It avoids probate and expenses aside, probate can be slow. I know a non-wealthy, non-contentious family that is still winding there way through it (in CA) over a year later due to assorted court delays. Trusts are also more private, which some folk prefer (personally, I wouldn’t really care about that part). Every single person I know that has gone through both in CA has recommended trusts and none of them are rich .
Obviously your mileage may vary - I haven’t had to deal with either. Yet. My mother died intestate a year or so ago, but she died fairly poor. So simple lack of significant assets meant I was able to dodge the probate process entirely.
Our wills are straightforward. Behests are expressed as percentages. We used the same numbers and the same beneficiaries. When one of us dies, the other has an option to switch to a trust administered by a younger relative, but may also decline it. I assume after one of us dies, the other will quickly rewrite her will if that’s feasible (e.g., not in a coma after the accident).
ETA: our wording is specific because even though we’re married, we don’t know if SCOTUS might decide to void same-sex marriages. We have named each other for survivorship on all of our assets as well.
Pretty basic. Everything goes to the spouse. When we both croak, not having children, nieces and nephews on both sides of the family get a pittance, the rest going to charities that we support.
I’ll admit I don’t have a will. I don’t have a spouse or kids. I assume my mother or brother would get everything (house) if I pre-decease them. I do have a Vanguard account that I just recently set to have my brother as the beneficiary and my two nieces as 50/50 beneficiaries if he isn’t around.
I’m good with the default, for now. If things change in the future with my SO I might draw something up so that he gets something but right now I want my brother to have everything.
If you die without a will, your assets will be distributed according to the Intestate Succession rules of your state. Do a search for " Intestate Succession yourstate" and you’ll see what the rules are. It might be something like “Half goes to parents and half is split equally among siblings”.
I admit that I don’t have a will. Part of it is that I have a very simple situation. My wife and I have three adult children and that’s about it. If I pass, I assume that my wife would get everything. Which isn’t a lot anyway.
But part of it is that I don’t want to think about death and dying.
Same here… but now the OP has me thinking about fun little weirdnesses I could throw in (but, to be honest, I’d mostly be doing it to surprise my family… "When was Dad ever proclaimed Exalted Vizier of the Knights of The Order of The Greenish Gryphon?")
What I tell my clients is that a will really comes in handy when people don’t die in the order you expect them to. I advise including several layers of contingencies to take care of unexpected events. You don’t want to have to go change your will every time something unexpected happens. And as you get older, this may become more difficult.
We have wills and a trust, as we live in California. All our parents are dead, neither of us have kids, and only I have a couple of (estranged) siblings. All our assets go to the surviving spouse, and if both of us kick, it goes to my siblings, equally divided. If both siblings are dead at the time, then it goes to the local pug rescue society.
We haven’t changed the wills and trust since we drew it all up twelve years ago, because nothing in our situations has changed. We still live in the same house and still have the same assets.
I have one complication that I need to put in. I want to leave a few thousand (like 10K) to my granddaughter through life insurance that can only be used for a down payment on a house or put into a retirement fund. I know I’ll need to talk to someone on how to do that.
Are you perhaps mixing up a will with making someone a joint owner/beneficiary of financial accounts ?
I’ve never heard of SS numbers being needed for a will but I 've needed them to add beneficiaries to bank accounts and retirement accounts.
You can’t really assume your spouse gets everything. In my state, the spouse gets $50K and half of the rest of the estate. The children get the other half. And then there is the question of what is actually part of the estate - in my case, very little if my husband survives me (or vice versa ) as most of the bank accounts are either joint or have named beneficiaries and we own the house as tenants by the entirety.
Provided the sums for each person are equal, one possible way to handle these kinds of distributions would be to setup a funded account and list the people as beneficiaries. This would give you a lot of control and flexibility compared to listing them in the will. You could easily add or remove beneficiaries at any time, as well as control how much is in the account. Just be sure to pay attention to how the account handles multiple beneficiaries. One way is that the money is divided equally (what you’d want), while another way is that each beneficiary is a backup. With backup beneficiaries, the total amount goes to the first person in the list who is still alive (the other beneficiaries are backups). Sometimes accounts will allow you to have unequal percentages if you want certain beneficiaries to get more than others, but the most common way is an equal division. Using beneficiaries could be a simple way to accomplish what you want and allow you to retain a lot of control and flexibility.
I’ve never seen social security numbers used in a will. But you do want to ensure that any beneficiary is completely and unambiguously identified. Say you wanted to leave you sister, Jane Doe, $100. Don’t just say “Jane Doe” and assume that everyone will know who you are talking about. At least say “my sister, Jane Penelope Doe.” Otherwise, your second cousin you never met, Jane Doe, might claim you meant her.
Wow about the comments on estate (inheritance) taxes. I’m happy to say that there is no inheritance tax in Canada and I fully agree with that principle. There is also no tax on any amount of capital gains on the sale of a primary residence.
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