I don't know much about wills.

That’s my problem too and I’m too cheap to appoint an attorney as my executor.

I’ve taken care of the bulk of my estate by naming beneficiaries on bank, brokerage accounts, etc…

There is still a residual estate that should be mopped up but if I can’t find someone to take on the task the world will keep spinning.

My larger concern is someone to represent me and handle my affairs while I’m still alive but it will work itself out, things always work themselves out. 🤷‍♀️
 
I recently dealt with being the Representative of my late mother's estate (here in SC)
and I was astonished at how complicated things were for navigating a resolve for her "simple will".
It was fairly straight forward, and she had explained how she wanted things to go.

I would encourage anyone who wants a straight-forward resolution to their estate that doesn't burden
the beneficiaries with a complicated mess, to really dig in to educating themselves on the estate laws of
their particular state, or states if assets and beneficiaries are located in multiple states.

I can guarantee you that the "laws" will complicate things!

It took me 6 years to get to the point where it's pretty much over... but it's not quite done... there's some
"finalization" documents to be done. And again, I stress that it was a simple, straight-forward Will and I've
heard of people dealing with much, much worse
 

My mom left her home to my brother. He earned it, he took care of my mom for years. But it sat vacant for years. It would still be vacant if someone didn't initiate and pursue the sale. So, he's not good with legal stuff.
I'm not sure about an executer, too.
 
You can pass about everything by Transfer on death (TOD) or Paid on death (POD) designations, that includes most financial assets and material assets like home or property. That process bypasses probate but a death certificate will still be needed before any transfers can be done.

States and countries may vary on the laws so do your research.
 
In my area, an estate attorney charges about $1000 to $1500 to set up a simple trust, where you can designate your executors and beneficiaries, and power of attorney (for financial and medical). You can ask the attorney to be your executor(fee will be paid by your estate after you pass). You file the trust with your financial institution and the local real estate property authority.
A trust is better than a will because a trust doesn't require a probate process which can take months or years to go through.
I am leaving all my asset to charity and have set up my trust as such.
The only problem I have now is the "healthcare power of attorney ". I don't have families or close friends, so I have no one to be the decision maker when it's time to pull the plug.
 
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Echoing what Ted01 said, and a sad story:
A friend of ours said he had "done his will" - which he had. Except he didn't get it witnessed, as it turned out.

He had a severe car accident and became permanently disabled. During his long convalescence - fortunately he was a ex-Vietnam vet and could get full care at a VA facility - because his will was invalid*, his sister flew in from another state, had herself named executor (no other family living), sold his house, car, and belongings, transferred all the funds to herself and left him being cared for by the government.

*essentially, the same as if there were assets not designated to anyone

All perfectly legal, btw.

An estate with assets that does not have a will or trust is subject to inheritance as defined by your state.
This means the state has determined in what order your beneficiaries will inherit - which may not be what YOU wanted. Maybe you were thinking of leaving something to a nephew, or a cousin in need; but instead, state law might read: "if no spouse, then siblings in order by age", even if you had no intention of leaving your assets to someone who might be doing well enough that you feel they don't need your estate.

Moral is: always know your state laws of inheritance. If you don't want to use a lawyer for an executor, talk to your bank to see if they have a fiduciary investment arm that can oversee estates - although an attorney would probably be cheaper. It is almost always better to use someone locally based, rather than out of state.

And if you are doing your will or trust, make sure you have your Healthcare Power of Attorney and Financial Power of Attorney completed as well! Whoever you designate as your HPoA, will also need a copy to keep in case of emergency.
 
Aunt Bea said:
That’s my problem too and I’m too cheap to appoint an attorney as my executor.

I’ve taken care of the bulk of my estate by naming beneficiaries on bank, brokerage accounts, etc…

There is still a residual estate that should be mopped up but if I can’t find someone to take on the task the world will keep spinning.

