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How to Create a Will Online

We all know of the importance of estate planning and, in particular, making a last will and testament. However, despite this over 65% of Americans pass away without ever making a last will. Of those that actually make a last will, many of these wills turn out to be invalid or flawed in some way. This usually happens with home made wills as people fail to take proper care in making their last will and subsequently in executing their Will. Fortunately, there is a simple way to avoid having your last will deemed invalid – you can create a will online.

One of the best ways to make a legal will is to create a will online using the internet. There are a number of reputable companies, like EstateBee, which have been in business for a long time that now offer online will writing services.

As you answer questions, the online will making software will present you with questions relevant to your circumstances. For example, when you indicate that you have children a good piece of online will writing software will automatically ask you about guardianship of your minor children – in much the same way as a lawyer would.

Once you have answered all the required questions and made all appropriate selections, the online will maker software will process your answers and formulate a last will & testament that is unique to your particular circumstances. You can then usually purchase the last will you made online for a small fee.

In choosing an online will provider, you should ensure that you select software that has been prepared by lawyers (many are not!) and that is being sold by a reputable company with estate planning experience – like EstateBee which has been operating online since 2000. You should also look for will making software that includes advanced features like the inclusion of alternate beneficiaries (few pieces of online will making software do), UTMA custodianships, child trusts, pot trusts, guardianships and options for the payment of taxes and debts.

You can buy cheap online wills on many websites. However, before you do, you should make sure that these cheaper online wills contain the same  options (or at least some of them) set out for online wills above. Otherwise, the cheap online will may end up costing your family a lot in the long run…..be careful……

How Can EstateBee Help You? 

EstateBee’s Online Will Writing Software allows you to make a last will and testament without the cost or need to engage a lawyer. Without a doubt, it is one of the most sophisticated pieces of online will writing software on the market.

EstateBee’s Online Will Writing Software is state specific. So, for example, when you are presented with options for property management for minor beneficiaries, various elements of your state’s laws have been incorporated in to those options – such as whether your state allows UTMA custodianships or not, the age of termination of such custodianships, etc. The same applies in relation to the execution of your will. In the case of Vermont, for example, where two or more credible witnesses are required (14 V.S.A. § 5(a)(2)), the software adds the relevant number of witnesses to your document. And the list goes on…everything is state specific and bespoke to your situation whether you are married, in a registered partnership and whether you have children or not.

EstateBee’s Online Will Writing Software is, without doubt, a market leader – and has been so for over 20 years.

If you have any questions about our products or services, please contact our  customer service team who would be delighted to assist you.

Why It’s Important to Make a Will

Many people believe it’s not necessary to make a will while they’re young, before they have children, or if they’re not married. There might be some truth to this but you should forego making a will only if you’re completely familiar with your state’s intestate succession laws. Those are the laws that take effect if you die without a will.

If you die intestate—without a will—the laws of your state determine who gets your property. If you have a child, the absence of a will can lead to serious consequences because you haven’t properly chosen a legal guardian for your child. That means a court will have to choose one. Also, if you die intestate, some relatives you didn’t speak with may end up being beneficiaries of your property. The bottom line is even if you are young, single, and have no children, it’s beneficial for you to have a will.

Reasons to Make a Will
The most important reason to make a will is to make sure your wishes are carried out after you die. It’s important to have a will even if you have a small estate. An estate is the property you own and what you owe. A will tells the probate court what you want to do with your property and who you want to receive it. Without a will, your property could end up going to various heirs you didn’t suspect would get it.

Each state has different laws concerning what happens if you die intestate or without a will. In many cases, if you have a spouse, either the spouse will inherit most of your estate or all of it, depending on your state. If you have children, state law determines whether they inherit property. In some states, they will get a share of your property along with your spouse. In other states, they will not. Stepchildren generally do not inherit under state laws unless they are named in the will. The same applies to domestic partners—unless named in a will, they usually do not inherit anything.

