What should I know prior to contacting Attorney for Living Trust/Will?

[bh09863]

With the goal of getting our act together and finally putting a Will/Living Trust together, I recently read "The Living Trust Advisor: Everything You (and Your Financial Planner) Need to Know about Your Living Trust".

Some considerations:
* One young child in elementary school with no plans for more
* My older sibling and their spouse (who live halfway across the country) would take care of our child should we pass while a minor.
* Most of our wealth is in IRA/401k/403b
* Only real estate is our home with a small mortgage

The primary goals are:
1. Make the process quick and easy if we both pass while our child is a minor.
2. Make sure guardrails are in place until our child is mature enough to handle receiving an inheritance.

Questions:
A) What else should I know or read prior to finding an attorney to get started?
B) "The Living Trust Advisor" suggests talking to your children about plans for inheritance, etc. I think our child may be too young to talk about specifics, but it probably makes sense to talk generally. Any thoughts in this regard?
C) Since most of our assets are in retirement accounts, are there any guardrails until our child reaches a certain age? It sounds like these would be converted to custodial accounts and full control would be handed over to our child at state-specific age.

[ThankYouJack]

I'm sure some experts will chime in, but this seems pretty cookie cutter to me.

I would think most attorneys will provide you with a list of questions before you meet. Some things to consider are who is the backup guardian, backup executor, backup trustee.

Also, what about your POAs (including health care POA)

The chance of you both dying simultaneously while your child is a minor is extremely unlikely. Good to have a plan in place but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Also, who gets the estate if all 3 of you die simultaneously.

If you really want to be prepared, maybe paying for Nolo Will Maker Plus and going through all the documents before meeting an attorney would be helpful.

Also a Trust Under Will could be adequate for your situation

[bh09863]

Also, what about your POAs (including health care POA)

Yes, this is also something we have not done.. Do you have any recommended reading to help make decisions here?

[increment]

It is possible that your state (or your state's bar) has issued standardized forms for financial and health-care power of attorney paperwork. (Note that the different states have a variety of different names corresponding to the health-care one.) You may be able to look up the text online.

[toddthebod]

Most importantly, you should decide ahead of time who you want to raise your child if you and your spouse both die (a ranked list three deep) and who you want to control your child's money if you and your spouse both die (again, a ranked list three deep).

I also recommend you learn whether your state is community property or common law and whether probate in your state is easy and cheap or difficult and expensive, because of you live in a common law state with easy probate and the attorney recommends a joint revocable living trust, that is probably a red flag that you've found a trust mill.