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            Enter your User Name and Password and press the New User button.

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Enter your User Name and Password and press the Login! button.

Use a User Name that you will remember later.  It is probably best not to include any punctuation or spaces in your user name.  These tend to make it more difficult to remember exactly how you entered your user name before.  If you don’t enter the User Name and Password exactly the same way that they were originally created, the Wills.Com site will not let you access your data in the future, when you want to make changes.  If you enter a User Name that somebody else has chosen, you will be asked to select another user name.

Please see the comments under User Name, above.  Under most browsers, when you type in the letters of your password, asterisks (*) are displayed in the field instead of the letters that you type.  This is done so that someone “looking over your shoulder” does not see what your password is.  It is usually better to choose a password that is six or more letters long.  These passwords are harder for other people to guess, and secures your information better.

In most cases, just leave this field blank, without typing anything into it.  If you have been referred to this site by another organization, please enter the affiliation code that they gave you in this field.  Remember to enter the code exactly as they gave it to you, otherwise the affiliated organization will not get credit for referring you to our site.

Important: Please enter information into all fields exactly the way that you want it to appear in your Will, including capitalizing names and using punctuation.

Important: Press the Save and Go To Step 3 button at the bottom of this page when you are finished entering or changing the information on this form.  If you don’t use the Save and Go To Step 3 button, anything that you have entered or changed on this form will not be saved into the database, and will not appear in your Will.

The fields, First Name , Last Name , Address, City, State, Zip Code , and County or Parish are all required.  You must enter information into each of these fields for your Will to be complete.  If any of these fields are left without information when you print your Will, your Will will have a blank space to allow you to enter the information by hand.  Remember, if you enter any data into your Will by hand, initial next to the line where you entered data.

Select yes if you are married or separated.  Select no if you are single, divorced or widowed.  If your marital status changes in the future, such as by getting married or having your divorce become final, it is important to make a new will.

If you are married, you probably should make a will for both you and your spouse.  Some wills allow you to specify both the husband and the wife on a single will, but this type of will is difficult to maintain after the first spouse dies.  How do you change a will once the probate process has begun?  We feel that it is better for the husband and wife to have separate, but often almost identical, wills.  This is called reciprocal wills.  The husband makes a will that leaves everything to his wife and the wife makes a will that leaves everything to her husband.

Enter the full, legal name of the person you are currently married to or separated from.  This name should be capitalized and punctuated exactly the way that you want it to appear on your Will.  For example, use the name “John Q. Doe, Jr.” instead of “john doe”.

Important: Press the Save and Go To Step 3 button at the bottom of this page when you are finished entering or changing the information on this form.  If you don’t use the Save and Go To Step 3 button, anything that you have entered or changed on this form will not be saved into the database, and will not appear in your Will.

All information on this form is optional.  This information will help Wills.Com contact you, if necessary.  Your Email Address is particularly useful.

Adding the names of your children to your will serves a few different purposes, mostly related to the probate of your will.  It helps to clarify to the probate court that you considered the needs of each child that you listed when writing your will.

A child who is unhappy with the terms of a will is sometimes able to convince the Probate Court Judge that he or she was accidentally overlooked when the will was drawn.  Listing the names of each of your children allows you to leave as much or as little to each child, or even to disown a child if that is your wish, and to make it clear to the Judge that this was not just an oversight.

Listing the names of your children might also reduce the urgency of creating a new will when you have a new child by birth or adoption.  Be careful though, in some states a new child will cause any existing will to be revoked.  In all cases, we recommend that you update your will as soon as possible after any change in your family.  Still, by listing your children in your will, it will be clear when probating your will that the needs of the new child were not considered when writing the will.

For men, there may also be a question of who your children are or who you consider your children to be.  Listing the names of your children helps to answer this question.

Important:  Listing the names of your children on your will is optional.  If you have children, but don’t want to list their names in your will, press the No More Children – Go To Step 5 button toward the bottom of the form.