It is possible in some states that if you have no children, your parents could inherit from you, and it’s also possible for siblings to inherit property if there are no surviving parents. This could include half-brothers and half-sisters. If there are no surviving family members, it’s possible for the state to take the entire estate. If this is not what you want, see an estate planning attorney to draw up a will for you. It doesn’t cost as much as you think and you can shop around.

If you have children, it is essential to have a will so you can appoint a guardian for your children. If you don’t appoint a guardian, the court will appoint one for you and it may not be someone you want.

If you don’t have children and have only a few possessions, you may not need a will if you understand the laws of intestate succession in your state.

What Can a Will Do?
A will is a document which shows how you want your wishes carried out after you are deceased. It can include:

  1. Who inherits your property and how to divide your assets;
  2. Who the contingent beneficiaries are in the event the beneficiaries you chose die before you do;
  3. Who is the guardian of your child and the successor guardian;
  4. Who you want to disinherit, if anyone;
  5. Who you want to name as executor of your estate to pay bills and administer your estate;
  6. How you want your pets cared for;
  7. Who you want to manage the children’s property, called a property custodian or trustee;
  8. The names of people who might not inherit from you without being named in the will—for example, a niece, friend, stepchild, grandchild, domestic partner or common law husband or wife;
  9. The name of a charity you want to inherit some of your property, if desired;
  10. If you have a living trust, a clause in the will which states that whatever property was left out of the trust gets transferred into the trust after you die, or however else you wish to deal with property that you forgot to specifically mention.

How do You Make a Will?
Certain things must be present in a valid will. If the will is not valid, it will be as if you died intestate, so it has to be done correctly. A will has different requirements in each state but many of the requirements are the same. Check with an estate planning attorney for the requirements in your state.

Making a Legally Valid Will.
To make a valid will, the will must:

  1. Be made by someone of sound mind when they make the will so they know they are making a will, what it means, and what it contains;
  2. Be in writing, which can be by computer, typewriter, or by hand if the witnessing and proper signing for handwritten wills are followed;
  3. Be of legal capacity to make the will, which usually means to be at least 18 years of age;
  4. Be made with intent by the testator (the person making the will) to make a will;
  5. Be made voluntarily, as any will made under threats or coercion will be declared invalid;
  6. Function as a will so that it includes a) distribution of your property to certain beneficiaries, and b) includes the possible appointment of an executor and a guardian for your children;
  7. Be signed in the presence of at least two witnesses and a notary; in some states three witnesses are required. Do not let anyone who is mentioned in the will be a witness or the will could be declared invalid. Also ensure that all witnesses are at least 18 years of age;
  8. Be dated the same date it is signed;
  9. In some states, have each page initialed in the margins;
  10. Not have staples removed. If stapled, removing them generally renders the will invalid because the court will think it was tampered with.

It’s important to make a will to ensure that your property goes to your chosen beneficiaries and to ensure that anyone you want to disinherit is specified. A will is also essential for choosing a guardian and an executor. To make sure your will is valid, see an estate planning attorney who can prepare the will under the laws of your state. You also can have an estate planning attorney review any will you have made online to make sure it complies with your state’s laws.

How Can EstateBee Help You? 

Alternatively, you can use EstateBee’s How to Make a Last Will & Testament book or its Legal Will Kit, or better still its Online Will Writing Software – which is state of the art and a market leader in North America.

EstateBee’s will writing software is state specific. So, for example, when you are presented with options for property management for minor beneficiaries, various elements of your state’s laws have been incorporated in to those options – such as whether your state allows UTMA custodianships or not, the age of termination of such custodianships, etc. The same applies for in relation to the execution of your will. In the case of Vermont, for example, where three witnesses are required, the software adds the relevant number of witnesses to your document. And the list goes on…everything is state specific and bespoke to your situation whether you are married, in a registered partnership and whether you have children or not.

If you have any questions about our products or services, please contact our  customer service team who would be delighted to assist you.

