Create a FREE Will for Yourself and Your Partner with BMCF's FreeWill!
Thanks to Blue Mountain Community Foundation, you can enjoy free access to FreeWill’s system where you can easily make a will for yourself and your spouse or partner at no cost. You can also make a Financial Power of Attorney and Healthcare Directive (Living Will), if you’d like. All for no cost.
Freewill’s system is simple and quick. You can have a will for yourself in 20 minutes, or can create a username and password, save your progress and come back to it later. Here are a few notes to make it easier for you:
1. If you have a complicated estate, you should hire an attorney to make your will or estate plan. Even if you don’t have a complicated estate, if you have any questions or concerns about the will that Freewill makes for you, you should give your Freewill will to an attorney to review. On the last page of the Freewill system, we have listed local estate planning attorneys and their phone numbers.
2. As you go through Freewill’s system, assuming you’ve used the link above, Freewill will show you a customized page that asks you to donate to the Raise the Blues Campaign. It’s super easy: (1) choose the percentage of your estate, or a fixed dollar amount, that you want to donate to your community; and then (2) use the drop-down menu to choose the Fund that you want to donate to.
3. If you have a spouse or partner with whom you will have mirror wills, then here is an important note here for you. If you don’t have a spouse or partner, then skip this Item 3.
If you have “mirror wills,” it means that you and your partner’s wills each say, “If I die first, I leave all of my assets to my partner. If I die second, I leave all of my assets (which include the assets my partner left to me) to” wherever you are leaving your assets, such as your children or the Raise the Blues Campaign.
If you are in this situation, then follow these instructions. When Freewill first gives you the opportunity to donate to the Raise the Blues Campaign, skip it (when you see the page I described in item 2 above, skip it). This first opportunity is a page titled “Leave a Gift to Blue Mountain Community Foundation.” Do not donate then. Instead, click “no thanks” and go to the next page. On the next page, which is titled “Who should inherit your residual estate when you pass away?”, choose “Only to my spouse.” Then click “Save & Continue.”
The next page is titled “If your spouse does not survive you, to whom should their portion of the estate go?” This is the page where you designate what you are donating to your community, children, and anyone else.
If you are leaving your entire estate to charity, click on “Leave it to charity.” You can then specify the charity beneficiaries. You could leave 100% to a Raise the Blues Fund or a percentage to a Raise the Blues Fund and other percentages to other nonprofits.
Or, if you are leaving some of your assets to your children and some to charity, click on “Create a custom plan.” You can then specify how much goes to each child (or other family member) and how much goes to charity.
Whether you choose “Leave it to charity” or “Create a custom plan,” you will then be able to click on a box that says “Add Charity.” When you click on that “Add Charity” box, you could just start typing “Blue Mountain Community Foundation” in the pop-up window. It will autofill BMCF’s info. BUT be sure to go down to the drop-down menu titled “Where do you want to direct your gift?” and designate the Fund you want your donation to go to. That drop-down menu is where you choose the Columbia County Forever Fund or LaunchNW Scholarship Fund or whatever Fund you’d like. If you want to give to more than one Fund, you can just go through this “Add Charity” process numerous times. If you want to leave assets to a different nonprofit, you’ll need to type in the information for that nonprofit (it won’t autofill for you).
This might sound complicated, but it’s not really! It just takes a lot of words to describe what you’ll see is really a very simple process on Freewill.
4. You are required to have two witnesses see you sign your will and then also sign it. While you are not required to have your will notarized, it is good to have it notarized. You are welcome to sign your will(s) in our BMCF office where we have a notary and staff who are willing to serve as your witnesses.
