My left hand is not very good at doing most of the things my right hand can do. It doesn’t move as fast and it’s less coordinated, which leads to problems like poking my mouth with the fork if I try to eat with my left hand. I can write with my left hand, but it would take a cryptologist to read it. I can type with it, of course, but if I go too fast the letters on the right side of the keyboard overtake the letters on the left and typos pile up. Even shaking my hands when I do the hokey pokey requires accepting that they will not shake in tandem, rather, the left will put up a good show but the right will get all the shaking glory.
In other words, my left hand can do the same things my right hand can do, but it really should leave the right to do the things it excels at and the left should stick to the things it does well – like hold the baby safely in my arms while my right manipulates the bottle. Like stabilizing the tape dispenser while the right hand deftly tears a piece off. Like holding the glass still while the right hand pours the milk. You get the idea.
Why do I bring this up, you may ask? Because I’ve seen a lot of people who are not attorneys try to write their own wills, their own trusts, and take care of their affairs on their own. The problem is, these folks are doing the thing they are good at, which is deciding how they want to distribute their things, who they want to handle their affairs for them, and what kind of provisions they want to leave their family, but then going farther and trying to do the things they are not good at, which is knowing how to make sure what they want to happen actually happens.
You are the best person to decide how you want to handle your affairs. But an attorney is the best person to make sure you consider all the right circumstances and to make sure that all the right legal documents are created to ensure that what you want is what actually happens.
Don’t try to make your left hand do things it doesn’t do very well. You might wind up poking your family in the eye with a poorly put together estate plan.