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?
Comments
3 comments
Thanks for the thorough description, Paul -- I see just what you're after. I think the approach in the attached sample will work well for you. It asks the form user to answer one of two questions, depending on whether they want to specify a class or a list of beneficiaries. Then conditions in the form check to see which of the two answers was answered, and fill in the appropriate information. Let me know if this raises any more questions.
Beneficiaries as class or list.docx
Scott,
Thanks for the example. Can you think of a way to allow me to choose between both in one answer? In other words, to make the table have a choice (or linked) answer that allows you to select between the BeneClass and the BeneList? So, the dropdown would show my children, my grandchildren, my descendants and John Doe and Mary Doe? I will show you an example of the - rather imperfect - workaround that I came up with when I am somewhere with access to my forms.
Unfortunately, no. Dropdown boxes in smart answers are only able to pull their choices from a single source (a master list, another question, or a custom set of choices). So you either need to ask two questions, like I did in the above sample; or else "fudge" the answer that's being used as the source, the way you described your work-around in the original post. Those are the only ways I can think of to present the form user with two types of response -- either choose one of these people, or choose one of these groups. But I'll look at your sample when you post it, and maybe that will spark an idea.
Please sign in to leave a comment.