Welcome to Day Two of my Five Days of Giveaways. Today I am talking wills. Now I realize don’t like talking about wills because it means we are admitting we are going to die. But the reality is one day we will die and after we are gone our loved ones do not need to be fighting trying to figure out what to do with all our earthly possessions.
Some might say… I don’t have much. Well, if you have children, own a home, or have a life insurance policy you have something and you need a will.
There are many reasons for not writing a will, no time, no money, confusion, etc. In fact I am guilty of not having a will myself. My husband has always had one, but I just never got around to it. It was hard to think about getting an appointment, a sitter for the kids, and paying a hefty legal bill even though I knew it was irresponsible not to have one.
One day I received an email from LegalZoom asking if I would like to try their online legal document service. Silly as it sounds, I was so excited because for years I had heard their commercials, but I was skeptical. Now they were giving me an opportunity to create my will and decide for myself what I thought of their services.
I created a log in and got right to work creating my will. It was so easy I couldn’t believe it. When I didn’t understand what they were asking for in the questionnaire there was always a help button on that page. If that didn’t answer my question they offer live support. There wasn’t an overwhelming amount of legal speak. Most of the questions were easy to understand and answer.
The best part is that you can work at your own pace. You don’t have to figure out everything in one sitting. You can save your document and come back another day. One feature that really impressed me was their site did not freeze up or reject my information when I had to enter all seven kids. Many websites today only have fields for four or five dependents. At LegalZoom you can add as many as needed.
The process was so simple I could not believe I had procrastinated for years! Their fees are very reasonable as well. You can create a will for under $70. Of course, the awesome folks at LegalZoom have offered to give one of my readers an opportunity to create a will for free!
To be entered to win a chance to try out LegalZoom and create your will leave a comment telling me why you don’t have one. You can earn additional entries by tweeting about this contest, posting it to your Facebook page or blogging about why you think you should have a will. Please leave an additional comment for each additional entry. Contest closes Monday October 12, 2009.
{ 150 comments… read them below or add one }
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I’m so glad you are encouraging us to do this. I don’t have a will because everytime I think about it I get so overwhelmed I shut down. It just seems hard. Plus there’s the money thing. I’m definately encouraged with your post. You make is sound do-able. Thanks. This really is important, especially when you have a mess of children.(I have 5) I do want them to be properly cared for if something ever does happen to us.
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I posted you to my facebook page.
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I have been wanting to do a will for a long time. What has kept us from getting one is the expense and also our transient life, moving between states. But I know this is important as we each have large families and would want to specify which sibling would raise our children. In addition I am trying to get a will at the same time that I set up a transient trust so that our life insurance policy would go to the guardian of our children so they would be provided for if we passed away. I am still looking for an affordable way to accomplish that and perhaps legal zoom would have some advice.
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I’ve never gotten around to getting a will. But now I have a son and I feel that it’s more important than ever. It really clicked 2 months ago when I was rushed into emergency surgery. I want to make sure my little guy is cared for when I’m gone.
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I have been thinking about this ever since my son was born in 2008. I need to be able to specify who will raise our son should anything happen to us.It just all is so overwhelming. Please enter me.
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i know that we need to do a will. I am just having a really hard time deciding who i would want to raise my children. Thanks for encouraging us to do so.
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I don’t have a will. My husband and I were talking about this just last night on our date night. I guess I was too overwhelmed with what it meant to make out a will. My Friend lost her husband recently and I realized that it is the responsible thing to do. We have 4 children, one grown, and need to make provision for them and our wishes known. Thank you for the opportunity to win the free legal service to do this.
thanks,
Cindy
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Will-making has been on my to-do list for years, and I just haven’t gotten to it. I’m with Nicole; we are having a hard time assessing the childrearing situation. This would be a great help to end my excuses.
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I have procrastinated doing a will for years! Mostly because it seems hard, will cost money and it is stressful to think about who will raise the kids. Silly reasons to put off something important, but I can procrastinate with the best of them. I hope I win but if I don’t I want to make it a goal to have a will done by the end of the month. Love you site!
