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.
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I have been looking at different sites to help make wills lately. We really are trying to get serious since we are both up in age and have a 3 yr old it is hard to decide who we want to take care of our children. Thanks talking about something so important.
God Bless
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I need to do this too, but haven’t yet. Great giveaway! Thanks, Bonnie
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I am single but bought a house last year so now have a reason to have a will. I just haven’t got around to figure out what I need to do to get one.
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I will be posting this on my twitter as well as facebook twice each today!! What a really great product to give away.
We haven’t done our will because of cost and honestly a little ignorance sad to say. I didn’t realize it was so inexpensive. We also live on one income right now so extras like that are just not affordable right now.
so cool!!
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I don’t have one because I am such a tightwad I don’t want to spend the money to get one done!
I know – shameful, but true.
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We don’t have a will either. I guess we’ve been avoiding the issue, but I know its important especially now that we have a son. Please enter me.
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Ah. Yeah.
We have yet to make a will because honestly we have no idea who we would make guardians of our children should we both pass away.
I always feel guilty over it.
I’d love to win this, though. It might make hubby and I get our rears in gear on deciding that.
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Im so glad to see you posting this. Hubby and I have been saying for the past 3yrs we need to do this. Honestly, we just dont know who go call or where to start. People have told us it will cost a fortune as well.
We especially need to get this done now. I have a Mother who is mentally ill and I cut ties with her in June. She has since been threatening legal action against us to see our children (as well as other issues as well). We were just discussing this past weekend that we MUST get a will done ASAP.
What IF something happened to Me or both of Us? We know she would swoop in to try and have rights to my oldest who is from a different Father.
Either way, we are now saving up to get this done and have started asking around for referrals on whom to talk to.
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This is something that has been sitting in the back of my mind for a long time now. With two children, a will is very important. We have never had that extra money to create a will. Bless you for this fantastic giveaway!
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We don’t have a will because every time we think about what to do about the kids we stall out. Bad reason!
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I’m so excited about your giveaway! We’re newlyweds and took a class on finances at church this year and learned that we need a will even though we don’t have kids yet. We just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
Checking out LegalZoom was already on our list of things to do. We talked about their site on Saturday morning and we’d love to win!
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A will is something that is on my mind quite often. My husband is a police officer (hello! scary, high risk job!), we have a two year old daughter and just bought our home a year ago… it’s way past time to do this. I don’t know if its the idea of why a will is so important or just one of those things you mean to do but never actually get around to – we’ve talked about it here & there but haven’t done it yet. Plus, the money it takes to have one written up always seems to be needed elsewhere. Thanks for the info on this site and the opportunity to have this done!
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I re-tweeted! (@andifoo)
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I am curious why you never did a will through Legal on base?
We already have a will that we did through legal, so if you draw my name put it back and draw someone else! I am very grateful for these types of services the military offers. We finally went and updated ours last year, for the first time in over five years. But we’ve had a will for quite some time.
(Now we just need to get a copy to the executors of our estate so they already know their duties in case something happens…)
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TheHappyHousewife Reply:
October 6th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
My husband did his through base, but a most of the places we have lived have not had a JAG, so they just had a person to help active duty with very basic wills. So I haven’t had the opportunity for years.
No excuses though! I should have done it!
Toni
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jolyn Reply:
October 7th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Just an update that the main reason we needed to update our will is because I wanted to change who the guardians of our children w/be! Actually, the primary didn’t change, but the secondary did and I wanted it to be clear in case something happened to make the primary unable…
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We definitely need to do a will!! We have two kids and one on the way. We all know that no one lives forever. But, it wasn’t until some friends of ours passed away that it really hit home. I need to stop procrastinating!!
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Also posted on my FB page… http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/andrea.pike?ref=name
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Thanks for you review! I don’t have a will because every time we go to JAG the office is packed and our 19-month-old is unwilling to sit and wait for several hours. My husband has one, of course, since he deploys regularly, but we need to do a joint one.
