Review and Update Your Policies

I know that you have heard all of this before, but it is worth a reminder.  I recently was reminded, by helping my parents with several issues, that everyone needs a will, a living will, a health power of attorney and a regular power of attorney.  And then these things have to be updated as things change in our life.  I have a will.  It was drawn up in 1995 to protect my son and assets after a divorce.  It's not really relevant now (stated in a sarcastic tone).  Even though neither my husband nor myself anticipate any problems anytime soon, so many times we are reminded that things happen when we least expect them.  In these recent times, no one can make a decision for you without having it in writing.  In our case, it is easy, if anything happened to either of us, the other would inherit or make the decisions.  But what happens if something happened to both of us at the same time.  We came into this marriage with our own assets that we have since combined.  We have three wonderful children between us, but which one of them would make the decisions at that point.  To be fair to them, we need to make our decisions now and review and update them as circumstances change over the years.  I will probably check into downloading a do it yourself program to see if that will work for us.  I encourage each one of you to review your situation and make sure that your children and assets are protected in the future.