Making a will

Whether you have a lot of valuable items or not much at all, a will is an important document, especially if you have children. It’s true that writing a will is one of the financial planning issues that people tend to avoid because it requires you to think about potentially upsetting topics. But dying without a will could cause your family a lot of heartache and possibly cost them a lot of cash. By planning ahead, you won’t leave your loved ones to struggle through the courts to straighten out potential problems that you’ve left behind.

There are three basic ways to make a will:

• The safest is to hire a lawyer who specializes in wills and estate planning. A lawyer can also help you figure out how to arrange for care of your children if you should die while they are still young, which is one of the biggest and most complicated issues to consider.

• You can write your own will, downloading instructions and formats that are appropriate for your state. You can find several websites that offer the documents you need for a small fee.

• You might use a fill-in-the-blanks will that you buy in a stationery store if you’ve got simple, straightforward plans and don’t need a lot of flexibility.

But for a will to be valid and accomplish what you want it to, it has to be done right. Even if you write your own will, it pays to have an experienced lawyer review it.