Wills & Trusts

Wills start at $75 complete with an Executor and primary beneficiary. That's all you need if you want to leave everything to one person. Prices increase with your addition of children, more beneficiaries, guardianships and trusts for minor children, and pet caretakers to a maximum of $250. Don't worry. You'd need to have 10 children with a guardian and 15 additional beneficiaries and 5 pets with caretakers to reach that maximum. We'll let you know in each step what your total is at that point. If you have more items to enter than are available in a section, enter what's allowed. You can tell us you need more before finalizing and we'll take care of it here.

Your Executor is the person in charge of carrying out the instructions in your will and handling the disposition of your estate. It's ok for the Executor to be a relative or a beneficiary in the will.

There are two types of beneficiaries in your will: beneficiaries of specific gifts and residue beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries of specific gifts are what come to mind for most people when they think of a will. "I leave Mark Thomas of Boise, Idaho my baseball card collection."

Your residue beneficiaries receive the "residue" of your estate, which is everything that's left after final expenses and bequests to beneficiaries of specific gifts. This is an important consideration, as it means everything you own belongs to someone in your will whether you've mentioned the thing or not. There's nothing left for the state to find and quibble about to delay probate.

We'll start with the residue of your estate.

The primary Residue Beneficiary is usually your spouse or significant other, though it can be anyone. If you wanted to leave your entire estate to one person, this would be that person. You simply wouldn't name any additional beneficiaries and the Residue Beneficiary would get everything. If you do name other beneficiaries, this person gets what's left as we described.

If you have children, we'll include them as secondary residue beneficiaries. The residue will pass to them equally IF your Residue Beneficiary dies before probate is complete. This also satisfies possible probate concerns in many states, as everyone in your family is mentioned in the will even if you don't enter any specific gifts.

That's right! Pets are part of the family and estate as well. It's unlikely probate will be interested in your pets and you may already have a casual agreement with someone to take them, but it can avoid conflicts to have things spelled out. Adding specific Caretakers also allows you to designate a fund amount to help pay for the pet's care, which the Executor pays the Caretaker out of your estate like any specific bequest.