Weddings & Wills

“Failing to plan is to plan to fail, as the adage goes. That’s true for weddings and it’s, unfortunately, true for marriage as well.”

Few things are more exciting than planning your own wedding. From the texture of the table napkin to the very last jewel on your gown, you have a say in everything.

The best weddings are the ones where brides are the most handson. While not everything can go smoothly, putting the time and ground work into the planning stage will ensure that things will generally go in the direction that you want.

But, what if you could channel that mindset and enthusiasm to other parts of your married life? Life after the wedding, after all, is supposed to last until death do you part, so, isn’t it more important than the wedding itself?

Failing to plan is to plan to fail, as the adage goes. That’s true for weddings and it’s, unfortunately, true for marriage as well.

I know you probably have your grand wedding ideas already setup in your mind, but are your grand life plans already set too?

One of the most overlooked ways to plan for married life is setting up a will. Nobody wants to talk about death when you’re just about to plan for a life with your new spouse. However, it’s a necessary part of the process if you’re looking to make sure that your family is taken care of even without you in the picture.

So, here are a couple of reasons on why setting up a will is important, if you’re planning to marry.

Guardianship

Perhaps there is nothing more important than knowing that your future children are in safe hands, if you and your spouse were to suffer an untimely passing. Current Australian laws grant the power to grant custody to anyone they see fit, if you don’t have a will. Under normal circumstances, custody is granted to your next of kin.

However, what would happen if your next of kin isn’t ready or able to become a guardian? It is, after

all, a huge shift in lifestyle for both your kids and whoever the court grants custody to.

In a will, you can designate your kid’s guardians. So, you can opt for someone who’s already built a rapport with them to help ease their transition for both your kids and their new guardians into a new living arrangement.

Asset Management

You can also designate who to give your assets to in the event your passing. From simple transfers of ownership to your living spouse or donating your assets to charities, you can do all of these through a will.

You can even request more complex instructions in your will such as excluding who would normally benefit from your assets or passing on your board memberships to someone other than your spouse.

Funeral Instructions

You can indicate how you want your funeral to be executed through your will. Your desire whether you want to be cremated and buried should be important details that you can share in it. Want to put your remains to good use? You can also elect to become an organ donor in your will.

Writing Your Will

To make the most out of your will, you should use the services of a lawyer and a financial adviser or an accountant. This trio can help ensure that you cover all your bases. Or, you can also engage the services of a professional will writer.

However, you can also write one on your own. There are a couple of templates that you can follow online.

Love, as they say, always finds a way. Maybe, just maybe, getting a will is one of the means for love to conquer.