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When you're young, the idea of creating a will sounds silly. When you're young and don't have children, it seems even more pointless. If you're not leaving behind dependents, what's the purpose of spelling out where all your stuff should go?
But a will isn't just for elderly tycoons with big families and even bigger fortunes. A will is the document that allows the people you leave behind - from immediate family to friends and business partners - to mourn your passing without legal complications and petty squabbling. It also allows you to direct your assets to the people and organizations you care about the most.
That's why my husband and I created a will in 2019. Here's what we learned along the way, and how it could apply to your situation.
Drawing up our will
My husband's and my assets include a house, a car, and some retirement accounts. Our lives pretty much revolve around our two dogs, so we want to be sure they'll be taken care of if something happens to us.
In the first draft of our will, we decided to give everything to our niece and nephew. Our friend Kevin, who's our dog and house sitter when we're out of town, would inherit the dogs.
As we considered what to do with our dogs, we realized what kind of financial burden they would be. We realized that by giving Kevin the dogs, we would be asking him to take on the financial responsibility as well as the daily obligations.
To make up for it, we decided to leave our house to Kevin as well. Our reasoning is that he could sell it and use the proceeds to pay for our dogs' care. Our niece and nephew will still get whatever's in our bank and retirement accounts.
Making the will showed us that it's important to think carefully about how your death could affect those left behind. Even though we know Kevin loves our dogs and would be happy to take them in, it would be inconsiderate to not also designate some money for their care.
Trust & Will can help you create your will online, no lawyer required »
Why a will is important for single people
Even if you're not married or don't have kids, creating a will is still important if you care about the people you leave behind. Dying without a will means assets take longer to transfer, which could affect surviving relatives.
In cases like this, a court has to decide what happens to your property. It can take months, sometimes even a year or more, to settle an estate. That can be financially challenging for those left behind, especially if you haven't set aside any money for funeral costs.
Let's say your parents pay for the funeral, which is held a few days after you pass. The average cost of a funeral in 2017 was $7,360 according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
The court then takes six months to go through your estate and disburse the funds. If your parents can't afford the cost of the funeral themselves, they may put it on a credit card, crowdsource the money, or withdraw funds from a retirement account. It may take months before your estate is settled and they can recoup the money for the funeral bill.
Settling an estate without a will is also more complicated and time-consuming for your relatives. Creating a legal will means they'll spend less time on the phone talking to banks and lenders trying to figure out how to transfer ownership.
Having a will also means you can leave money behind to the people you really care about outside of your immediate family. If your closest surviving acquaintance is a best friend or distant relative, you can leave them money. If you love your nieces and nephews but don't get along with your siblings, you can designate exactly who you want to receive your assets.
Even if you don't have anyone outside next of kin that you're close with, you can leave money to charities, religious organizations, or political groups.
Other benefits of a will
Making a will also forces you to organize your finances, because most wills have a list of all financial accounts. That includes checking, savings, retirement, and investment accounts.
If your spouse doesn't know where the life insurance policy is, they won't know how to file for benefits after your death. It can take weeks of waiting and hours on the phone to find the right information unless it's clearly stated in the will. Given that, writing a will is especially helpful for couples where one person handles all the finances.
You can go even further with your will and include a list of all your subscription services, credit cards, and other relevant financial information. This can even include where to find passwords for social media and email accounts.
A will may also include an advance directive, which explains what medical procedures you do or don't want if you become incapacitated, as well as who can make financial and legal decisions on your behalf.
How to create a will
Creating a will doesn't have to be expensive. You can use an affordable service like LegalZoom, which ranges from $89 to $179. Trust & Will charges $69 for individual wills and $129 for couples. An estate lawyer may charge around $300 for a basic will. We received a free will from my husband's life insurance provider, who connected us with Trust & Will.
If you truly can't afford to pay for a will, contact a local legal aid clinic. They may have free or discounted services. You can also try calling an estate planning firm to see if they offer pro-bono estate planning. And Fabric provides will-writing services online for free, though if your financial situation is complicated, this might not be the best option for you.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
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