A few months ago it was my turn to bring breakfast for our women’s prayer group. I decided on a baked oatmeal with craisins and pecans, which was the perfect mixture of sweet, healthy, portable, and (I thought) easy. I worked on the various steps as we went through our normal hectic morning routine of getting kids ready for school and out the door, and eventually, as the oatmeal baked in the oven, I began to smell the sweet aroma of…tacos.
Can you guess where this is going? At our house we have mostly your run-of-the-mill normal sized spices. But two we use quite a bit of – cinnamon and…cumin. We buy them at Costco and they live in their own separate drawer, right beside each other. Instead of cinnamon I had grabbed the cumin, unintentionally creating taco-flavored oatmeal. And not in the cool “happy accidents I’ve invented something amazing” way. It was horrible and I had to start over. It was…a little funny at the time.
Now steps 1-3 of the recipe are “Get cinnamon. Check to make sure it’s not cumin. Check one more time just in case.” The new recipe is based on what I now know is a preventable but very possible mistake. Do I blame this on the spice container designers and namers? Of course I do! But at the end of the day it’s me who’s eating taco oatmeal, not them.
I remembered the cinnamon-cumin situation recently (now a funny story in our family) when I read a question on facebook about having a “Will or Living Will” created. The writer of the post was confused about which document was which, and (understandably) mixed up Living Wills and Living Trusts.
For some unknown reason, the namers of legal documents chose very similar words for…basically everything. And do we blame them for the confusion? Of course we do! But at the end of the day we’re the ones who either have an estate plan we understand, or don’t.
So here is a quick rundown:
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- A Last Will and Testament – everyone needs one of these! A document for a judge to read about what you want to happen to your assets after you die, who you want to be in charge of executing your wishes (your executor) and, if you have children under 18, who you’d want to be their guardians.
- A Living Will – this is the healthcare document you’re asked about when you check in at a hospital. It’s short and has questions about when you’d want life-sustaining care to happen, or not. (Fun fact, a healthcare power of attorney works with this and points to a person to help make those decisions).
- A Living Trust – this one is more complicated. It’s a contract between yourself and yourself (nope, that’s not a typo) that spells out exactly what you want done with any assets owned by the Trust, both during your life and after you die. Not everyone needs one of these (I can tell you if you do!) It does not replace a Will, but it makes the Will a lot simpler.
Hopefully that helps clear things up a little. My aunt recently asked me how I felt about online legal documents, and my honest answer is that they CAN work, but they don’t come with any legal advice. (As in: sure, you have acquired cumin, but do you know how to keep from putting it in oatmeal?).
Another favorite part of my counselor at law role is that I get to educate people on what these documents are and how they can work. I will be starting to do some presentations this Fall for groups who want to learn more about estate planning basics. If you know a group who might benefit from that, let me know! And if you prefer a one-on-one session, you can schedule that here: http://www.calendly.com/galleslawfirm/peaceofmind.