How Does a Will Work?
How Does a Will Work
Whether you are the beloved matriarch or patriarch of your family during the course of your lifetime, one thing is for sure – if you have a good relationship with your family members while you are alive, it is prudent for you to extend that feeling of good will once you are gone.
The time to plan ahead for what will transpire after your demise is now when you have the ability to make your own decisions about how the proceeds of your estate will be allocated. This is not just a matter of ensuring that some of your favorite possessions you’ve acquired during the course of your life do indeed end up in the hands of the person that you promised them to for decades, but, it is a well-meaning gesture that will lighten the load of your family members upon your passing.
Penny wise and pound foolish
Forget about the notions about writing out your will or downloading a “do-it-yourself” will from the internet. While, the former will hold up in court, the latter is a boilerplate form, and what you need, and want, is a document entitled “Last Will and Testaments” that is specifically tailored to your needs, so that everything is taken care of as to the disposal of your assets when the time comes, and to prepare such a document while you are able to set forth those designations.
Not to necessarily thumb your nose at the idea of a handwritten will, of course. You’ve probably smiled over a scene in a movie or a passage in a novel, where a wealthy or elderly person is constantly rewriting their will, adding codicil after codicil, as they find fault with their spouse, or children, or anyone that happens to fall out of favor with them. A codicil is merely an amendment to the original will. A person is allowed to change their mind, of course, and amending the original will with a codicil will do so, and even nullifying the original will and replacing it with an entirely new document frequently happens.
By securing a form will online, you are editing a template created by someone that often may be used in any state in the union, but not necessary in the state in which you reside. Different laws apply for different states. So, after filling in the template with your personal information, you might be congratulating yourself about saving money and time associated with having a professional prepare your will, but there are bound to be questions about whether it was done correctly or not. Also, you should be mindful that state laws change from year to year and your will may one day become invalid.
So, sadly the money you saved by not hiring an attorney to prepare your Last Will and Testament may have saved you a few bucks, but down the road, you may end up paying more out of pocket.
Get a will prepared
Consulting with a family attorney who is familiar with estate planning in New Jersey will give you a professional with expertise to assist you with your estate planning needs. You also will have a Last Will and Testament, prepared in accordance with the state in which you reside, there will be witnesses to attest to your signature, and, lastly, in most cases, the original document will be safely housed at the office of the drafter, your attorney. You will be supplied copies to distribute to your executor, any loved ones as you see fit, as well as a copy for you to put in a safe place, like a safety deposit box.
Meeting of the minds
Before you have your initial consultation with an attorney in conjunction with drafting your will, you might want to gather some background information pertinent to the meeting and the eventual document.
A will is much more than just a designation of the assets you have accumulated in your lifetime and to whom you will bequeath those possessions. For example, you will need to provide your attorney with the name of a trusted person whom you wish to act on your behalf after your demise as your executor or personal representative. This person will wield great power in that they will need to ensure that each and every one of your directives, as delineated in the Last Will and Testament, are done in accordance with your wishes.
The executor or personal representative of your estate has many responsibilities, among them, selling any real estate you have an interest in or pledging it to a designee of your choice, paying any financial obligations such as debts, funeral expenses, taxes and estate administration expenses. This permit your heirs to receive their shares without deductions or complications.
A personal representative, or executor, may also be instrumental, not only in the handling of the financial aspects of your will, but also may be the same person designated by yourself to make all funeral/memorial service arrangements as you may have pre-planned, thus sparing your family the agony of doing these tasks during the initial grieving process.
Besides providing the contact info regarding your personal representative/executor, additionally, you need to compile some lists of various people and organizations who will become the beneficiaries of your estate. You should be prepared to have all pertinent information like account numbers and contact information for each of them. This valuable information will be used to draft a “schedule of assets” and that document will be appended to the will as an exhibit. This information will make the attorney’s job much easier and he or she will be able to prepare a comprehensive document.
It does bear mentioning, however, that while having a will in place is smart, there is also the option to have a trust put into place. While a will is an excellent tool to direct your wishes upon your demise, it sometimes involves a long and protracted probate process and is dragged through the courts becoming a document of public record. If you wish the entire probate process to be expedited, you might consider having a trust put into place – it is a more streamlined process and your estate planning wishes do not become a matter of public record.
