People with young children need to do their estate planning

Attorney Chris Merrill: We do have more young couples where they have young children and they are getting the message. The message being that if you as a young couple do not have documents, legal documents in place for your young children, and something God forbid happened to both of you, it is not going to necessarily go the way you think. Just because you told your sister or brother or parents or friend, or they're the godparents of your children, that in and of itself does not make a guarantee that those people will be the ones taking care of your children.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Chrissy, what about this first scenario? I've had it happened enough that I know what's happening out there, but a young couple would have got young kids, 3 4, 5, 6 years old. This is their estate plan, "Tom, we're a married couple. We both have IRAs, retirement accounts, and life insurance, and we named our brother to be the beneficiary of those things, and he's going to take that money and take care of our kids." Oh my, is that a scary prospect or what?

Attorney Chris Merrill: Very.

Attorney Tom Olsen: That is not estate planning folks-

Attorney Chris Merrill: That's correct.

Attorney Tom Olsen: -that's a recipe for disaster.

Attorney Chris Merrill: It is.