Importance of Wills

Importance of Wills

What is a Will?

Wills are legal documents that dictate how your assets should be distributed after you die. Wills have been around for centuries, with the oldest discovered being written in Israel 4,000 years ago. However, wills don’t tell people everything they need to know about how their life should end up. That’s why knowing why you need a will is important so that you can make better choices about how you want your money, possessions and relationships handled after you die.

Why Are Wills Important?

Wills ensure that our loved ones are provided for if we cannot cover their living expenses following our death. So what happens if you fail to make a will? In some states, a person who dies without a valid will can leave all or part of their estate to their spouse and/or children. This could cause problems because the spouse or children may dislike the terms set forth in the will. Instead of allowing these terms to stand, they may challenge the validity of the will after your death.

When you’re considering making a will, it’s important to understand why wills are essential. When it comes to estate planning, one of the primary reasons why wills underlie the process is because of their ability to help ensure the wishes expressed in them are carried out when you pass away. In fact, most of us have plenty of legal concerns about leaving our property and belongings to our families we care about.

Since wills are legal documents that dictate how your assets should be distributed after you die, iIf you don’t prepare a will, it’s possible that your property could be distributed in an unfair or unbalanced way. You may also leave out important details about the distribution of your assets.

To prepare a will, you need to understand your own situation and make sure you’ve thought through all the details of what you want to happen with your property after death. There are several ways to do this:

• Check out your local probate office or call them on the phone to get advice about what they can help with;
• Contact an experienced agency like Trustmasters;
• Talk directly to family members who might inherit some of your estate;
• Read up on wills and learn more about them

Wills vs. Living Trusts – Which One Do You Need?

For those that don’t own a home, and have assets totaling under $25,000, we can help you with your will document preparation. However, if you do have these assets, what you need is a living trust. You can learn more about our living trust document preparation here.

Regardless of the type of will, it must be prepared with the help of an attorney who understands state laws regarding wills. This is because each state has its own set of rules about how people can create a valid will.

When creating your will, it is important to consider whether you want to leave your property to specific individuals or simply have it go to a single person named in the document. You may also want to leave specific instructions about what should happen if something unexpected happens such as an injury or death before you die (for example, if someone else dies first). Your attorney can help you decide what kind of estate planning options make sense for your situation by talking with you about how much property you have and how much time remains before death so that we can determine what type of distribution would work best for all involved parties involved.

As mentioned above, living trusts are similar to a last will and testament. In both, you can state who you want to receive your property after you die.

The biggest benefits of a living trust over relying solely on a will is that living trusts:

• Don’t have to go through the lengthy, expensive probate process
• Protect your heirs’ privacy as probate proceedings are public, while trust proceedings typically are not
• Can be created with your spouse or partner as a “joint living trust,” so you can protect each other as well as your children or other beneficiaries
• The biggest disadvantage of living trusts is that they need ongoing work and maintenance to be effective. Whenever you acquire new property, you will need to buy it in the name of the trust or transfer it into the trust later.

Even if you have a living trust, you should still make a will. Most property you own that you didn’t put into your trust before death will go through probate. So having a will in place can help with this process. Without a will, the courts will distribute the property that’s not in your trust according to local intestacy laws, which may not be what you want.

A common estate planning strategy is to create a “pour-over will” alongside a living trust. This is a will that names the trustee of living trust as your sole beneficiary. Then, any property not in the trust at the time of your death will be transferred to the trust, where it will be distributed according to the Declaration of Trust.

Two Types of Wills

Wills are legal documents that outline the instructions for the distribution of your property after you die. They allow you to leave your property to whomever you wish, whether it’s a spouse, child, or other relative.

There are two types of wills

1) The first type is called a “testamentary will.” This type of will is created when you are still alive and can make any changes that you want to your will. For example, if you have children and grandchildren who might deserve some money from your estate, then you can include them in the will so that they receive the money when you die.

2) The second type is called an “intestate” will. This type of will does not require any action on your part; instead, it just happens automatically once you’ve passed away at which point your estate goes through probate (the court-supervised process by which your assets are distributed according to state law).

Wills and Living Trusts Are Important For your End of Life

Finally, to ensure that your wishes are honored and your property is protected, you should make a will. A will is a document in which you clearly express your wishes regarding the disposition of your assets after your death. Wills are essential because they provide an orderly means of ensuring that the terms of your will are carried out precisely. After all, without a will, the court must determine who inherits your property and can do so in any manner they choose. So consider a will to be one more tool in the box that helps you to manage both risk and opport unity.

It might not be an event any of us look forward to, but arranging a will is one of the most important things that we can do. For people who don’t prepare properly, the results can be devastating not just for them, but for the people they leave behind. Writing a will can be complicated and it’s always wise to seek professional advice, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. The most important thing we can take away from this is that getting something in writing is vital, because without it we could lose our options—something that none of us would want to happen.

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