You Can't Take it With You

It's natural to put off getting a will or to avoid the process altogether. Writing a will means thinking about death and our own mortality, and no one really wants to do that. But avoiding the issue doesn't make it go away. Death happens whether we plan for it or not, and having a will in place makes the process so much easier for the people we leave behind.

Waiting until a medical crisis hits is not the way to go. My office has handled more than one situation where a family called us in a panic, needing a will drawn up at the last minute. We always get it done, but rushing is stressful, especially for clients who are already dealing with a serious illness. And sometimes illness moves so quickly that there simply isn't time. When that happens, a person's last wishes may never get honored.

If there's one piece of advice I could give everyone, it's this: get your will done. Don't put it off, and don't let yourself get backed into a last-minute scramble. Every single person who waits until the last minute wishes they had done it sooner.