Maria, thank you for mentioning the living will and medical power of attorney portions, I forgot that that is something I may well have to have in the future. He has a daughter from a previous marriage who has kids. There is very rare communication, but she is there and has a legal impact. At the very, very least "Everything to my wife" should do to go on. I think there may actually be papers at the hospital that say I get to say what happens.

I'm an overweight smoker. According to all the handwringing literature, I died 5 years ago.

Not accepting this, since you are, in fact, all alive and stuff.

I'm just a fanatic about this right now.

It's worth being fanatical about, Maria.

she is there and has a legal impact.

Without a will, she is entitled to 50% of his estate (based upon common examples of intestate succession. I don't know specifics for Utah.). If she passes before him, her children are entitled to her 50%.

At the very, very least "Everything to my wife" should do to go on.

Yes, but he should also make provisions if you should go before him. "I leave everything to my wife, Connie Neil, but if she predeceases me, I leave everything to the Utah Cat Rescue League." If he doesn't want his daughter or her heirs to have anything under any circumstances, it should be explicitly spelled out. "I leave nothing to daughter and/or her heirs and assigns."

I think there may actually be papers at the hospital that say I get to say what happens.

You should verify that. Or she can assert herself as his daughter. Then you may end up in court in a Terry Schiavo situation. (Worst case scenario--I am in no way implying that it's going to happen.)

I'm somewhat ambivalent about a will; I'm single with no dependents and no surviving grandparents. My parents are my only immediate family, and they're named as the beneficiaries of my retirement plan and have access to my savings account, which together are about 95% of my net worth. And I could trust them to handle the passing out of photos and mementos to the rest of the family and my closest friends as I would wish. It won't really be a pressing concern for me unless/until my folks predecease me, which hopefully will be far off in the future.

Matt, even if inheritance seems straightforward, a will can make the difference between getting it done speedily and having it linger in probate for months or more. Don't put them through it, really. Make a will.

I should get on that stuff too.

It won't really be a pressing concern for me unless/until my folks predecease me, which hopefully will be far off in the future.

You should still have a basic will that names one of them as your personal representative. Otherwise they have to go through intestate probabe to get letters of administration to allow them to do things like sell your car and close bank accounts, etc. Having access to your accounts is not enough; they need to be joint account holders as well to keep the accounts out of probate (and non-taxable). There's other tax questions to consider concerning the retirement account and the value of your personal possessions.

(I'm really sorry that I'm so adamant, but I'm steeped in this right now, and it's not pretty.)

edit: Or what Zenkitty said. Much, much more succintly.

This all reminds me that I need to make sure my dad has a will. I know I have power of attorney (and/or possibly medical power of attorney [note to self: check that shit out, too]), but I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a will because -- and I quote -- "I don't have anything worth putting in a will." I believe I've told him that it would make things easier on my brother and me if he has a will, and he just got angry. Which was awesome.

And I'm all too aware that, as Tim's girlfriend and not wife, legally I am just some person he knows.

Zimmerman is a moron. In fact, there are stupid people around the world going "That's my hey!" right now, because at least they didn't hurt anybody and I'm lumping them in with him.