Given all the news about Terri Schiavo, i thought most of you might find interesting this page from the WSJ's site that provides Living Will information on a state by state basis. I might ordinalrily put this in the D&D, but i thought it might capture more eye-balls in the Hangout. If you don't have a living will, the events of the past week should convince you how necessary it is to make your true intentions known.
I putting in a request to be taxidermied after I'm dead. I also want some crappy clown hired to perform for a week on the exact spot on which I die as memorial.
That's nice. Maybe we can put you next to the lumberjack statue in Nacogdoches. Sorry...Clutch the Bear is unavailable for tribute performances.
Where the box where I check: "would like my drooling inanimate shell of a body to be ballyhooed by talking heads on the media and maybe paraded around country by a bunch of useless politicians" as my request? No, seriously...thanks for posting this. The last two weeks have been an eyeopener to how weird people can be (on both sides of the issue) and I would not want my family to go through that.
If you'd rather spare your family the grief of probate court you should look into a revokable living trust... If you have an estate with any sort of value in it you should DEFINITELY go see a trust officer or a lawyer. There are all sorts of ways to save your money from going to Uncle Sam.
Just be careful of scams. Keep in mind that the State Bar of Texas has issued an advisory opinion regarding advertising and promoting living trusts for attorneys. Attorneys are not supposed to advocate a living trust over a will or vice-versa. They should give you the pros and cons of both documents. http://www.peopleslawyer.net/livingscams.html
However, for a lot of people living trusts make a lot more sense. It costs more up front, of course. However, in the end your family can avoid all of the costs associated with probate. If you don't have much in the way of estates I wouldn't worry about it. Also, anything that happens in probate court becomes a matter of public record. If you want the whole world to know about verything you have then go for the will...
