Let’s face it, baby boomers, you’re not going to live forever; you need a will.

Even as boomers feel pressure to pay college tuition, mortgages, auto loans and stash money away for retirement, they are collectively a very rich group of people.

"A boomer working a job his whole life may have $600,000 in pension, $250,000 of value in a house and all of sudden you realize -- we're worth $800,000. There's real wealth to pass on. Because of how complex today's tax and legal codes are, they need a good attorney," said financial advisor Jon Kubler.

Research from Ohio State University showed that boomers have a median net worth 84 percent higher than their parents at the same age, and that their wealth continues to accumulate even after they reach and pass retirement age.

The Review of Income and Wealth found that "the typical baby boomer's wealth holdings increase by more than $2,000 a year."

That means creating a comprehensive wealth protection plan makes sense. That should include a realistic retirement budget and a plan to pass on whatever's left to your next-of-kin.

"You can never be hurt by having a will, but you can be hurt by not having a will," said estate planner Nathaniel Clement. "So don't take the chance."

First, get your investments straight. This year's economic downturn has a lot of people thinking about ditching their IRAs and 401(k)s. Director of financial and estate planning for Calibre Lisa R. Featherngill said stocks could close the year down 25 percent from Jan. 1. But that's not a reason to sell them now. Instead, recalibrate.

"You want to be diversified, not just across asset classes, but also in cash, and (don't be) too reliant on one significant holding," Featherngill said.

Many experts said now might be a good time to go bargain-hunting and consider increasing the amount taken out of your paycheck and put in your 401(k).

"If you can increase your contribution amount to your 401(k) right now, you should probably do so," Morningstar fund analyst Christopher Davis told The Salt Lake Tribune. "When soda's on sale, people will buy more cases of it. It makes sense to do the same thing in the stock market."

An analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that IRAs are likely to be the largest non-Social Security asset in retirement for many Americans in the next generation of retirees, and that those holdings rose 12.5 percent in 2007 alone.

Only after retirement and health-care expenses are determined should a boomer start to think about setting out a will to hand wealth to their children.

"Figure out how to take care of us first," Kubler said. "Don't leave money to the kids and assure your own self-destruction living off Ramen noodles and Social Security."

Estate planner Clement said that's his advice to every client – plan for yourself first and worry about your children's inheritance second.

For between $800 and $2,000, Clement said, a lawyer can help a couple build a will that protects their wealth from liability claims and health-care bills while they're alive, then hands that protected wealth to their children when they die. He said the way to do that is use a trust that provides five personal protections:

1. Lawsuit protection, which protects a child's interest in the estate if that child is later sued.
2. Catastrophic health care protection, which guards the beneficiary’s wealth from being used to pay for huge medical bills.
3. Remarriage protection, so that the surviving spouse can remarry and the children will not lose their future inheritance to the new spouse.
4. Divorce protections for the children, so that a child who inherits can’t later lose her inheritance in a divorce action.
5. Values protection, which allows mom or dad, when they pass wealth to children, to also pass on the parents’ value system.

Clement started using his law degree to help people with estate planning at just about the point in his life where he needed to get his own affairs in order. At 63, Clement has been a full-time estate planner in Chapel Hill for 15 years after leaving a job as a corporate attorney. He has two stepsons, along with his wife, Starla. For his own family's protections, Clement said he's making his children read the two books he thinks will most prepare them to manage the family's wealth once they own it: "The Millionaire Next Door" and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad."

"I have a client that wrote those titles into children’s trusts as a condition for receiving benefits," Clement said. “This is an example of passing on one’s value system.”

Clement himself has an umbrella liability insurance policy on his property; he has a trust for his wife and children that provides for all five personal protections and he has enough life insurance to maintain his family's current standard of living if he dies tomorrow. He also set up a limited liability company to protect his and his wife's personal assets from lawsuits.

"An LLC is not perfect asset protection, but it makes it tough to get to my brokerage account," he said.