Types of Trusts – Revocable Trusts, Irrevocable Trusts, & Living Trusts

Trusts, revocable and irrevocable trusts,  provide an effective estate and financial planning tool. The benefits rest in their ability to provide flexible asset management options while in some cases offering a way to reduce exposure to creditors and tax liability. Further trusts offer an estate-planning alternative to wills in which individuals can manage and alter their estate plan while still living. Further, they offer the potential for cost savings as estate assets held in trust do not need to be administered by a probate court, which ultimately reduces the cost and time needed to distribute estate assets.

Functionally, trusts involve three elements, a grantor (the person funding the trust), a trustee (the person or institution administering the trust) and the beneficiary (person(s) receiving assets from the trust). How the trust operates, such as how trust assets will be managed and the conditions under which assets will be distributed to beneficiaries is governed by the trust agreement. The trust agreement is normally established by the grantor to be carried out by the trustee.

Currently, there is a wide range of trusts available. The variety available to financial and estate planners reflects responses to many estate and financial planning problems. As such, the variety of legally recognized trusts available today can conceivably address a number of estate and financial planning problems.

Trusts can be classified into four categories:
1 – revocable trusts;
2 – irrevocable trusts;
3 – living trusts; and
4 – testamentary trusts.
A trust may have a combination of these characteristics. Whether a trust is revocable or funded during the life of the grantor will determine how it functions, the protection it offers from creditors and how trust assets are taxed.

Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts trust cannot be altered or terminated by the grantor after it has been created, whereas a revocable trust can be altered or terminated by the grantor after it has been created. Irrevocable trusts can be altered or terminated only under limited conditions and requires the consent of the trustee, the beneficiaries and in some cases court approval. The practical effect of a trust being irrevocable relates to whether trust assets are viewed as being owned by the trust or by the grantor. Generally, irrevocable trust assets are taxed as if they are not in the possession of the grantor. As such, the trust incurs tax liability, which can be less than if an individual tax liability. Conversely, the tax liability for assets held in a revocable trust is taxed to the grantor. The treatment of irrevocable trust assets as being separate from the grantor’s assets also applies to protection offered from creditors. The assets in an irrevocable trust will not be treated as attachable by a creditor, whereas a revocable trust can be attached to creditor claims.

Living and Testamentary Trusts
Trusts vary according to when they are funded. Living trusts are created while the grantor is still living. A living trust would involve a grantor placing assets in a trust, while living, to transfer to a beneficiary while the grantor is still alive or to be transferred for an extended period including after the grantor’s death. Commonly, living trusts are revocable so that the grantor can take an active role in managing trust assets, for example investing assets so that they increase in value or removing assets from the trust. A living trust is contrasted with a testamentary trust that is included in the terms of a will and takes effect when the grantor dies. For example, a testamentary trust may be contained in a will and structured to place assets in trust upon the death of the grantor. Often testamentary trusts are used to transfer assets to a minor before they reach adulthood and presumably are better equipped to manage their finances. Unlike a living trust, a testamentary trust will require administration by a probate court since it is included in a will. However, the operation of the trust itself will require probate involvement.

Beyond the broad categories of trusts discussed above, there are many trusts with specific purposes tailored to address particular estate and financial planning needs. The type of trust suitable to a particular situation will depend on the assets being placed in trust, tax liability considerations and long and short term planning goals.

EstateBee’s Testamentary Trusts and Living Trusts
EstateBee’s online estate planning software is a market leader, and has been for over 20 years. Our online will writing software includes a full range of UTMA custodianships and testamentary trusts – including standalone trusts for children and children’s pot trusts. The same features can be found in our online living trust software which also includes a full range of trusts and custodianships.

Our software is state specific and is bespoke to your circumstances, whether you are single, married, or in a registered  domestic partnership and whether you have children or not. It has been developed by experienced estate planning lawyers and is updated regularly.

Our software can help you make a last will or living trust that is bespoke to your needs and circumstances. If you need any assistance, our customer service team will be there to help you.

