That is, your last will and testament: is it a plain-vanilla, “I leave all to my wife and kiddies, (plus a lot of legal mumbo jumbo)” or do you have any fancy complications in there?
I’m making (revising) mine now, and am considering leaving, for example, small (under $50,000) sums to some of my younger friends who will be pleased and surprised to find themselves remembered in this way. Also thinking about various charities I’ve supported (in my mind, not so much with actual money), plus my college (which gave me a generous scholarship when I was a weird kid without much money, although they are among the most well-endowed in the galaxy so what’s the point? They ain’t naming a building after me no matter if I leave them the whole shebang).
I’m thinking of adding a lot of this stuff to my will, but I’m wondering if it’s worth the trouble, and if this is just more procrastination. I’ve been putting off this revision for nearly a decade now but I’ve paid a lawyer to revise it and he’s sent me a draft that’s pretty much plain-vanilla. I’m considering complicating it a bit.
Plain vanilla here. Everything to my wife as primary, split between the kids as secondary beneficiaries. We created the wills when my oldest was a toddler, before kid #2 came along. If it’s left to the kids, my brother is trustee with tranches made available until they get it all at 30.
In addition to being assigned to a judge for a time who handled Probate Court and then having worked for an estate planning law firm for a couple of years, I learned a few things:
It’s not what you say you’re going to do. It’s what you actually do. Courts look to what you took the trouble to write down and don’t go against that. So make sure that if intestate succession doesn’t work in a way that satisfies your wishes, put it in writing and make sure someone has a copy. Then keep it current!
Attorneys love trusts. Not because they are particularly useful, but people regularly forget to update them, so they don’t avoid going to court and they end up incurring lots more legal fees to unsnarl the mess. Most people don’t need trusts unless they have a lot. A. Lot. of money and/or assets.
If your family situation is not usual, a will becomes a very important thing to create and maintain.
Trying to control your wealth beyond the grave is a fool’s errand. At most, impose some age attainment requirements (“funds to be held in trust until said minor child attains the age of 32 years,” etc.).
My own will is as simple as it gets. All items of property to be sold and disposed of as my executor sees fit, nominal compensation for executor, proceeds divided equally after all debts are satisfied and taxes paid, then distributed.
Special bequests re personal property (guitars, jewelry, e.g.) are written out as an addendum to the will. Sealed copy given to the executor with written instructions on how to locate the original document along with specific account information, contact information for beneficiaries and such. I review and update every couple of years.
More straightforward than it used to be. And it is less the will, than the terms of the trust. In California nearly everyone with any money has a trust.
When the kids were relatively little the trust doled out money to them, after education expenses and the like, in increments based on age, so that if they screwed up and spent one allotment they’d get more. Now they are both successfully out there on their own and well over the age where they got everything, so the trust is mostly for the grandchildren.
The only odd things are my science fiction books, which I originally was going to donate the the MIT Science Fiction Society with the express stipulation that they could sell any or all of them, but given that they have no room I’ve changed it so they can be sold as part of my estate.
I assume this advice largely relates to more complicated wills? (I’m assuming none of the beneficiaries predecease me - and even then, from memory it was written in such a way that if one did, then inheritance just passes on to the next in line).
Not really! Even simple wills may require updating based on changes in real and personal property, money accounts, beneficiaries, moving, etc. People divorce, remarry, have more kids or die. Or maybe your personal circumstances change and funds you had hoped you could leave to your heirs have instead become necessary for your own care. It never hurts to review every year or so and make changes accordingly.
ETA: Of course, I say this as a paralegal who writes my own wills, so I don’t have an associated expense with doing it. For some, this may be a consideration. But even if you spend $$$ to maintain, it’s still a lot less than your heirs may spend to battle out an unclear clause in court.
IMHO, you really don’t gain anything by having a trust except extra headaches and complications for having a trust if you have less wealth than is affected by federal estate taxes.
This of course excludes situations where you’re needing to provide for a family member who will never be self-reliant and will require trust administration to make sure they are cared for after your death.
And as I always say, IANAL and my views are always subject to further commentary by attorneys who know their onions in this area.
Again from memory, nothing of the inheritance is specified (though you’re making me wonder…).
It literally goes (paraphrasing) All to wife. If she’s dead, all to Trep jr. If he’s dead too (hmmmm - I really need to check if it references any future children of his) next relative in line; and so on.
Maybe this is unusually simple as the family is very small.
My family is very small, too – I don’t even have a spouse or kids!
Your will follows intestate succession as it goes in many (most? all?) states: First to spouse, then to kids. Your complications could arise from things like prior spouses (if any) named as life insurance beneficiaries.
People are frightened of the probate process because they think it’s going to impose additional expenses on them. It can in some cases, but it’s mostly an accounting function. The courts ensure that debts and taxes of the estate are paid first, then assets distributed. That’s really about it.
The important thing is to make sure your wishes are crystal clear to avoid heirs fighting over what you’re leaving them. The simpler the better.
If you and your spouse are on your original marriage and your children are yours only, you probably don’t even need a will. As always, I’m not giving legal advice. But if you’re comforted by making one (as I am!), you can just do a web search for your state and do-it-yourself wills. You’ll find a ton of templates.
What state are you in? In New Jersey, we did not have a trust, in fact no one we knew had one. In California, probate court is expensive and complicated and takes forever, and we have trusts to avoid it.
California is where I worked as a judge’s assistant and a paralegal for the estate planning firm, so I understand what you’re saying. But probate isn’t nearly as expensive as trusts where people regularly forget to put property in or take it out before they die. Yikes, that can leave an expensive mess!
I’m in Oregon now, and the whole process is so much simpler! When my husband died, nothing had to go through probate. Boy, was I happy about that! Our wills were well written and property held with rights of automatic inheritance, so no hoops to jump through in court. That works in Oregon. California requires probate no matter what.
I’m widowed with no children, so when I finally got around to writing my will I left everything to a friend, who is also executor of my estate. I had previously discussed this with my family (brothers and a sister) and they all agreed that it’s my stuff and I can do what I want with it, and none of them feel that they have any claim to my house, property, or money. (I do have a niece who is lusting after my library, and I’m probably going to leave separate instructions that she be given a chance to go through it to select anything she wants. Due to the distances involved, however, this may be tricky.)
I should have specified UK, but I think the same is true here.
No prior spouses, no life insurance. As a quick aside, we recently got my entire relevant family in a photo for the first time - five blood relatives, five spouses (all of which are first/only spouses)…
We recently (finally) made our wills. One thing I learned while so doing is that it is far better to donate a percentage of the liquidated assets to your charities than a lump sum, because you have no idea how much money you’ll have at the end.
My aunt’s will blew my family of origin apart for decades, because she really wanted to leave her real property to my oldest sister, who was caring for her, and nothing to my sister’s spouse, whom she loathed. It involved a complicated trust and other really unworkable strategies that pitted all the sisters against each other, and brought up some secret but passionate resentments which dated to childhood. Because of what my youngest sister did, I have not spoken to her for fifteen years, and won’t in this life, unless she shows any sign of self-awareness let alone remorse (still waiting).
Don’t be my aunt.
edited to add: In case you think I’m stone-hearted, I might mention that any time we get beyond small talk, she starts screaming at me. That’s what I’m avoiding.