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Originally Posted by Peazoup
If you have a will and want to make minor changes such as distribution of an asset or change in executors, do you need an attorney? Or, could the changes just be written in and then notorized? Thanks for any info.
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I would say get a lawyer to do it right. While you are at it, make sure you have a Durable Power of Attorney in place and have signed papers on what you want done if you are no longer able to make decisions or if you are in a coma or completely paralyzed, etc. Lawyers can do these right and fast. They also have check lists where you can check what you want done or don’t want done with your body. (I’m leaving all body doctors want to them, and incinerate the rest, with the ashes in a cardboard box. No expensive urn. No embalming. No memorial service.)
I finally signed my will and all this other stuff this very week! I should have done it decades ago. One thing to consider is that being an executor can be a lot of work, and sometimes the executor may need to hire a lawyer—paid for out of your estate—to do the paperwork. If a lawyer is your executor, usually the lawyer receives a share of the TOTAL estate, like 1% to 3%. So if you have a million dollar estate, that’s $10,000 to $30,000. I’ve asked one of my sisters with an MBA and an accounting degree to be my executor, but I plan to leave her money for doing this. It’s not fair to expect one relative to do this for free while the others sit at home and complain.
Last month my girlfriend’s parents both came down with COVID-19. Her dad died last Saturday at 91. Her mother survived and came home a couple days ago, but is much more frail, incontinent, and has substantial memory loss, such that she cannot sign legal papers. Their will was 25 years old, and they gave each other power of attorney and made each other executors of their will. Those were not good moves! Fortunately, the man was able to talk with a lawyer and notary by FaceTime as he struggled for life in the hospital and transfer these things to his children. His wife certainly couldn’t do it. She didn’t even react when she learned he had died. Thanks to the virus, that is legal in Florida. By contrast, my own dad keeps the paperwork for his Do Not Resuscitate order on his refrigerator door, so EMTs can find it.
(By the way, my late friend was Catholic and went to mass most weeks. A priest gave him last rites by telephone, to my girlfriend, without chrism, without her dad being in on the call, even though her dad was conscious, and even though he hadn’t been to confession in decades. Then the priest assured her he would immediately go to heaven? Really? Is that Catholic theology these days?)