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Wow, what an awesome blog! Our family is fairly young in our mid 20’s.. I think alot of people our age don’t even think about wills. But the truth is God gave us a big eye opener 2 years ago when our little girl was born premature and had 2 surgeries before her first birthday. Alot of people today are so caught up in the “hustle and bustle” of the world and don’t think about that fact that today could be our last… We would love to get a will in place so that our little girl will be taken care. Aside from the cost, we have been guilty ourselves of getting caught up, but its time to get it taken care of because we love our daughter enough to make sure she is properly cared for and that our family has one less thing to deal with in that hard time. Thanks for considering us!
God Bless!
we have a little girl that had a very rough start having a few surgeries early on and
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Wow, what an awesome blog! Our family is fairly young in our mid 20’s.. I think alot of people our age don’t even think about wills. But the truth is God gave us a big eye opener 2 years ago when our little girl was born premature and had 2 surgeries before her first birthday. Alot of people today are so caught up in the “hustle and bustle” of the world and don’t think about that fact that today could be our last… We would love to get a will in place so that our little girl will be taken care. Aside from the cost, we have been guilty ourselves of getting caught up, but its time to get it taken care of because we love our daughter enough to make sure she is properly cared for and that our family has one less thing to deal with in that hard time. Thanks for considering us!
God Bless!
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We had started one, but never quite finished the process. “Life” swept us away and I guess we became distracted.
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I don’t have a will because we’ve just never gotten around to it. It seems like such a big, expensive thing to do; though I am fearful about not having one since we don’t want our kids to go to any of our family members. I KNOW we need a will, it’s just doing it. Thanks for this giveaway.
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Hi Toni, I know we should have one. But I am sure like others we dont because of the expense to see a layer etc. I was always under the impression it is so exspensive to go through the process. We need to do one but i guess it is just something everyone doesnt like to think about. Its not that I dont want to because I need to. Awesome of Legalzone to do this. I guess i need to look into their site.
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My husband has been telling me about LegalZoom for awhile. I think he heard about it on the radio. We have a toddler son but no will yet basically because we just haven’t taken the time to do it yet.
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I’ve wanted and needed to make a will for a while but time just keeps getting away from me. Plus the cost can be high. I’d love to win this!
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My hubbie and I talk about it on and off. We have 2 boys and know we really need to do it. I guess we always think of it as complicated, needing a lawyer (which one to chose?), the cost, etc. This would be a great way to solve all of those issues.
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We need one badly but have never gotten around to it!
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RT http://twitter.com/tracibest
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Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/Mom2ThreeAdoptedSibs?ref=nf
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My husband & I often talk about needing a will. Why we don’t have one…not too sure. I know that the cost has been a big factor. And then every time we start talking about it we get to our almost 2 year old son and aren’t really sure who we would want to be his guardian if something happened to both of us so we just stop talking about it. I know terrible excuses!
By the way I recently found your blog & I love it.
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Wow, what a giveaway!
We’ve put off creating a will for a lot of different reasons. Choosing a lawyer, finding time/sitter, and most of all, cost. LegalZoom sounds like a great alternative to the traditional route.
Thanks for the chance!
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I don’t have one because, unfortunately, my husband and I have just never gotten around to it. I know it’s important, but it’s just been one of those things that we’ve put on the back burner. Now that we have a son, we should get on this right away!
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I procrastinate, I need to do one. The primary reason now is lack of funds. Like a lot of folks, we’re dealing with unemployment and a will is not at the top of our expense list right now. I’d love to win one. Thanks!
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I tweeted:
http://twitter.com/couponlover16/status/4655019079
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I could give lots of reasons why we don’t have wills, but I suspect the real reason is that if we had a will that meant that one of us could die, and if we keep our heads in the sand that can’t happen, right?
So if we win the will, we’ll do it. I promise.
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The reason I don’t have a will is that I don’t feel like I know any good lawyers. I want an honest, Christian Lawyer, and that is kind of hard to find….thanks for this opportunity!
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My excuse for not having a will is basically exactly what you said in the post…seemed like too much work, money, effort, and overwhelming so I have just put it off. My second child is due anytime now though and it has been on my mind once again so I would love to win this.