My larger concern is someone to represent me and handle my affairs while I’m still alive but it will work itself out, things always work themselves out. 🤷‍♀️
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Would be ever so happy to help, ya know for the usual 8% commission!!! And that's the SF discount rate too.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I don’t think appointing an attorney that gets paid by the hour, to be your executor is a good idea.
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Again - know your state laws. Many states cap the fees on wills & trusts. Some base it on a percentage of the estate's value, some base it on hourly rates. If you don't have a large estate, you could be looking at a few hundred dollars.

Even in CA, an extremely expensive state, a $1M estate on average is only about $23K in fees. If the estate is only worth $100K, the fee is about $4K (in CA it's set at percentages based on gross estate worth, rising in tiered levels).

Fees are paid as a flat fee, or as specified in the trust, or as conforming to state laws. If a beneficiary feels unsatisfied with the quality of the work or the billing, they can challenge it in court. All fiduciaries must be bonded.

Look at it from a professional's POV. The more time spent on an estate, especially a modest one, the less time there is to take care of a truly complex estate worth millions.

I work on the premise that if I'm dead, as long as the estate is handled in a professional manner in accordance with my Trust, that's all I want. If my niece (our successor trustee) cannot for any reason, take on the administrative duties as Successor Trustee, she and her brother acting jointly, assuming both are alive and available, are instructed to select a professional fiduciary to take charge and disburse the estate.
 
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Maybe print out a living Trust, you will fill it out and have a couple of witnesses to sign with you.
Actually, the more witness signatures the more power to the judge in court cause it usually
ends there anyway..

It remains adjustable with changes you can make to it with only small costs of Courthouse
costs in some states.
 
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1. Ditto know your state laws.

2. You need to appoint a POA (Power of Attorney) NOW. A person or persons that your trust.

My brother is my primary POA but lives out of state. The back up POA to tell him”the straight skinny “ is my insurance agent. She has not only been my insurance agent for 20 years, I worked for her part-time until my trauma injuries got so bad I couldn’t work anymore.

2.1. Husband and I signed the wealth literally days ahead of his passing. We cut out people we did not want to inherit anything. For example, when I cut my stepbrother, who is a loser out of the Will, I made sure to say, and his ears and assigns.

verbiage is everything as you would be surprised the loopholes that can be found to get around things if the inheritance amounts to anything.

3. I did my best to make sure the Will is sewn up tighter than a pair of nuns underwear, as that old saying goes.

I have provisions in it for my dogs and my horse in case I pass on ahead of them. I don’t want my horse going down the road on a slaughter truck and I don’t want my dogs getting dumped off along the road.

4. Yes, it can be costly, but it could be a lot more costly if the Will isn’t sewn up & notarized and the state takes everything before the people that you want to have anything get it.

In my case, we went to a family law practice and the very Christian attorney (his father is a Baptist minister) Only charged $500. I thought that was about as reasonable as it gets in today’s world for the detailed disbursal we were asking.

******

to reiterate, the POA, power of attorney, is crucial in case you do slip and fall or have an accident and end up in a mental state to where you are not capable of making your own decisions.

there has to be at least one person in your lifetime that you trust to be that person, regardless of where they live.
 
Laws regulating probate fees vary by state. In Texas, they are capped at 5% of the estate's value. I just did a quick check and found that Pennsylvania has a similar cap ranging from 3-7%. Attorney's fees are separate.

When my wife died, we had wills made out to each other. It was a simple and straightforward process; I was the Executor of her will, no one contested that, and as best I recall, all fees including the attorney did not exceed $1200. But that's no indication of what the fees may be in your case, since that was several years ago, plus the fact that probate is usually simpler and less expensive when the deceased and surviving spouses hold assets jointly.

My cousin, who is informed in business matters, will be Executor and sole beneficiary of my will, and it is highly unlikely anyone will contest his management, so unless something unforeseen happens, he should not be burdened with unreasonable expenses. Plus, since he is already POD on certain bank accounts, those accounts will not go through probate.

