Thursday, October 24, 1996
Don't Leave Home
Without It
by
MF Cormend
There's just no getting around it, no matter how hard I've tried in the past: I need a will, and probably so do you.
Most Americans don't have one and it's not difficult to figure out why. Who wants to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars, to a lawyer no less, for a document that certainly will not directly contribute one iota to your standard of living or enjoyment in life? At the same time all this death talk is a real downer. Let's put another shrimp on the barbie and think about this stuff later.
But we Fools all realize deep down that we should have a will. Without one, when we die all our Foolishly-earned assets will be divvied up according to our state's wishes rather than our own. And for many of us our most important assets of all, our kids, may get indiscriminately distributed as well. Even Judge Wapner might not know the hidden fatal character flaw of that only sister of yours.
After my wife became convinced that both of us were definitely going to perish on our first airplane trip together since our first child was born, even I succumbed to the logic of needing a will. We consulted a lawyer. Our will was going to be plain vanilla, no fancy bells and whistles were needed when you have total assets still well within four digits. But we wanted to do it right, so we plopped down the $500 or so.
Needless to say, as I had predicted ALL ALONG, we survived that plane flight, and in fact survive to this day, thank you for asking. We did move out of state a few years ago, and again my wife and I were due to take a plane flight together. So my wife gets on this updating-the-wills kick, which even I concede is probably not a bad idea every now and then. Naturally we contacted the lawyer from the state in which we previously resided to get the details of changing the will.
Two problems emerged. One, the lawyer no longer worked at the firm, and apparently therefore dropped off the face of the earth. Two, and obviously more distressing, is that our old will, supposedly filed for posterity in the firm's vault, was destroyed. You see, we were an inactive customer. I guess wills require updating annually; if not, the lawyers lose interest in you very quickly.
Do these travails have a familiar ring, Fools? I can't help thinking how, as an individual with not a lot of loot to throw around, my legal encounter seems analogous to how individual investors are treated by the large investment firms. High fees, not much service received in return.
Fortunately this tale has a somewhat satisfying ending. My wife and I wrote our next will using the technology of computer software. Nolo Press (AOL keyword:NOLO), one of the most Foolish organizations I've come across in a long time, specializes in self-help law topics and has an excellent WillMaker program. Within a day, both my wife and I not only had new wills (every bit as comprehensive as our old ones, I might add), but also had living wills as well. All for under $50.
Now THAT'S a deep-discount lawyer.