# Do I need a living trust? A will? Both? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 30, 2020, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-a-living-trust-a-will-both/847247 "2020-01-30T21:11:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 13
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-a-living-trust-a-will-both/847247/13 "2021-01-10T01:50:01Z")
Here are two recent threads on point. I suggest you read them both. > [@Do you have a will?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-will/922113): > > This week, waaaaaaay later than we should have, my husband and I finally saw a lawyer about having wills and powers of attorney drawn up. We’re in our mid-60, and yeah, we should have done this decades ago when our daughter was born. But it’s almost done - we’ll go sign everything in a couple of weeks and that will be that. Actually, it was more than just doing wills - this attorney is also an estate planner, and she offered a lot of good suggestions to make things easier on each other and our … > [@Ideas for a disabled daughter when I am...ahem...no longer around](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-for-a-disabled-daughter-when-i-am-ahem-no-longer-around/928049): > > I am getting older. Not planning on kicking off soon but it probably isn’t more than 15 years off. I also know that internet advice is always suspect but I am really just looking for ideas I might not know about so I can scamper off and explore them in much greater detail. My daughter is high end autistic. If you met her you wouldn’t notice anything wrong right away. If you spent time with her you might get the feeling she is a little ‘off’. However, she will never be able to hold a job an… My wife is a now-retired estate attorney. Simplifying my several contributions to those threads, you don’t “need” to do anything, but you _really, really ought_ to do some planning. But putting that into effect may not be as complex or expensive as what you hear about wills, trusts, etc. By failing to plan you’re deliberately planning to make your kids’ lives harder and more expensive (perhaps vastly more expensive) than need be. It’s a loving gift to not do that out of a childish squeamishness about the reality of eventual death for us all. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-a-living-trust-a-will-both/847247)._