Out of the many ‘adult’ things young professionals need to worry about, having a Will can seem pretty far low on the list. We’ve got so much going on right NOW in our lives, that it seems odd that we should make a Will for something that we imagine to be so far away (i.e. death). I do think that for a lot of young professionals, it’s ok to not have a Will. I hate to play this game but the odds of us passing away early are pretty low, and we probably don’t have too many assets that it would be tough to divide up. If you did pass away, your assets would be used to pay off any creditors (loans, credit cards etc) and then a court depending on the laws of the state you’re in would dictate who got your assets. Priority would be given to spouses and then family, but not un-married partners. Bearing that in mind, I think that you could be ok without a Will. When I was fresh out of college and single, I was ok knowing that my few assets would be given to my parents, and then once married, to Mrs. Money Finance. It was once we had a kid that we finally got a Will. Of course everyone’s particular situation is different, so please make your own decisions (potentially with the advice of a lawyer or trust advisor) but I did want to share my story! 

Why we got one (and why I think you need one)

As previously mentioned, I think until you get to a point where you’re not comfortable leaving your assets to the obvious closet of kin, you could probably be ok without a Will. Prior to BabyMoneyFinance, Mrs. Money and I each knew that the other would obviously just assume full control of all the assets (we share everything anyways). It was after the arrival of BabyMoneyFinance that we got serious about getting a Will. It was actually less important to us about the assets, but more important about laying out the rules for who would raise BMF if both Mrs. Money and I passed away. The chances of that are hopefully very small but still something we wanted clear. We would both hate to see family have to work with a court to figure out who would be raising BMF, and know that this would likely be a timely and potentially costly process. Instead, we just wrote it in our Will! 

Aside from having a child, I do think that young professionals with more assets could benefit from having a Will, especially if you’d prefer not to leave it up to the court to determine the closest next of kin and then divvy up your assets. Or if you have specific instructions or ideas on how you’d like your assets split. Also digital assets in this day and age need to be taken into consideration, like this site!

A Will is for everyone over 18, but until you’re at a point where you’ve accumulated enough assets where it makes sense to leave specific instructions or if you have a kid (or a pet!) that you would like to specify who will be responsible in your untimely demise, having a Will might not be your most pressing issue. 

How we got one 

In classic YoungMoneyFinance fashion, I opted for a slightly more affordable route vs going with a full lawyer to draft it for me. Our Will right now is pretty simple and spells out that if I pass, Mrs. Money gets it all and vice-versa, but it we both pass, BabyMoneyFinance gets it all and we also specify who we would like to raise BMF (with alternates of course). We also designated an executor of our estate, as we’d prefer a more responsible family member overseeing it all. (Funny story – my mother-in-law presumably was going to have me be her executor until I made a joke about having a ‘fire sale’…I was just kidding Mother-In-Law-MoneyFinance!). As our assets hopefully continue to grow and if we are blessed with more children, I may consider sitting down with an actual lawyer, but until then we settled for an online site. I’ve heard/seen ads for LegalZoom and also heard positive things from a few friends and decided to go with them. The process took about 2 hours start to finish, a lot of simple input and then some time to think through our plans if we passed away. It’s a crazy far off topic to think about but it’s an important exercise! The Will cost about $70 for each of us (we each got one) which felt like a reasonable expense. We then got the documents notarized with witnesses.

Where we keep it 

One interesting caveat that I thought of is where should we keep it? Presumably if we hired a lawyer to handle it we would just let them hold onto a copy to then present it to a judge if needed. Instead, after of course getting it notarized, I wasn’t exactly sure where we should keep it. We actually opened a safety deposit box (free with some bank perks I receive) thinking that would be a safe spot but turns out the bank won’t let others open it very easily unless their name is on the account. That seemed like an unnecessary headache to me so we keep it safely stored at home and we told the likely executors how to access it. Probably could be a bit more strategic on that point but our current setup felt ok to me!

Why things might change

As with a lot of things in my life, I opt for a more automated/online lower cost approach but always say that ‘one day’ I’ll pay up for an actual human professional. This holds true for my taxes, investments and our Will. I feel that with enough research and planning I can get by with online tools for now. However, I presume that as our family situation continues to grow and get more complex, I might very well opt for more professional help!

Summary

Having a Will is fairly important, however in my opinion it may not be needed for super young professionals and instead something you need as you mature and grow. When you are ready, I feel good about just recommending an online Will preparer (that’s what I used) unless you’ve got a super complex situation. Once you’re ready, a Will is absolutely something you should get!