“Do I Need a Will?” Answered!

Video

Hi, it’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law. We’re going back to basics with the most fundamental question of all: Do I need an estate plan? Often phrased: do I need a will?  

The answer is no, you don’t need a will. If you die without an estate plan or you die without a will or anything else there are default rules to determine who gets your property, and that’s called intestate succession. So the state assumes that you want your property to go to your wife, husband, if any. Your children, if any. You know, so there’s a set of rules about who gets what. And they’re the state legislature’s best guess about what most people want. So. You know, you don’t need a will. You can just rely on that.  

The problem is those rules don’t necessarily work like you want. Right? it’s letting the state, instead of you, decide who gets your property. That’s the main reason.  

Some other reasons: you know, if you have a will, you can name the person you want to take care of settling your affairs. If that’s important to you. You can give them powers that makes their job easier to settle your affairs. You can create special instructions for how your property should go to minors, children. You don’t want a child to suddenly get a whole bunch of money. Because they’ll need, you know, someone to hold it in trust for them until they’re 18, and then at 18, how many 18 year olds do you know that you would trust with a large sum of money?  

Even the most basic estate plan, like a will and some of the stuff that goes with it, takes care of those problems.  

And then we will save for another day avoiding probate, right? If you have no plan at all. You’re going to have to do probate. If you’ve got a will, you’ve got more control… You’re still going through probate. So your plan might be more than just a will. 

To sum up, do I need a will? Strictly speaking, no. Is a good idea if you can afford it? Absolutely.  

And for many people even more sophisticated techniques, more than just a will, is gonna be worth the cost too. In terms of avoiding probate. And you know, carrying out your wishes most effectively with least cost, in both time and money, to your beneficiaries.  

At our initial planning meeting, we will talk about your situation and I will recommend to you whatever the best plan for your situation is going to be. So plenty of clients come in to me and say “I need a will” and it’s like, OK, well, probably you need at least a will, but we’ll see if you need something else that’s a better fit for you.  

Book your initial appointment online or give me a call and I look forward to working with you. Thanks for listening today. Bye!