Important:  If you don’t have any children yet, but wish to allow for children you will have in the future by naming their guardian and/or establishing a Children’s Trust in your will, press the No More Children – Go To Step 5 button.

1.                  Enter your child’s full, legal name.  This name should be capitalized and punctuated exactly the way that you want it to appear on your Will.  For example, use the name “John Q. Doe, Jr.” instead of “john doe”.

2.                  Press the Add This Child button.

3.                  Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each child.

4.                  When all of your children appear in the ChildName table, press the No More Children – Go To Step 5 button toward the bottom of the page.

If you make a mistake…

1.                  Press the Select Previous Child or Select Next Child button until the incorrect entry is highlighted.

2.                  Press the Remove Selected Child button to remove this entry from the table.

3.                  Correct by entering the correct information into the Child’s Name field, as described above, and press the Add This Child button.

Important: Please enter information into all fields exactly the way that you want it to appear in your Will, including capitalizing names and using punctuation.

Important: Press the Save and Go To Step 3 button at the bottom of this page when you are finished entering or changing the information on this form.  If you don’t use the Save and Go To Step 3 button, anything that you have entered or changed on this form will not be saved into the database, and will not appear in your Will.

If your minor child has another parent when you die, in most cases the other parent will take care of the child.  However, if your child doesn’t have another parent, or both you and the other parent die at the same time, then someone else will have to take care of your child until he or she is older.  Only a court can assign a new guardian for your child.  However, you can specify whom you wish to take care of your child (or children) after you die in your will.  The court will normally appoint the person or persons you select to be the child’s guardian, unless the court finds compelling reasons to select someone else.  In making such a decision, the court is only interested in the best interests of the child.

You can name one person as the guardian of your children, or you can name co-guardians, such as a husband and wife.  However, if you choose to select co-guardians, you  should consider the likelihood that the couple will split-up or get divorced in the future.  You might not want your child involved in such a custody dispute.  You can also name an alternate, in case your selected guardian cannot serve or is unwilling to serve.

We urge you to carefully consider whom you choose as guardians for your children.  You might want to consider many different factors in selecting a guardian, including (but not limited to):

·        Is the person the right age to care for your child?  He or she must be at least 18 years old in most states, and should not be too old or unhealthy to care for your children until they are no longer minors.

·        Will your guardian be able to financially afford to care for your children?  Leaving money in your will to the guardian, or leaving money in a trust fund that can be used by the guardian for expenses required to care for the child, might help.

·        Will your guardian be able to provide the emotional support your child will need?  In other words, will the guardian grow to love and nurture the child, and will the child grow to love and respect the guardian as a parent?

·        Will the guardian have the time to take care of your children?

·        Does the guardian share your religious or moral beliefs and be able to raise your children in a way acceptable to you?

·        Will your children have to move to another place to be with your guardian, and loose nearby friends at a time when they need them the most?

·        Will the guardian be willing to take the responsibility to care for your child?

You can name different people as guardians for different children.  This is rarely a good idea, and the Wills.Com form does not directly support generating a will in this way.  If you have children from different marriages, you can still name whom you wish to serve as guardian, and if some of your children still have a living parent, the choice of guardian will only apply to those children who no longer have a living parent.  You might want to name your spouse or ex-spouse as the primary guardian for your children so that your children will all stay together.  You can always name an alternate guardian in case the primary guardian is unable or unwilling to serve.

It is also possible to name one person to act as guardian of your child, and another person to act as guardian of your child’s inheritance, or estate.  The Wills.Com software does not directly support writing a will in this way, but it does support establishing a trust for your child to hold all of your child’s inheritance, and naming a Trustee to manage the trust, who can be different from your child’s guardian.

If you want to name different people as guardians for your different children, which is not directly supported by the Wills.Com software, you can use Wills.Com to generate your will, and then copy the produced will and paste it into your word processor.  You can then manually change the paragraph of your will that names your choice of guardian.

