I just did mine recently. The attorney I chose was referred to me by numerous people who work in the field of law in Honolulu.
Wherever you are, your laws are different than ours. You want somebody who is up-to-date on current law and who knows the pitfalls of taking shortcuts.
If the attorney who does the work, or God forbid, you, make any mistakes, it ends up going through probate and basically getting eaten up so that whoever you want to leave your assets to gets very little.
I had an Auntie pass a long time ago without a will and as a result her very nice little home in a very desirable area that was worth at least 1 mil only yielded each of us about $15,000 even though there’s just a couple of us. Almost the entire value got munched up by the process of going through probate.
Also, there are firms that just specialize in finding other people who are related so that in her case, her assets went to the heirs of a father who never acknowledged her, and never gave her a dime of support in her entire life rather than to her family who did.
In my case, it cost $2500 to get all of my documents together which included a will, living, trust, instructions for what I want to have happen if I’m not able to speak for myself, power of attorney for my fam and instructions for what I want to have happen if I am unable to recover and am on life support.
My suggestion would be to talk to a couple of people that work in the field of law in your town, either lawyers or paralegals or hopefully both. After you talk to a few of them, and you hear a recommendation for the same person more than a couple of times, reach out to that office and find out what it costs to have your documents done.
You will feel better when it’s completed I bet. I sure did.
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