Have You Had Children Since Completing Your Will? What To Know

Posted on: 2 November 2016

If you have a will and you have children, getting the will updated regularly is something important that you should do. If you don't have a will, find an estate planning professional as quickly as you can, and let them start to construct a living will for you. There are a lot of things that can happen while you're raising children and as your children get older. When any of these different things happen, contact an attorney.

Each Time You Have a Child

Each time you have a child you should have your will altered, so there are no issues when it comes to your child. You want it documented who the child will go with, what funds will be directed towards the children, and what you want to happen to the estate. If it isn't updated, the child will be left out of division of the assets and more, since you have the funds stated to be split otherwise between other children.

Major Purchases

Every time you make a major purchase, like you purchase a new home or a possibly a business, you want to update the will. Keeping your assets in your will updated is important because these assets may need to be sold, or you may want the assets to be controlled or go to specific people. Being prepared prevents your children from losing your house or your business.

Your Power of Attorney or Executor Dies

If the person that is your power of attorney or the executor of your will passes, you have to update the will. You don't want someone trying to rush around to become the administrator of your estate because there is no executor, and you don't want one of your children making medical decisions for you if there is an emergency, or the wrong child calling the shots.

These are just some of the things that will need to be changed and tweaked as time goes on. When you have children you have more responsibility than if you don't, and it's important that you sit down with an estate planning lawyer like Cormac McEnery Law Firm annually, or at least every other year to go over any updates or changes with your finances and with your life. This way you can go to bed each night knowing that you have everything under control, and that your estate will be managed if anything happens to you at all.

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