Enter the full, legal name of the person or persons you want to serve as guardian.  This name should be capitalized and punctuated exactly the way that you want it to appear on your Will.  For example, use the name “John Q. Doe, Jr.” instead of “john doe.”  If you choose two people to act as guardian, for example “Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Doe, Jr.” or “John and Mary Doe,” they will act as co-guardians of your children, both sharing equally in the guardianship responsibility.  If you intend to name co-guardians, name them together as the Primary Guardian or as the Alternate Guardian.  Do not name one co-guardian as the Primary Guardian and the other co-guardian as the Alternate Guardian.  Please see the Overview for more information about selecting a guardian for your children.

Important: Please enter information into all fields exactly the way that you want it to appear in your Will, including capitalizing names and using punctuation.

Important: Press the Save and Go To Step 3 button at the bottom of this page when you are finished entering or changing the information on this form.  If you don’t use the Save and Go To Step 3 button, anything that you have entered or changed on this form will not be saved into the database, and will not appear in your Will.

The trust established by the Wills.Com will is called a “Pot Trust” because it is a single trust fund for all of your children held together in a single “Family Pot.”  This is the most common type of trust established for children as part of a will.  It is also possible to use the Wills.Com will to setup a separate trust for each child, distributed to each child when they reach a certain age that you specify.

The strength of the Pot Trust is that it helps provide for your children’s maintenance and educational needs until they are a certain age that you specify, typically 21 years old.  The disadvantage is that older children must wait until the youngest child is that age before they are entitled to receive a cash payment from the trust fund.  It is designed this way so that there is enough money left in the trust fund to provide for the needs of the youngest child, in particular the youngest child’s college education.  If there were cash disbursements to the older children before that time, then there might not be enough money in the trust fund to pay for the youngest child’s tuition.

When the youngest child reaches the age of 21 (or whatever age you specify), the funds remaining in the trust fund are divided equally among all children.  The age of 21 is most common for this division because this is the age that nearly all legal entities would consider the child an adult, and because you would probably expect the child to be in his or her senior year of college at that point, so college expenses should be paid from the trust.  You might also choose a different age, for example 18 years old because you don’t expect your children to go to college or you are certain that there will be enough money in each child’s share to pay for his or her own educational expenses out of the share.  You might think that there won't be enough money in the trust fund to pay for all of your children's college, and y ou want to make sure that the funds are distributed equally so that there will be something left for the youngest child.  Or you could pick an older age in order to give the youngest child more time to complete educational goals while there are still combined funds in the trust fund.

At the time that the money in the trust fund is divided into shares, you can choose a portion of the trust fund to be paid to each child, from 0 percent to 100 percent.  If you choose to give less than 100 percent of the trust fund to the children at that time, you can pick another age to distribute the remaining money in the trust fund.  One reason you might want to do this is to keep from giving all of the inheritance to a child before he or she is old enough to use the money wisely.  Or you might want to divide the funds into shares at a young age, say 18 (or even 0), giving 0 percent of the funds in a distribution to the child at that time.  Then each child’s share will be used to provide for maintenance or education of that child, until the child becomes older, at which time he or she will receive the remaining money in his or her share of the trust.

Example:  John and Mary Doe have two children, Buck, age 8 and Fawn, age 10.  They want to setup a Pot Trust for their children until Buck reaches the age of 22, which should give him time to finish college.  At that time, they want to divide the trust equally between Buck and Fawn, and give each of them half of their share.  They want the rest of the money to go to each child when that child reaches 35 years old.  In the Wills.Com Establish Trust Fund for Your Children screen, they enter First Payment Age as 22, Percentage as 50 and Remainder Payment Age as 35.  On Buck’s 22^nd birthday, the money left over in the trust is divided into two shares equally for Buck and Fawn.  Buck receives half of the money in his share and Fawn, who is 24 at the time, receives half of the money in her share.  Then, on Fawn’s 35^th birthday, she receives the remaining funds in her trust, and finally, on Buck’s 35^th birthday, he receives the remaining funds in his trust, eliminating the trust.

