Life Insurance/Will

You can do your will on Legalzoom.com. As for the life insurance, here is a link that might help get you started- http://www.clarkhoward.com/categories/clark-howard/insura...
Look for TERM policies (not whole life). I am 30 and in good health and I was quoted around $16 a month for a 25 year $300,000 policy. I would recommend finding an independent agent in your area that will be able to quote you a variety of companies. Also, my agent started his career with State Farm, and he told me their premiums tend to be higher on life insurance. You can check MatrixDirect.com for quotes online.

I would suggest contacting an insurance agent to get various quotes on life insurance. My husband and I just went through the process and considering that you and your husband are 5 yrs younger than we are yours should be even less. My term policy was under $400 for the year for 30 yrs and $500,000. My husband's was slightly more, but he's 37 and it's always more for men. Any of the major providers (MetLife is ours) can run various quotes. Our life insurance is through ING.

As for a Will, which is different than Guardianship papers, if you have very basic requests you can use a lawyer and not have to spend a fortune. We used my grandparents' attorney and met with him to do the following for a "package fee" of $300:
- Two Wills
- Guardianship papers for our children
- Medical Proxy for both
It took about an hour, but was worth it! Keep in mind that websites are low-cost, but you will have to have all of the documents notarized, which also have a fee attached. You could use Legal Zoom and see what their pricing is, but when you "add it all up", it may be cheaper and easier to go with a family attorney and then you at least know it's done correctly!

I have a great guy who handles our life insurance and inexpensive:
David Bjorklund - and you can contact him here if you click at the top right
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-bjorklund/12/675/298

Our attorney wasn't that much and we KNOW it was done right - AND this is ALL they do, rather than dabble in everything:
BarbaraTaaff
http://www.trustplanner.net/DynamicAttorneys.shtml?wldpid...

I am a licenced life insurance agent - and I got my life insurance online. Go to an online broker and they'll show you quotes from a few different companies. selectquote or equote are both fine. You want to look for term insurance - it's the lowest cost way of providing the highest amount of insurance. Term life is not designed to last through your old age - it's designed to get you the most insurance for your money while your kids are small and you need it the most. You really only need it to last until your kids are grown. Look at a guaranteed renewable 10 year term policy - so the premium amount will stay the same for 10 years - it will increase at the 10 yr mark - but it's guranateed renewable so even if you develop a medical problem it wil continue. Then renew it again at 10 yrs which will get you a total of 20 years of insurance. At that point you can evaluate how much insurance you'll need and you can renew it of course if you want.

When you buy insurance make sure the company is "A rated" by "Best" - which is a company that rates insurance companies for financial stability. The amount you'll need really depends on what it will cost to continue your family's life style for 3 - 5 years at a minimum - which will give you or your spouse time to get back on your feet. For the wage earner the minimum amount you should cover is 5 years of pay. It seems like a lot but 5 - 10 years of inflation will affect that greatly. When our DD was born we took out $250,000 on each of us. 14 years later it's not really enough - I doubled mine a few years ago - but my husband's kidneys prevent us from getting affordable insurance for him now - so we renew his $250K but can't get any more unless we want to spend a fortune. So, his life insurance is no longer 5 X his pay... but it was 14 years ago. AS for the amount needed on your life - your husband would need to pay a live-in nanny for at least a year or two - MINIMUM. I don't know what costs are where you live - but in the NY area the least expensive live-in nanny is $750 weekly - and that may not be the best. So budget around $500 for TN - or more - think of who you'd want to care for your dear treasures?

As for a will - the biggest thing about that is selecting who you want to take care of your kids in the event you are both gone. We have 6 siblings between my husband and I and we both feel VERY strongly that certain siblings could not have any authority over decisions about our kids or their money. We talked to 2 different siblings and their spouses and asked if they would be willing to take care of our kids if needed - so we know that both sets are reasonable people so we left it that they could make the decision between themselves based on the situation of their family at the time. What a big relief to have that settled.

Legalzoom does have very good forms to use - and will differ based on the state you live in - in order to comply with state laws.

You are doing a very good thing by getting this taken care of now. Good luck mama!

