Setting Up A Will Is Harder Than I Thought

Especially when you’re a bachelor with no kids.

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There’s a part of you that thinks you’ll live forever. It’s right next to the part that thinks you’ll never get old. Even though both parts are dwarfed by the rational side that says you certainly will on both accounts, what they don’t have in size they make up for in denial.

Recently, I’ve been trying to write my will through a free legal site called, appropriately enough, Free Will. But it’s proved a challenge. The website is easy to use. Almost too easy. I expected the whole will writing endeavor to be more formal. Like something you do in a suit and tie in a lawyer’s office.

I’d heard it’s a good idea to write a will out no matter your age. This is to prevent legal complications with family or beneficiaries following your expiration. Things can get messy without proper paperwork. Plus, you don’t know when it’ll be your time. As the Southern Baptist preachers at the churches I went to as a kid used to say, “Tomorrow is not promised.”

I don’t have insignificant assets. But I lack immediate kin. I’m not married and I do not have kids. If I did, this whole process of will writing would be much easier. My wife would get everything. Or if I was divorced I’d leave everything to my kid(s). Pretty simple. I encountered a…