My husband and I have no children and now that all our parents are gone we each have made plans for what will happen to our estates. We each inherited assets from our parents so it is important to us to do this.
We have the examples that our parents set - his mother left a simple will but could have made it easier if she had signed a form at her broker's office that would have distributed her holdings without going through probate. Because my parents' estates were sizeable they had elaborate trusts that are still being sorted out. As soon as I found out the size of what I will inherit I consulted an estate attorney and made choices about who will inherit and how - I am keeping it simpler than my parents did, but then my estate will be much smaller than their was.
My next worry is what will happen as we get older. Right now my husband is not only my caregiver after each of my operations, he watches out for several of his friends, making sure they to their doctors' appointments, get their medication, get their groceries, etc. Some of them have no children and those who do have children whose work schedules don't allow them this flexibility.
When we get older we will not have someone to turn to for this kind of help. The estate attorney I had draw up my will and trust also handles elder care law and is active in that field. So I will get her help (or the help of her firm which has added a succession of attorneys in the same areas) in dealing with finding care givers and making arrangements for at home care.
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