It’s My Life
Today I was commissioned to a do a sponsored review of itsmylife.com. I took the opportunity because, as many of you know, I’ve often worried about not having a will. It’s one of those things. You know you need it, but you keep putting it off because, in our case, you just don’t have time, you forget, and you have absolutely no idea where to start. Itsmylife.com can not only can help you create a will, but other documents such as power of attorneys, private letters (to be opened upon death), final wishes, etc.
At first, the site was a little confusing. I’m not sure why this was, but it took me a little to figure out where to get started. But soon enough, I discovered that you have to click “buy now” on the sidebar to get started. I clicked to start a will for one person.
From there, it was easy, I was walked right through the process of creating a will. I entered in a little bit of information about myself and was asked a series of questions about who I wanted to receive my property when I die (not that I have much of anything, of course) and chose Steve, of course, to just receive everything, including guardianship of Elijah. I also was able to answer the question of what if I die, but Steve has already passed on, what happens then? I was able to enter in my dad’s name to be executioner and guardian of Elijah should this happen. You can add other people if you want to as well, but I have no need for listing more than primary and secondary.
And if you’re a bit confused? Just mouse over the list at right to view a tooltip with helpful information.
I finished the will, it didn’t take too long, but for some reason, the site would not save my birthdate though I tried three times. I then decided to try and print anyway, but received an Microsoft VBScript runtime error and was unable to print. I tried a few times then emailed them and moved on. But within 20 minutes, I had an email response and the problem was fixed. Apparently, the issue with my birthdate was causing the error. Liz with itsmylife fixed it and I was able to print immediately. I’m quite impressed with the finished product. I could put this in to effect now, once I fix my birthdate. I accidentally slipped and saved it as 1928. :)
I moved on to other sections of the site from here. The final wishes section was interesting, asking you if you wanted a funeral service, then do you want a specific funeral home, casket, any items to be buried with you, readings, music, location of burial, or would you like to be cremated, etc. There are so many options and getting down now what you want can help your family later. If nothing else, they will be saved from making decisions or fighting over those decisions. I was surprised to see questions about family gatherings such as the family meal that is often served after a burial, it had never occurred to me that someone might want to pre-arrange something like that in addition to burial details. One can even write a message to be read at the funeral or gathering, maybe a little letter from you to your family.
I was able to get this document to print. It opened in a PDF and I could even save it to my hard drive if I wanted to. It showed all the details that I had selected, including words to readings and songs, and left out what I had left blank, ie what I didn’t care to specify. I then moved on to the Financial Power of Attorney and was able to print that one, too.
Overall, this site is pretty helpful. If nothing else, one can get an idea of where to start with creating a will. I’ll have to sit down with Steve and maybe we can get something finalized for us. I would certainly feel better if we did…