Durable Power of Attorney for Finance & Property, Planning for Incapacity

A Durable Power of Attorney for Finance & Property is a legal document by which you appoint and authorize another person (usually a trusted friend, family member, colleague or adviser) to act on your behalf in the event that you become incapacitated.

In order for a Power of Attorney to apply when you are incapacitated, it will need to be stated to be a durable Power of Attorney. Ordinary powers of attorney cease to have legal effect once you become incapacitated. A durable Power of Attorney remains valid or, in some cases, only commences if you become incapacitated.

A Durable Power of Attorney for Finance & Property comes in two forms – a durable general Power of Attorney and a durable limited Power of Attorney.

Under a durable general Power of Attorney for finance & property, you can appoint an agent to whom you give authority to collect and disburse money on your behalf; operate your bank accounts; buy and sell property in your name; refurbish and rent out your property; and generally sign documents and deeds as your alter ego. It permits your agent to act as your authorized legal representative in relation to the whole cross-section of your legal and financial affairs, until such time as the authorization granted under the Power of Attorney is revoked or comes to an end.

You can of course limit the scope of your agent’s authority by creating a durable limited Power of Attorney for finance & property. This is similar to a durable general Power of Attorney except that, under the terms of this document, you can expressly limit the agent’s authority to carrying out certain functions such as, for example, the management of your business, selling a property or another specific task.

Most responsible individuals plan how their property will be divided amongst their loved ones following their death. However, all of these plans can seem like a waste of time and effort if the individual, through an accident or illness, finds themselves in a position where they cannot manage their own affairs while they are still alive. The individual’s inability to manage his or her own assets could result in a substantial depletion of the value of these assets. This could, in turn, render meaningless the individual’s plans for the distribution of his or her assets on death.

The individual’s family could be left facing serious financial hardship due to their inability to access the individual’s assets while he or she is still alive. What if the individual’s signature is required to access the family savings? What if assets need to be sold to pay for his or her medical care…but because he or she cannot sign the relevant documents, the family cannot raise the funds.

You can avoid this situation entirely by simply granting a durable Power of Attorney to a close friend or family member. If the need arises, they can take charge of your affairs and ensure that same are managed in much the same way as you would have done in the circumstances.

How EstateBee Can Help You

If you would like to make a durable power of attorney, EstateBee offers you a number of options including:

All of our documents have been prepared by experienced estate planning lawyers with decades of experience, are jargon free and easy to read.

The majority of our customers prefer to make their powers of attorney online using our Online Power of Attorney Software as the online option removes the need to ‘mess around’ with legal forms on a computer (which can be risky – if you accidentally delete a sentence or two, you could fundamentally alter the intent or meaning of your power of attorney document).

Our Online Power of Attorney Software has been in use for almost two decades and is part of our market leading estate planning software. If you have any queries about using it, please do reach out to our customer support team who will be happy to help you.

For more information on our power of attorney products, please contact our customer service team.

Advance Directives for Healthcare & Living Wills – Planning for Incapacity

Advance directives for healthcare are used to instruct others regarding the medical care that you would like to receive should you find yourself in a position where you cannot communicate your own wishes regarding the same.

There are two specific types of healthcare advance directives that should be considered as part of your estate plan, each with differing features. These are living wills and healthcare powers of attorney.

A living will is a legal document by which you can instruct healthcare providers with regard to your wishes about the use or non-use of certain life-prolonging medical procedures in the event that you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious and unable to communicate your wishes.

For many, the purpose of a living will is to document their wish that life-sustaining treatment, including artificially or technologically supplied nutrition and hydration, be withheld or withdrawn if they are unable to make medical decisions on their own behalf and are suffering from a terminal illness or are in a permanent state of unconsciousness from which they are unlikely to recover.