I work for State Farm. A $250,000 20 yr term for you - $16.98 per mo. For him $21.53. You can add a $10,000 rider for the kids for $4.98 per month. There's also a policy called "Return of Premium Term" It works just like a term but if you outlive it you get all your money back at the end of the policy period. It's more expensive, of course. For your husband it would be $46.33 per month as opposed to 21.53. But at the end of 20 years, you get a check for $12,164. Every penny you put into it.
There is cheaper coverage out there, but State Farm is trustworthy and stable. You need to know that the company will still be around when it comes time to pay your benficiary. If you go with a company other than your current insurance, make sure your family knows about it and knows where to find a copy of the policy. Millions of dollars of life insurance is sent to the state each year because people buy policies and dont tell anyone about them. Here in our office we give our policyholders a sample will to fill out. Ours is meant for Texas. ASk your agent if they have a sample will for your state. You can usually download one off the internet, but be sure you find one specific to the laws in your state. Let me know if you have any questions.

As for the will, I would use an attorney as there are lots of things that you might not have considered. For example, if both you and your spouse die simultaneously and you have named your minor children as beneficiaries in this situation, they won't have access until they are 18 in most states--so you need a trust or conservatorship set up so they can benefit from the proceeds while growing up. Or many times, people set up their will to leave all to their surviving spouse, that spouse re-marries and leaves their assets to new spouse and your children get unintentionally disinherited. Lots of scenarios to consider.......

CONGRATULATIONS!!! On your upcoming baby!!!

My life insurance is higher than my husbands as I am a Stay at home mom and if I die while our kids are still young - my husband will have to pay for day care, house cleaning, etc.

I would go with a company that has a long, good reputation. I would stay away from ones that haven't proven themselves yet....i know that's hard when money is tight - but seriously - I'd rather know that my money will be there when I die and my family will be taken care of.

I would do a will through an attorney - especially if you have a specific request - cremation, donate body to science, no blood transfusions, or a DNR - or anything special like that...this way you will know it's being done RIGHT and no stress.

You can draft one up now - a living will and a will and take it to a lawyer - having them review it to make sure it's worded correctly and they can get it taken care of.

Dave Ramsay always recommends Zander Insurance for the most competitive quotes. Google them.
As for wills, what about LegalZoom.com? I always see ads for Legal Zoom.

Well, if it is just for guardianship then you can literally just write a blog post and then send certified letters to everyone you know telling them the order of people you would want to care for your children. Judges don't actually want to have to decide who gets the kids, they will actually do what is easiest and if 30 members of the family say "oh, Jack and Jane wrote us a certified letter that says they want Mary and Bob to raise the kids and if they don't want to do it then they want Alice and Jim to raise them..." then the judge will go with that.

Now I am going to tell you not to write a will, I am going to tell you to write a trust! When you die, the money can not go to your children if they are minors and if you have them as the beneficiary then the money will be held for them until they are 18 and then they get a lump sum (and what things would do if you got about a million dollars at 18? something stupid or college?). This means that the people caring for your children will not get any help monetarily to raise your children. If this doesn't happen then the guardians will have full reign over that money and can do something stupid with it, like pay off all the credit debt they have! With a trust, you can have a bank pay the people caring for your children a set sum each month, or pay for private school, or whatever so they can raise your children in a comfortable way. You can also say something like you want the kids to visit each set of Grandparent for at least 14 days each year or they money will stop (not that you would).

My mother is a lawyer in trusts and wills, she has seen so many abuses from care givers when it comes to money. Cases like the aunt (dad's sister) and uncle that got the children, used the money for IVF, got quads, and then handed the now penniless kids over to the maternal grandmother living on her SS check. They tried to sue the aunt and uncle for the money but aunt and uncle didn't do anything illegal and as such my mom couldn't help them at all. The kids ended up in Foster Care because grandma couldn't keep the kids and the house and after grandma lost the house, well, CPS took the kids.

We are in the exact same boat with the life insurance and with the second baby coming. I don't understand all the terminology and my hubby agrees we need it, but doesn't put forth the energy to do any research so it is up to me to figure it out. Sorry I can't help on that part.

however, we just did our will. I looked into a lot of software programs etc and found that after you add on all the extras (care for the kids if you both die etc.) and the knowledge that it is done right the first time, our cost of $200 from an actual lawyer seemed reasonable. Some of the online sites would say $60 to get you to look but then would want extra for each child or for doing both yours and your husbands will (it isn't usually done on the same document- it is one for each which is something that I didn't think about at first).

We had to put a stipulation in ours for certain guardians and such but I know that it was worded correctly because we had it done right.

Good luck with the new little one