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My son was born 9 months ago and I keep thinking we need to set up a trust so that the guardian we appoint can control the money, and then also create a will. But like you, the thought of finding a babysitter, making the time, and the cost of it all is intimidating. I would be so grateful to receive this gift!
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oh, I have TONS of excuses why we don’t have a will: Cost, overwhelming decisions like who should be blessed with our children, how do we want to handle the payout of our life insurance policies, etc… I even told myself that we might not be done having kids, why do one now only to have to pay more and more $$ to update with each additional child? silly… My guilt has even driven me to look at this website before and you’re right, it is the way to go for me. Think I’d need to win this giveaway to convince my husband…
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I don’t have a will because I don’t ever have the funds needed to get it done propoerly especailly with the kids. Since their father is not there, I don’t want to leave it so that he decides to come back when something happens to me and take them away from the only family they have ever known. I tried so hard to get him involved in their lives and last year I got a email saying either I let him take them out or he wasn’t going to contact us. Have to understand, he has two DUI’s and he was under 30 at the time. It’s so complicated that I don’t have time to let anything happen to me because I have to live for them.
I am really not that sad….life happens!
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Neat giveaway.
After my first marriage ended, and my son died I had no reason to get a will.
Years later I remarried and had 2 more kids. Sadly, given my past I always thought something would happen to either my husband or kids. Now my husband and I have purchased a home, have 2 kids and a dog.
I think it’s time I get over my fear of losing them at any given minute and get a will established.
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We don’t have a will yet. We’re recent college grads, recently married and have no children. A will is something we haven’t found time or money for yet; we are focusing extra money on paying off college loans via Dave Ramsey’s plan.
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I seriously need a will!! Like so many other people I am LOST about what to do with my kiddos if my hubby and I both die. I am fine with the rest of the process but I don’t know what to do with the kiddos. We are having our fifth baby next spring so I need to get my act together. Do you have any suggestions on choosing a guardian and talking to said guardian? I feel bad asking anyone to raise 5 kids
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I forgot to mention that some states have a law that if you die without a will your child immediately goes into foster care. I was a social worker and when I worked for Arkansas DHS I had a little girl on my case load because her guardian died without a will. The family had to have homestudies done to get her back.
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I’ve put off updating my will. Just the thing to get me motivated. With 10 kids—it’s a huge thing!!! Thanks!
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I just happened upon your blog TODAY of all days and I’m SO GLAD i did because I have been putting off will-making since Jan of 05 when our oldest was born. it’s SO overwhelming, I don’t even know where to begin…i would LOVE to be entered in this contest.
Also, I just finished reading your story–ohmigoodness! What an AMAZING marriage story!!
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This is something I really need to do but more importantly what a great opportunity to do this for my mother. She is very sick and needs to do a will but states of how costly it can be. Thanks for this opportunity!
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I have heard about legal zoom. So glad to hear good things about it. Dh and I need to do this soon! Thanks!!
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My husband and I keep putting this off for financial reasons, but Legal Zoom seems like an affordable option. My son is two, and we’ve been talking about it since he was born! Thanks for the recommendation.
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We’ve talked for years about writing a will, especially after our children were born. The problem is the money involved. That’s why we’ve not gotten one made yet. It would be nice to have one and not have to figure out how to pay for it.
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Posted to twitter
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Posted to Facebook.
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I’m so glad you’re offering this! I’m afraid of the finacial hit we’ll take to prepare a will. Our families are crazy (at least that’s how we feel about each OTHER’S family – lol) and we can’t decide who will raise them. There is also the issue of a trust in case something should happen to use before they’re of age. How does that work? What does that mean. Like many things…we’ve just avoided what we fear and don’t understand.