Example:  Richard and Regina Rich have two children, Richie, age 6 and Rita, age 2.  They are certain that their estate will be large enough when divided for each child to be provided for separately.  They choose to have the trust fund divided equally between Richie and Rita when the trust is created, and to give each child their share when they reach age 21.  In the Wills.Com Establish Trust Fund for Your Children screen, they enter First Payment Age as 0, Percentage as 0 and Remainder Payment Age as 21.  When Richie reaches age 21, he receives his trust fund inheritance and when Rita reaches age 21, she receives her inheritance.  In the meantime, money is drawn from each of their respective trusts to provide for their needs and education.

The other big question is who should you select to serve as your trustee.  Also, unless your trustee is an institutional trustee, such as a bank or a trust company, you will need to select an alternate trustee.  In general, the trustee you select should have a similar investment strategy to yours.  If you wish, you can leave instructions for the trustee describing how to invest the money and how to choose what child’s expenses you want paid for out of the trust.  Even with these instructions, the trustee will make many decisions about how to manage the trust, so you should select someone who you, and your children, will feel comfortable with.

Sometimes families will select an oldest child to act as trustee.  If the selected trustee is also a beneficiary of the trust, it might be difficult for him or her to be completely impartial when deciding what expenses should be paid for out of the trust.  This can also be an issue if you choose your child’s guardian as trustee.  Also, just because a child has done well for himself or herself, doesn't mean that he or she can effectively manage the trust.  Someone who has done a good job managing his or her own money might not be able to effectively manage someone else’s.

A bank or trust company will always charge a fee for managing the trust.  This fee will be specified as a percentage (sometimes less than 1%), but will be subject to a minimum fee, which is often between $1,000 and $4000.  A trust that needs to be managed on a daily basis will be charged a higher fee than one that needs only occasional review.  Since a Pot Trust receives all of its money as a lump sum at the beginning of the trust, the fees should be toward the lower end of the range.  Usually a trust amount of $100,000 is sufficient to sustain such a trust, keeping the management fees at 2% or less.  We recommend speaking with a trust officer before selecting an institutional trustee, to make sure you understand how the funds will be managed, and how much fees will be charged.  It is easy to come back to Wills.Com and change the trustee selection.  For 30 days after you purchase your will from Wills.Com, such changes are free.

Enter the trustee’s full, legal name.  This name should be capitalized and punctuated exactly the way that you want it to appear on your Will.  For example, use the name “John Q. Doe, Jr.” instead of “john doe”.  Please see Overview for details that describe the trust and Selecting a Trustee for some tips on selecting a trustee.

The executor is the person who will carry out your wishes as described in your will.  This includes payment of debts and taxes, distribution of bequests of tangible property (see Bequests), and distribution of the remainder of your property (see Residuary).  If you are married, normally you will select your spouse to act as your executor, but you will also want to specify an alternate executor in case your spouse dies when you do.  The person you select as executor cannot be a minor, must be a US citizen, and cannot be a convicted felon.  The executor can live in another state, but before selecting an out-of-state executor, you should consider the costs of travel to attend probate hearings and the possible need for a non-resident executor’s bond or in-state executor’s representative.

The person you choose as your executor does not have to be a financial or legal expert, but you need to be able to trust the person completely to handle your financial and personal affairs after you are gone.  In law, this is called “fiduciary duty,” which is the duty to act primarily for the benefit of another.  Fiduciary duty requires that the executor uses highest degree of good faith in dealing with the estate.  The person you choose should be honest and possess the organizational skills needed to handle the details of the estate.  If the executor needs legal help, he or she will (and in some states must) hire a lawyer.  But be sure that the person who you select is willing to do the job.  Discuss the responsibility with the person you choose as executor.  It is easy to come back to Wills.Com and change the executor selection in the future.  For 30 days after you purchase your will from Wills.Com, such changes are free.

