Three Important Tips About Your Will

These two tips about wills are sooo important. You owe it to your loved ones to follow this easy-to-implement advice. They’ll thank you for it. Well, actually, they won’t because you’ll be gone, but you know what I mean.

Tell people, especially your executor, where the will is!  Don’t make them hunt for it upon your death. Don’t make them wonder whether it’s your most recent one when they find it. Communicate all this before you…okay?  And keep an updated net-worth statement with it. I’ve pushed this forever and people have thanked me for it. Not the deceased, obviously, but the executors. List everything you own and owe and where to find all the needed details, account numbers, AND passwords.

The next concern is who gets the family mementos?  Heated family arguments following the death of a family member are not always over the big ticket items. There can be tremendous emotional attachment to smaller things right down to grandpa's ashtray.

When it comes to who gets what, it is always better to have the division of mementos handled before the loved one passes by putting a list together. If that does not happen you can try either of these two ideas. The first is a lottery, where all the items to be given away to family are catalogued and then those that get to choose draw a number between one and the total number of people. Then the person who draws number one gets to choose first, then two, then three and so on. The numbers then reverse so that each person gets a chance to pick first in each round.

Another idea is an auction, each person is given 50 auction points, and each item is auctioned off and if you really want something you use all your points for that item.

Having a catalogue is the way my family divided up the smaller items with the lottery method and it worked out very well..no arguments.