Simple estate planning
<p>Married couple + child. Own a house (with a mortgage) and a few savings accounts.
Want to leave everything to each other in the event of death. If both die then to our child. Also want to select a guardian.</p>

<p>What do we need? Joint / separate wills? A trust? Should we go with a lawyer or can this be done independently with online software?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<h2>Use a lawyer</h2>

<p>There is no such thing as a "simple" estate.</p>

<p>Estate planning involves considering things such as tax implications, further issue of the relationship, further (or existing) issue outside the relationship, death of your child(ren), simultaneous deaths, the age of the child(ren) given that death can occur from anywhere from today to 100 years from now, you winning the lottery tomorrow, jointly owned assets, individually owned assets, assets where the beneficiary is based on someone else's discretion (life insurance), divorce, separation, guardians, death of guardians, trusts, trustees, death of trustees etc.</p>

<p>Still think you can handle it yourself?</p>

estate-planning