Fingers crossed! ~vee
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I know I should have one. Especially as a single mom. I’ve thought about it over the years. Shoulda, coulda over the years but I just hated to spend the funds on that when it could be used for something the kids needed. I would love the opportunity to know I provided peace of mind for them by having a will. Thanks!
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We don’t have a will primarily because we never felt we could afford the legal fees, and I have not been confident we could create an “official” one online. We have just experienced a 9 month period of unemployment where every single dollar spent was carefully thought over (sometimes agonized over). Thankfully my dh is working again (thank you Lord!) and we are making this a priority. I would love the opportunity to make sure our 5 children were provided for after we are gone.
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I really should do a will but to be quite honest I find it all very overwhelming, mainly because with all our family aboard etc the thought of trying to figure out where our little boy would go and what would happen to the house makes me stress out before I can even think. I was a little skeptical at first about websites but I feel that we might give this one a try and see whether they can deal with families in continents all over the world. I guess all that is left is which continent would I pick.
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Neither my husband or I have a will and it is for the same reasons you stated. We haven’t had the time, energy or money to get it done. It really is laziness on our part because I do want to have a say in what happens to our daughter if we leave this earth while she is still small.
Thanks for this opportunity, maybe it will be the kick in the pants we need to make a will for ourselves!
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We could definitely use this!
We don’t have one for the same reasons you stated: just never got around to it, we don’t like to think about dying and what would happen to our kids if we did.
We will have to check out the site and get this done! Thanks!
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Oh wow! This is perfect timing. I have had this on my list of things to do this month and just not gotten to it.
The last time I had a valid will it was 1992. I was in my first marriage, pregnant with my second child, had no assets.
It is now 2009. I am in my second marriage (12 years), have 4 children, 1 of which is in college and another is a senior in highschool. We own a home, 3 vehicles, 2 bank accounts, 2 investment accounts…etc. I have made no arrangements for possible death… and while part of it will just fall to my husband, my older 2 girls are from my first marriage and until the younger of the 2 hits 18, I need to have provisions for her care to keep her safe from her biological father who has been in and out of prison for drugs after spending years trying to kidnap the kids, trying to kill me, etc. I would hate to see what it would do to her to have custody revert to him.
I would love to win this opportunity to work on a will. Thanks for the contest!
Anne
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I would love the chance to make a will online or with some guidance. We haven’t yet because we have always procrastinated and never had that moment where we “needed” to.
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I’ve just avoided thinking about it. What an awful reason!
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We’ve just not made it a priority…..we’ve thought of it a couple of times, but keep putting it off. With four kiddo’s under 7, we know we should have one, but have yet to take that step. Thanks for the opportunity and info.
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We’ve worked out some of the details (who takes the kids, who takes care of the money), but I guess I’ve worried about how to actually do it. And if I’m missing something.
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Pure procrastination!
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We had some papers in place when my husband would deploy but now that we are out of the Army we have not even talked about setting up a proper will.
I also think it is mostly about who our kids would go to. It needs to be dealt with though. We have aging parents and I am the oldest of my siblings, we need to consider who would fit the bill so to speak.
On a funny note a few weeks ago I asked my sister to make sure that if I am ever hit by a bus that my kids don’t end up eating nothing but Hot Pockets! You think I can put that in a will? (just joking… well sorta)
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We keep talking about doing a will but we just haven’t gotten it done yet. This sounds like a great way to get it done!
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No time, no money!!! And the best part, in my “previous life” before 5 kids I was a Tax CPA! I should know better!!!!!!!!
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I keep putting off creating a will, b/c of the money and time commitment. This sounds so easy! Even if I don’t win, I will definitely head over to that website to create one.
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I haven’t done it because I don’t know how to explain to everyone who gets my kids. I don’t want to hurt feelings and so I just haven’t done it. The expense and the confusing legal speak just gives me an excuses to put it off.
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Ok, here is why I don’t have one: I tried to do it with some free software and got completely confused and eventually gave up. I need a fresh start:)
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