I have an elderly friend at church that wants me to help her write a new will (changing beneficiaries) with some kind of computer software that another friend picked up at Office Max. I should avoid this task, right?
We did our own wills (very straightforward situation) at a community class, but there was a lawyer advising and a notary available. Friend said legal aid has not gotten back to her, and she does not have funds for a lawyer. I said I’d take a look at the software, but it seems the better thing to do is to help her engage with legal aid … drive her to appointment(s) if needed.
I wonder if the software is for a very simple will?
But if she doesn’t know, the main thing is to change beneficiaries in her accounts (bank, retirement, investment, etc). That takes priority over a will. The will is only for whatever does not have listed beneficiaries. I think many people don’t understand that.
What about Nolo willmaker, I think I found that from my local library. What about witnesses, where do you get them. I think you are not supposed to have relatives right.
My sister needs something like that, but the problem I ran into is how to identify an executor. I don’t want to be one, I’ll be too old to deal with all the stress, all the young nephews and nieces are busy. She doesn’t have money for lawyer, at least that’s what she claims.
For witnesses, you hit up a couple of friends/neighbors to watch you sign. (They don’t have to read the detail pages, just watch your sis sign the signature page.) Typically, states won’t accept a beneficiary as a witness. Any non-beneficiary, including relatives, would be fine (at least in CA when I looked at it). But of course, all depends the state law where your sister resides.
Gotta pick an executor/personal representative. Family member, including beneficiary, trusted friend, attorney? (The latter of course, will cost fees from teh estate, and if she doesn’t have cash for an attorney to draft the will…)
Thanks @bluebayou, she’s in California. I wonder if the witnesses have to be alive or not when the Will is executed, I was thinking of going to Mailbox etc…, does the will have to be notarized after the witnesses. But after thinking through everything I decided not to follow through, it’s too much of a headache. Maybe I’ll try again.
Thanks for the Will comments. The product is a kit, “Last Will & Testament “ (Adams). It has a helpful manual with printed forms (not to be used) and numeric callouts with instruction info for each field. Fields get filled out via website / registration number.
Lucky for me, my friend found the MANY pages overwhelming and is not so keen on it. Her preferred solution to just write a letter with intentions is not a good idea. I did give her the assignment to write the letter (including choice of Executor) and think about POA too. That will make her more ready if we get a lawyer appointment.
In Colorado we had notary for our Will. Per online info, it looks like not required… but I think it would be smart. There is a prior formal will, and she is changing the terms.
Good point. When I was looking, T-bills were a little bit lower than CDs. Also, I have little to no experience with T-bills because they have not been an instrument that I have considered in the past. I will definitely look into them moving forward.
Looks like I missed the opportunity to buy new issue treasuries today, but it looks like they announce new auctions tomorrow. One thing that makes me wonder, you don’t know what the yield is going to be before you purchase it, when you do the noncompetitive purchases. I do see that Fidelity gives an “expected yield”, but TD Ameritrade doesn’t give any information in that regard. And I don’t know how accurate it is anyways.
So far have not found is just a blank template for Colorado will that I can print, to give to my friend for her planning. If needed, I’ll just do some fake-it answers (Mickey Mouse etc) in freewill.
I see there is a 26 week treasury bills and 2 year notes. I understand they pay interests differently. If it doesn’t matter how they pay you the interest, which is better notes or bills?
I may have misunderstood this, but I think the difference between bills and notes is just the length of time before maturity, with bills being less than a year. And notes maturing at 2,3,5 and 7 years. So it all depends upon how long you wish to hold it.
I am looking at the upcoming auction. They are offering 4 week, 8 week, 17 week, 26 week bills and 2 year, 4 year, 7 year notes. Bills don’t pay you interest. You get the money at the end. Notes pay interest every 6 months.
What I’m trying to figure is how you find out what the interest will be on the new issue bills, but it looks like you don’t really know until after you purchase them, if I understand that correctly.
I obviously know very little, but I think if you buy it at Fidelity, you can put it in your IRA, but you can’t do that if you are buying it in auction from Treasury Direct.
I don’t really understand bill auctions but found a couple of Investopedia pages that explain it pretty thoroughly. It sounds like everyone ends up with the same rate but that rate depends on how much and at what rate the institutions bid. The final rate depends on the bid which fills the Treasury’s quota, then everyone gets that rate. I think!
The main benefit of buying through Treasury Direct seems to be that there won’t be any added fees, which might be imposed by a brokerage firm. But you would have to transfer out of Treasure Direct if you want to sell before maturity. You can also hold them in a variety of types of accounts if you buy through a brokerage. I think, again!