The manner in which a living will works is quite straightforward. In most states, two doctors must personally examine you and agree that medical procedures will only prolong the dying process. If both doctors agree that this is the case, then certain medical procedures may be withdrawn or withheld, depending on the contents of your living will. Of course, the withdrawal of these procedures will result in death. However, it should be noted that living wills can also be used to instruct attending physicians to use all possible means and treatments to keep you alive.

Other names sometimes found for living wills include ‘instructions’, ‘directive to physicians’, ‘declaration’, ‘advance directive’ and ‘advance medical directive’.

A living will is a fundamental part of estate planning and features in the vast majority of estate plans. For more information on living wills, read some of the other living will articles on this website.

How Can EstateBee Help You?

If you would like to read more in-depth into healthcare powers of attorney and living wills, or indeed make one of your own, check out our Healthcare Power of Attorney & Living Will Kit. It’s been prepared by lawyers with decades of estate planning experience, is easy to read and jargon free. It can walk you step-by-step through the process of making a combined living will and healthcare power of attorney.

For the tech enthusiasts, check our Online Power of Attorney Software and our Online Living Will Software. It’s been prepared in conjunction with lawyers, is state specific and has been a market leader for the past 20 years.

For more information on our living wills and power of attorney products, please contact our customer service team.

Preparing a Funeral Plan – What You Should Include in a Good Plan?

Planning a funeral involves a variety of different tasks ranging from selecting a funeral planner, choosing a casket, deciding on burial and cremation options to organizing gatherings after the funeral itself. A good funeral plan will cover all of these matters. In many cases, the best people to help you with preparing a funeral plan and organizing these tasks will be funeral service providers or funeral directors. They will have considerable experience in preparing a funeral plan, planning funeral ceremonies, preparing the deceased’s body for public viewing, selecting caskets, and almost every other aspect of the funeral process. They will be able to advise you of the options available to you and ultimately help you put your funeral plan in place.

In putting together a funeral plan you will need to consider matters such as:-

• whether you want to donate your body to science;
• whether you want to be buried or cremated;
• where you want your remains buried, scattered or kept;
• the type of ceremony that you will have and where it will be held;
• whether you will want visitations;
• whether you wish to be embalmed;
• whether there will be a procession to the cemetery;
• how your body will be transported;
• how your family will travel to and from services;
• the funeral products you wish to buy such as caskets, burial vaults and urns; and
• more.

But don’t just visit one funeral service provider for advice and assistance. Feel free to shop around. This way, not only will you probably get a better deal, but you will also get a better understanding of the different services provided by different service providers as well as the different options available to you. This will be invaluable in putting your funeral plan together.

How Can EstateBee Help You?

If you’re browsing to learn about preparing a funeral plan, feel free to have a look at some of the other funeral planning articles on this website.

Alternatively, if you would like to find all of the information you need in one place, then check out our  Funeral Planning Basics book.

Funeral Planning Basics is a comprehensive funeral planning book that will take you step-by-step through the entire process of planning and arranging your funeral. It will introduce you to issues such as organ donations, purchasing caskets, cremation, burial, funeral services and much more. You will learn about all of the key aspects of the funeral planning process, what your options are, new trends in funeral planning (including ‘green burials’ and sea burials) and much, much more.

If you have any queries about our funeral planning products or services, please feel free to contact our customer service team.

Making an Online Living Trust – What You Need to Consider

A number of companies are now offering online facilities that allow you to make online living trusts. These online living trusts are in many cases much more sophisticated and better than using the standard templates found in do-it-yourself legal kits. This is because, the online trust building software not only asks you questions relevant to your specific circumstances but also takes the hassle out of tailoring the document by preparing one that is custom made to suit you. So, for example, there is no need to do things like “delete the clauses that do not apply” or add extra gift clauses when the template contains insufficient clauses. Online living trust builders do all the work for you.

Online trusts take about 10 minutes on average to complete. This is of course assuming that you are already aware of what you need to know to complete the trust and have a schedule of assets to hand that you want to transfer to the living trust. In most cases, the living trust builder will ask you a series of questions and present you with a series of options to select in an interview styled process. When you have answered all the relevant questions and selected all of the relevant options the online living trust builder will create your living trust.

