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Written by Service Desk

Updated at October 12th, 2024

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Many of my form Q&A tables have a grid type answer at the end that requests information regarding all parties that will be named in a document (i.e., name, address, etc.).  In my estate planning documents, these grid answers are very useful for  trustee designations, for example, as I can simply create a "trustee" linked answer with a dropdown list where the user can select what party or parties will be trustee #1, #2, and so on.  This is also useful when referencing classes of individuals by name, such as children, grandchildren, etc.  To do this, I simply create a "relationship" linked answer that has a dropdown choice list for relationships (i.e., son, daughter, wife, husband, mother, etc.).  

Often, however, I need to reference merely a class of individuals. For a simple example, suppose a client wants to leave his estates to his wife, or to his children if she predeceases him.  I could use another linked answer here, which would give choices such as beneficiary(ies) #1, beneficiary(ies) #2, etc.  However, using a linked answer is not helpful in the case of the contingent bequest to his children, because I do not want  the field in my form to be limited by parties now living (he could have more children).  What I would like is a way to be able to have "children" as an option for my list.  That way, I could still have his spouse as beneficary #1, but have "children," not each of them named individually, as beneficary #2.  In other words, linked answers would only be needed when a beneficary is not part of a class of persons.  

Thinking through the above, I typically write in "children" as a name in my grid of all the parties.  That way, my linked answer for beneficiaries allows me to simply select the class of persons, instead of each one individually.  This is not a great solution because it is not intuitive for someone entering in the form data.  Any ideas on a better way to accomplish this objective?

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