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We have a terrible reason for not having a will. We simply haven’t taken the time to do it. I don’t think our will would be very complicated. And, I recognize this is an extremely important thing for us to work on. This might just be the inspiration we need.
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I have never done this, but know I need to, due to financial restraints. (Working on Baby Step 2 & I’m in week 3 Financial Peace University!) And the fact I would have to actually choose which of my relatives to leave my children with. No one else in my family homeschools their kids, and with no living grandparents this is a problem!
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Honestly, I don’t have a Will YET because I kept wanting to obtain legit forms online w/out paying for them .. that’s how frugal I am! However, we have two young children, ages 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 and we desperately need a Will to ensure they are protected. I would love this more than you know.
Thanks so much for offering such a fantastic giveaway!!!!
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I could sure use that. It is one of my 101 in 1001 goals to revise our wills. We have made decisions and know what we want to do but just haven’t sat down to do it. So this would be great. Thanks!
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Too much money. Too complicated. Don’t want to take the time to do it. Don’t want to admit I’m going to die. Don’t have many possessions or much money (but do have kids now). Guess I have almost every excuse in the book!
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As I read your list of reasons for not having done one before, I sat nodding my head. Too much money, appointment with a lawyer and babysitters, etc. This sounds really good! Sign me up!!
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My husband and I were talking about this the other night of how we really need to take care of our will. Procrastination seems to be our only reason. We are sure of our home in Heaven and know that the Lord will take care of our children, but we also need to be sure that the children are taken care of by people who have our values and concerns when it comes to raising children.
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I haven’t done it yet…because I wasn’t really sure where to go and what to do! This sounds like a GREAT option!
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Great topic! As someone who majored in finance in college and have a personal finance website, I KNOW I should practice what I preach, and that includes getting a will. It’s just one of those things I haven’t gotten around to doing. So if I don’t win, I will definitely check out their site. Sounds simple and affordable.
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I haven’t had one in the past because all I had to my name was debt. Who wants that? Now, I’ve paid off my debt and actually have a few assests. Hooray! Time to be responsible with it!
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We didn’t have wills because until we just bought our house last week, I assumed we didn’t have anything to will. Now I know it’s very important for our little girl and her future.
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We didn’t have much so we never did one, but in the last year we now have a house, are trying to start a family, and finally have good term life insurance. Time to make those preparations for whenever God does allow us to conceive and grow our family!
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I don’t have a will either- even though I have four kids. We don’t have one because we could never afford to have one made. I hand wrote what I wanted for my children regarding their care and video taped myself talking about it but never haev formally legally declared what I want….food in the house seemed more important.
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We do not have a will. We have talked about doing one several times and always get depressed and sidetracked by the conversation. With two children that will need care and money, a will is something we have to do very soon.
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Tweet tweet!
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We need a will so badly! We talk about it often, but the busy-ness of life coupled with the depressing nature of the conversation, along with the decision of who we want as our children’s guardian… ugh, it’s overwhelming. But it NEEDS to be done!
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Why I don’t have a will? Because that means I have to THINK about leaving my children…and while I know it’s reality, I just don’t want to face it. I know I need to do it, it’s the responsible thing to do, and so I have checked out LegalZoom site, preparing myself. Winning this giveaway would be just the PUSH I need.
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I tweeted the giveaway!
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I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a will. It’s one of those things that’s always somewhere in the back of my mind. We have four kiddos (ages almost-five and under), and they are my biggest reason for wanting a will. So, why haven’t we done it yet? Probably because we’re busy (or lazy?) and cheap! But this service sounds GREAT!
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I also re-tweeted you! (@laceyrumley)
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I know I should have a will. I should have something regarding our wishes for our children should something happen. We never did it mostly because of money, and then there’s the actual making of the appoinment and seeing a lawyer. Kinda scary!
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I have not created a will because of the cost and was worried I wouldn’t understand all the legal terms. My husband and I also weren’t decided in the past to list as guardians for our children. This would be a great time to try out this service!
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