When you’ve just started your life together, one of the last things on your mind is writing a Will, a Living Will, or drawing up a Power of Attorney, but these documents are important, even for newlyweds. Young people need to be prepared for the unexpected, and without the proper legal documents your new spouse could experience some incredible difficulties if something were to happen to you.
Although thinking about death and disability when you are newly married is unromantic, and even a little morbid, it is essential for the protection of your new family. You’ll both sleep better knowing that no matter what the future brings, you will be prepared.
The documents that you will need to help you to get through the legal and financial problems that come from tragedyinclude a Will, a Living Will, and a Power of Attorney.
The Will
Even if you don’t have children yet, a Will is important. If something should happen to both you and your spouse, a Will specifies where you would like your assets to go. When you do have children, a Will is an absolute must so that you can specify who will have guardianship of your children if you both should pass away at the same time.
People that have been married more than once might have children from a previous marriage that they will want to provide for in their Will. If you don’t have a Will, settling your estate can become uneccesarily complicated and often quite expensive.
Living Will
The Living Will is a way that you can let people know if you want to be on life support in the case of accident or illness. This is most important if you should suffer from a terminal illness, or if you are in a persistent vegetative state. Without a Living Will your family may dispute what you would have wanted and have to go to court to have the matter decided. You should also appoint a Medical Proxy, someone to make additional medical decisions you are unable to make for yourself.
Power of Attorney
A Power of Aattorney is an important legal document that can be helpful, even if someone is not ill or dying. Of course this document will let you appoint someone to handle your legal and financial affairs if you are ill and unable to do so yourself, but it is also useful while you are still healthy and alert. Suppose you were in another country and your spouse needed your signature on something urgently, with the right Power of Attorney in place, they can take care of this for you.
These legal documents are not really about preparing for death, but preparing for anything that could cause your family hardship.
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