Once the online living trust is created, all you need to do is print it off and execute it. Of course, you will normally pay a small fee for the document. Also, in the same way as every other living trust you will need to ensure that the living trust is properly funded which means ensuring that the assets are properly transferred to the trust.

In choosing an online living trust provider, you should ensure that you select trust builder software that has been prepared by lawyers (many are not!) and that is being sold by a reputable company with estate planning experience. You should also look for online living trust software that includes advanced features like the inclusion of alternate beneficiaries (few pieces of online living trust making software do), UTMA custodianships and child trusts.

You can buy cheap online living trusts on many internet websites. However, before you make that purchase, you should check to see if these cheap online living trusts contain the options set out above. Otherwise, the cheap online living trust may end up costing your family a lot more that you bargained for!!

How Can EstateBee Help You?

EstateBee’s Online Living Trust Software allows you to make revocable living trusts online from the comfort and privacy of your own home. Without a doubt, it is one of the most sophisticated pieces of estate planning software on the market.

Our Online Living Trust Software prepares bespoke revocable living trust agreements for people who are single, married or in a registered domestic partnership, and caters for people who have children and those who don’t. It is 100% bespoke to your circumstances.

The software is also state specific. So, for example, when it comes to making property management provisions for minors, young adults who may have trouble managing their inheritance or even people with special needs who stand to inherit under your living trust, not only will you be given the option of creating sub-trusts for each of those beneficiaries, you will also be given the option of creating UTMA custodianships – if your state allows. In the later case, the software will let you know the options that apply in your state – the age at which the UTMA custodianship ends, the number of trustees you can appoint, and much more.

Everything is state specific and bespoke to your personal situation.

EstateBee’s Online Living Trust Software is, without doubt, a market leader – and has been so for over 20 years.

What is a Power of Attorney?

A Power of Attorney is a legal document by which you can appoint and authorize another person (usually a trusted friend, family member, colleague or adviser) to act on your behalf and to legally bind you in that respect. While most people fail to see the importance of having a Power of Attorney, there are many compelling reasons why they should be used.

Suppose, for example that:

  • you are going to be out of the country for an extended period, and need someone trustworthy to manage your business affairs while you’re away;
  • you wish to acquire property in another state, and you need to authorize a local to sign and lodge documents on your behalf;
  • you want someone to manage your real estate for you; or
  • you’re getting a little bit older and wish to appoint someone you know and trust to make healthcare decisions on your behalf should the day come when you are unable to do so yourself.

A Power of Attorney can be used to facilitate your needs in each of these scenarios.

The person giving the Power of Attorney is referred to as the ‘donor’, ‘grantor’ or ‘principal’, while the recipient is called the ‘agent’, ‘attorney-in-fact’ or just plain ‘attorney’ (which doesn’t mean they have to be a legal practitioner).

Need More Information? How EstateBee Can Help You…..

For more information on powers of attorney, please read the articles on this website or contact our customer support team who would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Alternatively, check out our book “Make Your Own Medical & Financial Powers of Attorney“. Make Your Own Medical & Financial Powers of Attorney provides you with detailed information on a variety of powers of attorney including durable powers of attorney for finance and property, healthcare powers of attorney and ordinary powers of attorney. It explains how powers of attorney work, what happens without them, how you should go about selecting your agent, how to revoke your power of attorney, the risks involved, problems to avoid, and much more. It also takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a variety of different powers of attorney.

All of EstateBee’s powers of attorney have been created by experienced estate planning lawyers. EstateBee has been a market leader in DIY estate planning for over 20 years.

For more information on our power of attorney products, please contact our customer service team.

Avoid Probate – Transfer Assets to Loved Ones Quickly Following Death

If you have a spouse, child or other person that is financially dependent on you, they may need immediate access to funds from your estate in the event of your death. As such, you will need to consider how you can transfer some or all of your assets to them in a manner that will avoid probate – so as to avoid having the assets ‘frozen’ during the probate process.

