Father is in the hospital. This situation has made made it clear he needs to make a will and power of attorney in case anything else happens. How should I approach this? i.e. How should I start the process of making a will and financial decisions in that document. personalfinance

Had a discussion with him about his finances right now considering it's become obvious that if he passed we have nothing to go on.

So tomorrow we'll talk about the will and how his assets will be divided.

Should I get a lawyer to draw up those plans or something more formulaic from a standard will template online do? He's not in critical condition so there is a strong possibility he'll be fine but we all agree a solution in writing is beneficial due to other health concerns that were revealed.

Also he questioned my ability to handle this situation if needed and also questioned if I would put my family's best interest at heart if he let me dictate how those assets would be divided. He actually has no reason to question my ability to handle finances except for the fact he is making it a point for me to prove myself to him. Growing up like that is incredibly frustrating having to make essentially PowerPoint presentations with bullet points why I needed money to buy a refrigerator, a dryer washer, for our home. He was unavailable and does not understand what we needed growing up. So I need to be able to show very accurately what he is signing and the pros and cons to each and every statement.

He has a few houses with most of the mortgages paid off. He wants to distribute those evenly to my sister and I. I would rather use those assets in investments and use the profit from those to distribute to those in my family. i.e. My sister and my cousin.

He also has an estranged ex-wife who used him for a green card and did not want to get a divorce. She's possibly holding onto the marriage just to get at any assets he has if he dies. They've been married for almost 9 years and have been estranged for about 8 of those years. He says it's nothing to worry about but I am not persuaded.

Submitted November 03, 2015 at 10:30AM by Kidault http://ift.tt/1PirvyE personalfinance