How To
Create Your Will In 7 Easy Steps
Before you get started, you may want to gather your thoughts and assemble some documents. Once you're ready, click here to begin.
For now, here's a little will-creation prep checklist for you to follow:
Take Note of Your People
Who will be your executors? (learn more about the duties of an executor from EstateExec)
Who will be your beneficiaries?
Who will take care of your children?
Who will take care of your pets?
Who will you pick to handle your online accounts?
Take Note of Your Personal Property and Remaining Estate
Understand the scope of what assets are
Determine your assets
Determine which assets you want to include in your will
Property: Home, Car, Real Estate
Bank Accounts
Social Media Accounts
Life Insurance
Family Heirlooms and Cherished Sentimental Personal Items
Take Note of Who Will Receive Your Property and Estate
How will you divide your estate between your loved ones?
Who will receive what?
Advice: be specific and precise when allocating percentages of your remaining estate!
You will decide who inherits all of your tangible and intangible assets. Because these decisions can be difficult and will affect your loved ones, you can look through this EstateExec Inheritance Guide for help.
Take Note of Your Other Documents
Will you need a medical directive (living will)?
Will you need a funeral directive?
Will you need a Durable Power of Attorney?
Once you have done some basic prep, filling in the blanks of your will should only take you 15 minutes - or less!
Ready to get started now? Click here to begin your GoodTrust will.
We all know what a will basically consists of: your last wishes, your property, your loved ones (including guardianship of your children), but what are the specifics of creating a will and how can you personalize it to include all of the particular needs of you and your loved ones?
Below is a step-by-step process to create your will with GoodTrust. We'll also soon be launching other end-of-life planning documents including Medical and Funeral Directives (including Living Will), and Durable Power of Attorney. Within your GoodTrust profile you can also manage what happens to your online accounts, as well as create emotional memories like Future Messages, generate photo animations with GoodTrust Memories, and more.
The 7 Easy Steps To Create Your GoodTrust Will
1. About You
The initial About You section is where you add your basic information such as you name, your address, your phone number, your birthday, and more. In this section the will tool gets a sense of who you are before going on to store data about your family and your needs.
Once you have provided your initial information, you will progress to the Your Family portion on your will creation flow, in which you will provide details on your family members, your general familial situation, and your wishes.
2. Your Family
This section allows you to clearly state who your spouse may be, if you have any children, if you have any pets and how you wish for them to be cared for.
GoodTrust makes it simple for you to indicate the guardian of your children under the age of 18 as well as that of your pets. In the event that you may not have potential guardians for your pets, GoodTrust offers alternative options including appointing a Humane Society. We also make it easy for you to link your loved ones including your chosen guardians by providing their email addresses (if applicable).
Further, GoodTrust gives you the ability to share important documents before or after you pass away to facilitate the difficult time and ensure your loved ones have access to all the important information they need.
3. Executors
Once you have confidently provided all valuable information regarding your immediate family and your guardianship wishes, you will progress to the Executors portion of the will creation flow, in which you will indicate who you chose to be responsible to enact your will in the event of your passing (read more about how to choose the right person). Executors are highly important as they are the ones to carry out the terms you set in your will. Your Executors should be close loved ones that you trust to handle your matters as you indicated after your passing. You can learn more about the duties of an executor from EstateExec here.
Please note, throughout the will creation process, GoodTrust provides you with insightful assistance and suggestions in the bottom right corner of the page you are on. For example, you can even use GoodTrust Future Messages to record your wishes on video and schedule it to be shared after you pass away. By combining the physical and the digital, you could hold up cherished heirlooms and tell the story associated with them.
4. Personal Property
Now, on to Personal Property! This halfway point marks the completion of your family and personal details and the beginning of the material portion of the will creation process. It is important to note that you may save your progress and return to complete or finalize your documents at any time. To assure a smooth process to completion, GoodTrust starts with the big questions then funnels them down to the specifics.
Personal Property covers everything from gifts you want to leave for your loved ones to stocks and bonds, potential non-governmental organizations donations, and more. This section precedes the Residual Estate section in which you indicate who is to inherit the remainder of your estate and property.
Within the Personal Property section, you will be able to clearly outline who gets what and under which conditions. You may specify that your sibling receives a certain amount provided that they survive you for a minimum of 30 days, for instance. GoodTrust provides flexible and customizable options to ensure your will is comprehensive and includes all the considerations you require it to.
5. Remaining Estate
Once you have completed the previous section, you will be directed to complete the Remaining Estate section which enables you to split up what is left after your Personal Property allocation between one or more beneficiaries. You may chose to allocate specific percentages to specific beneficiaries as well as indicate who should inherit should your chosen beneficiary not survive you. GoodTrust keeps track of how much of your estate and property you have allocated to help you make sure you are not over or under allocating.
6. Witnesses
Last but absolutely not least, you will be prompted to loop in your Witnesses. Please note: after printing it, you will need two witnesses to sign your will in order to validate it.
7. Review
Once you have completed the Will Creation process, you will be invited to Review all submitted information for accuracy before downloading your document, uploading it to Docs & Notes, and exploring the other features GoodTrust has to offer. We highly recommend sharing your will and other documents you may create with your Trusted Contacts (e.g. family members and loved ones).
In the near future we will also offer Durable Power of Attorney, Medical and Funeral Directives (e.g. Living Will), as well as safeguarding any of your online accounts. Accounts that GoodTrust can help you with include, but are not limited to, social media accounts, bank accounts, and subscription-based ones.
And that's it. After following all these steps you'd be done. Don't delay - start your will today! Click here to begin.