Enter the executor’s full, legal name.  This name should be capitalized and punctuated exactly the way that you want it to appear on your Will.  For example, use the name “John Q. Doe, Jr.” instead of “john doe”.  Please see Overview for some tips on selecting an executor.

The assets in your estate will be first use to pay your debts, taxes, and funeral expenses.  Anything left over is yours to distribute through specific bequests and through your residuary estate.

Your specific bequests is a list of assets that you wish to leave to people, usually people who you do not want to receive a share of your residuary estate.  Any assets not listed as specific bequests will be distributed to your heirs as part of your residuary estate, specified later.  Here are some examples of ways to use specific bequests: 

·        Leave your pets to someone, along with enough money to help them care for your pets for the rest of your pets’ lives.

·        Give your house directly to your spouse, because the remainder of your estate is divided between your spouse and your children’s trust.

·        Give specific property away, so that it won’t be sold by your executor for equal distribution to your heirs. “My wedding ring” to “my daughter, Molly Doe.”

1.                  Bequest - Enter the name of the asset you are giving.  Be specific and unambiguous.  It is better to use “My house at 123 Main Street, Pleasanttown, FL” instead of “My house.”  You should capitalize the first word in the name of the asset, because it is used as the beginning of a sentence in your will.

2.                  Beneficiary - Enter the name of the person you wish to give this gift to.  Be specific and unambiguous.  It is better to use “Molly Doe, my daughter” instead of “Molly Doe.”

3.                  Alternate – (optional) Enter the name of the person you wish to give this bequest to if the named Beneficiary is no longer living, or refuses to receive this gift.

4.                  Press the Add This Bequest button.

5.                  Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each bequest.

6.                  When all of your gifts appear in the Bequest/Beneficiary/Alternate table, press the No More Bequests – Go To Step 9 button toward the bottom of the page.

If you make a mistake… 

1.                  Press the Select Previous Bequest or Select Next Bequest button until the incorrect entry is highlighted.

2.                  Press the Remove Selected Bequest button to remove this entry from the table.

3.                  Correct by entering the correct information into the Bequest, Beneficiary, and Alternate fields, as described above, and press the Add This Bequest button.

The residuary is whatever is left in your Estate after debts and obligations are paid, and after specific bequests from step 5 are given out.  Name who receives the residuary, and what percentage of the residuary they are to receive.

You can use names such as "my spouse" or "my children", as long as those names are unambiguous, but it is often best to name your beneficiaries by name.

If you do not include any percentage numbers, a clause will be added that states that each person who receives the residuary will receive it in equal shares.

The Alternate is who gets this percentage if the Beneficiary does not survive you.

1.                  Beneficiary - Enter the name of the person you wish to give this gift to.  Be specific and unambiguous.  It is better to use “Molly Doe, my daughter” instead of “Molly Doe.”

2.                  Percentage - Enter the percentage of your residuary estate that you wish to give to this beneficiary.

3.                  Alternate – (optional) Enter the name of the person you wish to give this percentage to if the named Beneficiary is no longer living, or refuses to receive this gift.

4.                  Press the Add This Bequest button.

5.                  Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each bequest.

6.                  When all of your gifts appear in the Bequest/Beneficiary/Alternate table, press the No More Bequests – Go To Step 9 button toward the bottom of the page.

If you make a mistake… 

1.                  Press the Select Previous Beneficiary or Select Next Beneficiary button until the incorrect entry is highlighted.

2.                  Press the Remove Selected Beneficiary button to remove this entry from the table.

3.                  Correct by entering the correct information into the Beneficiary, Percentage, and Alternate fields, as described above, and press the Add This Beneficiary button.