Why you may need a will.

So, in a rare moment of Social Consciousness, I've decided to actually tackle a serious subject in today's blog. I thought today I might show off a bit of the old legal education.

I'm guessing that most of the 3 or 4 people who are so beset by boredom that they read this blog are around my age. This means they are firmly in the mid twenties age bracket. People in their mid twenties tend to not have wills, and could probably use one.

A lot of people in their 20's tend not to have a will because they figure, "hey, I don't really have a wife and kids, I really don't need a will. I don't really care what happens to my stuff when I die." Most people in their mid-twenties also tend to believe that they are invincible and won't die anyway. They tend to believe this in spite of the fact that they drive way too fast, drink enough liquor to fry Shamu's liver, sleep far too little, eat junk food, exercise poor hygiene, snort mysterious powders, and have indiscriminate sex with people best described as human petri dishes. If anything, people are MORE likely to die in their 20's than in their 30's and 40's. Yet, this idea that "I don't need a will, death isn't an issue for me" still seems to prevail.

In some cases, that may be true. When you die, your possessions will all go to your next of kin, most likely your parents. All your possessions. That means that your extensive collection of pornography, your personal journal, embarrassing photos, x-rated toys, your stash of cocaine, etc., will go into the possession of your parents. Think hard. Are there things you own that you would prefer your parents did not know about? If that answer is yes, you need to get a will, appoint an executor, and leave instructions which friend you want to leave your hydroponics experiments to.

Another issue to consider, what happens if your parents are divorced? Do you want your parents fighting over your stuff? Maybe your parents are the rare example of an amicably divorced couple who could come together and work this type of thing out. However, most divorced couples loathe each other and never miss an opportunity to fight, especially over children. A will is a good way to avoid that kind of fighting.

Now, some of you might be young and married. When you expire, your stuff generally all goes to your spouse. No real issue, unless there are things that you don't want your spouse to have, like, your collection of porn, letters from old girlfriends, the number to the trust account you set up for your Vietnamese mistress, etc. Another problem is what if you and a significant other are shacking up? If you want anything to go to them, it just makes life easier on everyone if you have a will in place.

If you have a kid, it's time to get a will. If you aren't married then you need to establish that the stuff goes to your kid, or doesn't go to the kid, etc. It is possible that you will die in some horrible accident and that there will be a settlement with your estate. You need a will to specify if you want stuff from your estate to go to your kid. It generally will anyway, but again, why leave anyone room to fight about stuff. Families get torn apart by dividing inheritance. Also, maybe there are kids you want to cut out of your will. Ungrateful little buggers, you can disinherit every last one of them.

The problem that married couples face is what happens if both of you die, and you have a child. See, if one of you dies, the legal part is simple, the spouse gets all your stuff and raises your kid. Your spouse then marries someone richer and better looking than you, your kid changes his last name, and then grows up to gain a drug habit and blame you for all of his problems because you died before he ever got to really know you. However, if you both die, then your assets are all complicated and impossible to sort out, and the in-laws fight over who raises the kid. Now, you probably don't really care about your assets, your young and married which means you are likely poor and have nothing cool. However, the kid thing should worry you. Do you really want a court to decide who will be the legal guardian of your child? Why would you ever leave that in the hands of a judge? Unpleasant as it is, you absolutely need to talk with your spouse about the subject, designate a guardian, make sure the guardian would be okay with it, make sure that people know about it, and for heaven sakes, PUT IT IN WRITING. Also good to put in writing, whether or not you want to be kept alive on a ventilator if you are brain dead and in a coma/vegetative state. If you want to really be prepared, talk about how you feel about organ donation and put that in writing as well. (P.S. if you say no to organ donation, you just suck and you are probably the kind of person who won't be having a large, well-attended funeral).

Admittedly, the possibilities of your ever needing the will are small, however, so are the chances of your house burning down. Do you have fire insurance? It's the same deal. You hope you never need the will, but you need to have it in place just in case the situation ever arises. Part of being a responsible adult is preparing for the future, and planning for unpleasant contingencies. A will is not expensive, and generally doesn't have to be complicated. I start my wills class next week and hopefully by the end of the semester I will revisit this topic and tell everyone what they need to do to write their own will and make it official. Sorry for a semi-serious post and I promise next time to get back to absurdist, scatalogical ramblings.