Questiion for other retired military members

[mickeyd]

I need to redo my will, or rather make a codicil to my current will, and have a few additional estate planning questions that I would like to discuss with an attorney. I have used a local lawyer in the past, but I am now wondering if retirees can have access to military lawyers for this purpose?

If anyone out there has had experience in this area, please advise me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yes...the services are available through JAG offices on base. However, note that many JAG attorneys are not licensed in the state in which you may reside, so may not be able to complete forms that conform to a state requirement. While you are active duty, this doesn't matter since any legal documents drawn up will have force of law in all 50 states but when you are retired, those provisions don't count anymore.

Sent via mobile device. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

 

[Eagle43]

Yep. I had financial and medical power of attorney documents prepared plus a will.

Sent from my AT100 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[braumeister]

Yes, the Legal Office (Staff Judge Advocate) at most bases will help you prepare a will. However, you should have your act together before you show up.

Before making an appointment, members should review Will Considerations For Military Families fact sheet and complete a Will Questionnaire located on the Air Force Legal Assistance Website.

At my local base, they say

Wills require two separate appointments. Will preparation is done by appointment only Tuesday and Friday. Will executions are conducted only by appointment on Wednesday. Will preparations may take up to 60 minutes and will executions may take up to 90 minutes.

They will also usually handle Power of Attorney and Notary Public services.

 

[Nords]

I need to redo my will, or rather make a codicil to my current will, and have a few additional estate planning questions that I would like to discuss with an attorney. I have used a local lawyer in the past, but I am now wondering if retirees can have access to military lawyers for this purpose?

Yes, military retirees can use JAGs for legal services if they have the appointments available, but the last time we did our wills with a JAG we were not happy.

They were not knowledgable or experienced enough to advise a couple like us with our net worth, our rental property, and our military pensions.

The first thing they did was give us two lawyers and put us in separate rooms to make sure there was no domestic abuse/coercion. (This quickly fell apart when they asked my spouse for a list of assets and we'd only brought one copy with us.) At first they were surprised at the size of the assets, but then they quickly became concerned that we didn't have enough assets or were underinsured. Um, guys? Yeah, you're lawyers-- not financial advisors.

We got through the process, and it got done right, but it was clear that we were not in an estate-planning office. Next time we're using a local estate-planning lawyer who's comfortable with revocable living trusts. We're going to get referrals from friends who've done RLTs, and we're going to do interviews.