You can avoid probate in several ways.

Firstly, you can avail of some of the probate free transfer devices such as pay on death bank accounts, transfer on death securities or even life policies with designated beneficiaries. In each case, you can nominate a beneficiary for the proceeds of the account/policy and the financial institution holding the same will quickly arrange the transfer of the proceeds to the named beneficiary upon production of your death certificate. These methods provide a great source of readily available funds following your death and avoid probate.

Secondly, you could transfer your assets to a living trust. Assets held in a living trust will not become part of your probate estate because the assets are not held in your name at the time of your death. This keeps them outside of the probate process and enables them to avoid probate and be quickly distributed to the beneficiaries of the trust following your death.

Thirdly, you can convert assets that you own solely into jointly owned assets. Where assets are jointly owned, it is possible to designate that a right of survivorship will apply to these assets. This means that when one of the joint owners dies, the asset will pass directly to the surviving joint owner – without the need for probate. Of course, the joint owner can be a friend or relative; and the assets can comprise of anything from real estate to cash in a bank account. Thus, in the same way as the other devices mentioned above, the surviving joint owner can quickly claim ownership of the asset following your death by simply producing a certified copy of your death certificate. This method presents another way to avoid probate of your assets.

How Can EstateBee Help You? 

For more information on how you can avoid probate, please review the other articles on our website or contact the EstateBee team.

Alternatively, check out our book entitled “Make Your Own Living Trust & Avoid Probate“. In it, our experienced estate planning team explores all of the most commonly used probate avoidance measures in depth, explains what works and what doesn’t and how to organise your estate in a way that maximises your probate avoidance measures while reducing the number of your assets that go through probate, and in turn the costs of probate. It also explains why allowing some assets go through probate could be absolutely essential for you and why most people should still make a last will and testament.

If I Don’t Make a Living Will, What Happens? Planning for Incapacity

If you don’t make a living will, state law will intervene to determine how decisions regarding your end of life medical treatment are made. In most instances, the responsibility for making these decisions will fall to your family who will invariably be guided by medical personnel and not necessarily your wishes.

Of course, because you have not stated what life sustaining medical treatments you want or don’t want in a living will, your family will have no real ‘road map’ to follow when making decisions for you.

In these circumstances, family members could easily come to an impasse in terms of the treatment you are to receive or not receive, as the case may be. This impasse may well escalate to a court battle to resolve the issue. Indeed, this is exactly what happened in the famous Terri Schiavo case which received national media attention some years ago.

All of these possible problems and disagreements could be avoided by stating your wishes clearly in a living will. A living will sets out the life sustaining treatments you want and don’t want, whether that’s nutrition and hydration, blood transfusions, surgery, organ transfers and so on. Better still, your attending medical teams are ordinarily legally obliged to follow the instructions you have set out in your living will.

By making these choices in advance, you reduce the likelihood of family disputes, as well as the possibility of receiving medical treatments you would not want to receive.

How Can We Help You? 

For more information on living wills, you can read some of the other articles on our website.

Alternatively, EstateBee offers a number of different ways of helping you make a living will. Our most popular option is our Online Living Will Software, which guides you step-by-step through the process of preparing your document. Help and explanations are available at every step of the process, and our customer service team will be on hand to answer any questions you have.

For those who prefer template fill-in-the-blank forms, we also offer a template Living Will Form which has been drafted by our estate planning lawyers to comply with the laws in each state. The form comes complete with clear instructions on how to correctly complete and execute your living will.

If, on the other hand, you would like to read into living wills a little more in-depth before making one, then our Healthcare Power of Attorney & Living Will Kit.  is probably for you. It contains all the information and ready-to-use lawyer prepared legal forms and documents necessary to create a combined Healthcare Power of Attorney and Living Will. It also contains all the forms necessary to revoke any document you make.

For more information on our products, please feel free to contact our customer service team.

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