BM deal in make it complicated. Mine says liquidate everything, settle my debts and distribute the cash. The only thing I might care about the boys holding onto might be some of my guns so they could think of me once in a while when they're out in the woods. Unfortunately, they're both left handed...

[Captain]

The personal items like you mention we update regular as needed.
That part does not require a lawyer. But we do send her a copy as we update it.

[Nandy]

It is good to be poor, I dont have that problem...