A satirical website should not be the first place you go to learn how to make a will. However, if you do happen to go to the Onion, you might find that their advice is not actually all that bad.
The satirical magazine and website The Onion is best known to non-readers as a place that writes seemingly real enough sounding fake news stories that have been known to occasionally fool politicians into believing they are real. It is probably not the first place that most people would go to find estate planning advice.
However, the site actually gives good estate planning advice in its satirical article "How To Prepare A Will."
The piece starts with "Come to grips with the fact that you, on an actual day in the ever approaching future, will cease having any experiences or sensations whatsoever and will simply not exist for the rest of eternity." That might be a blunt way to put things, but it is indeed the first step in preparing a will.
You do need to understand that you will not live forever. From that point the piece continues to give good advice for getting a will, including how to determine the distribution of your assets, talking to family, choosing an executor and seeing an attorney.
It even concludes with the important step of having the will notarized.
Although I firmly believe there is existence after physical death and I therefore disagree theologically with its description of death, it is good to come to a realization that we will physically die one day.
The article might be satirical, but it is an accurate, if simplistic, account of how to prepare a will that readers can use to guide them in making decisions and visiting with an estate planning attorney.
Reference: The Onion (May 18, 2016) "How To Prepare A Will."