A final afterthought
While it is morbid to dwell on the future and your eventual demise, once you’ve prepared these documents and distributed them as suggested above, you can go about your daily life, without fear, knowing that the wishes you made while you were healthy and of sound mind and body will be carried out.
The time to plan ahead for what will transpire after your demise is now when you have the ability to make your own decisions about how the proceeds of your estate will be allocated. This is not just a matter of ensuring that some of your favorite possessions you’ve acquired during the course of your life do indeed end up in the hands of the person that you promised them to for decades, but, it is a well-meaning gesture that will lighten the load of your family members upon your passing.
Penny wise and pound foolish
Forget about the notions about writing out your will or downloading a “do-it-yourself” will from the internet. While, the former will hold up in court, the latter is a boilerplate form, and what you need, and want, is a document entitled “Last Will and Testaments” that is specifically tailored to your needs, so that everything is taken care of as to the disposal of your assets when the time comes, and to prepare such a document while you are able to set forth those designations.
Not to necessarily thumb your nose at the idea of a handwritten will, of course. You’ve probably smiled over a scene in a movie or a passage in a novel, where a wealthy or elderly person is constantly rewriting their will, adding codicil after codicil, as they find fault with their spouse, or children, or anyone that happens to fall out of favor with them. A codicil is merely an amendment to the original will. A person is allowed to change their mind, of course, and amending the original will with a codicil will do so, and even nullifying the original will and replacing it with an entirely new document frequently happens.
By securing a form will online, you are editing a template created by someone that often may be used in any state in the union, but not necessary in the state in which you reside. Different laws apply for different states. So, after filling in the template with your personal information, you might be congratulating yourself about saving money and time associated with having a professional prepare your will, but there are bound to be questions about whether it was done correctly or not. Also, you should be mindful that state laws change from year to year and your will may one day become invalid.
So, sadly the money you saved by not hiring an attorney to prepare your Last Will and Testament may have saved you a few bucks, but down the road, you may end up paying more out of pocket.
Get a will prepared
Consulting with a family attorney who is familiar with estate planning in New Jersey will give you a professional with expertise to assist you with your estate planning needs. You also will have a Last Will and Testament, prepared in accordance with the state in which you reside, there will be witnesses to attest to your signature, and, lastly, in most cases, the original document will be safely housed at the office of the drafter, your attorney. You will be supplied copies to distribute to your executor, any loved ones as you see fit, as well as a copy for you to put in a safe place, like a safety deposit box.
Meeting of the minds
Before you have your initial consultation with an attorney in conjunction with drafting your will, you might want to gather some background information pertinent to the meeting and the eventual document.
A will is much more than just a designation of the assets you have accumulated in your lifetime and to whom you will bequeath those possessions. For example, you will need to provide your attorney with the name of a trusted person whom you wish to act on your behalf after your demise as your executor or personal representative. This person will wield great power in that they will need to ensure that each and every one of your directives, as delineated in the Last Will and Testament, are done in accordance with your wishes.
The executor or personal representative of your estate has many responsibilities, among them, selling any real estate you have an interest in or pledging it to a designee of your choice, paying any financial obligations such as debts, funeral expenses, taxes and estate administration expenses. This permit your heirs to receive their shares without deductions or complications.
A personal representative, or executor, may also be instrumental, not only in the handling of the financial aspects of your will, but also may be the same person designated by yourself to make all funeral/memorial service arrangements as you may have pre-planned, thus sparing your family the agony of doing these tasks during the initial grieving process.
Besides providing the contact info regarding your personal representative/executor, additionally, you need to compile some lists of various people and organizations who will become the beneficiaries of your estate. You should be prepared to have all pertinent information like account numbers and contact information for each of them. This valuable information will be used to draft a “schedule of assets” and that document will be appended to the will as an exhibit. This information will make the attorney’s job much easier and he or she will be able to prepare a comprehensive document.
It does bear mentioning, however, that while having a will in place is smart, there is also the option to have a trust put into place. While a will is an excellent tool to direct your wishes upon your demise, it sometimes involves a long and protracted probate process and is dragged through the courts becoming a document of public record. If you wish the entire probate process to be expedited, you might consider having a trust put into place – it is a more streamlined process and your estate planning wishes do not become a matter of public record.
A final afterthought
While it is morbid to dwell on the future and your eventual demise, once you’ve prepared these documents and distributed them as suggested above, you can go about your daily life, without fear, knowing that the wishes you made while you were healthy and of sound mind and body will be carried out.