If your brother "is not great with details,", then maybe you could consider appointing your nephew as Executor. [?]

You mentioned your will needs updating. I assume you're having an attorney do that for you, so he's the one to ask for direction regarding appointment of your Executor. I can't imagine a reputable attorney drawing up a will and not naming an Executor, even though such a will may still be legally valid. If no Executor is named, then a court appointed administrator will manage the disposition of your estate, which is not likely to work out favorably to your heirs.

Other members have posted alternate options, but if your intentions are to stay with a will only, those are my thoughts.
 
nothing is ever a problem when you do a will that isn’t done right .

its only a major problem for your heirs when it strikes .

in my life time i had two different wills in my life that i ran in to problems with .

the people did them wanted cheap so they got a general practitioner and not a skilled estate attorney to do them .

well we went to refinance an inherited house and we were closing at the same time on a investment property

we got right up to the end and the title company asked to see the will .

well they read it and stopped the closing.

why , because it said to my child beth i leave my house and possesions.

it did not say my only child .

we had to get affidavits from relatives that she was an only child .

we had to pay the bank attorney , the attorney for the property we were buying and the title company .

plus lost our interest rate on what we were buying.

an experienced attorney knows he has to be very specific
 
Didn't know much about wills either but as time passed & our lives became easier we looked into an estate planning law firm. Free consultation to discuss our goal of leaving our sons less grief in getting their inheritance.

So now we have a certificate of trust, general power of attorney, durable power of attorney for health care decisions, last will & testament all in place. We have a named exector, contingent exector & all distributions 100% defined. We also have a trust in place with Fidelity so that a seamless transfer of assets will be accomplished in a minamal amount of time.

End result. Our sons will avoid probate & all costs & delays normally associated with probate court. All cost paid for by my wife & me & to be honest the cost wasn't very much considering the complete package for our estate planning.

I think it's a kindness to take the time to have everything in place.
 
A Living Trust and a Last Will are both documents that control the distribution of your assets and property. However, a Living Trust does not need to go through probate, which can lower the cost and time it takes to distribute your assets after death.
 
i was told by a lawyer since i don't own anything that i had no need of a will. so i guess if i die my crap will get hauled off to the dump. maybe my landlord will sell what he can and keep it for himself. i have nobody to leave anything to and no executor so i guess whatever happens just happens. i will be dead so i won't really care. ;)
 
Fritz said:
i was told by a lawyer since i don't own anything that i had no need of a will. so i guess if i die my crap will get hauled off to the dump. maybe my landlord will sell what he can and keep it for himself. i have nobody to leave anything to and no executor so i guess whatever happens just happens. i will be dead so i won't really care. ;)
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get a new lawyer because he is so wrong .

many times estates end up with money where there was no money because your death was the result of an accident , a wrongful death suit , malpractice suit , etc
 
papa tiger said:
A Living Trust and a Last Will are both documents that control the distribution of your assets and property. However, a Living Trust does not need to go through probate, which can lower the cost and time it takes to distribute your assets after death.
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however , in many states a house placed in a living trust becomes an unprotected asset. if medicaid is needed .

a house placed in any kind of revocable trust has its value counted towards the asset spend down. if medicaid is needed for long term care .

in personal name most states don’t count it .

so what happens is the house has to be sold and the money spent down on care before you can qualify for medicaid.

this is why it’s important to get a good estate attorney and not some canned forms off the internet
 
the other issue we had with defective documents was extremely costly.

my wife’s first husband had died and his family owned a construction business .

her husband had two estranged children who never had anything to do with their grandparents so they were specifically mentioned by name in their grandparents will and trust to get nothing .

so when my wife’s husbands dad died everything went to his mom .

his mom was still alive when he died .


so with that in mind , when his mom died everything was supposed to go to my wife and her brother in law .

the step children were clearly written out .

well fast forward to when the courts got the documents to transfer everything .

the judge tells my wife there is a problem. there are no provisions in the will for her deceased husband to predecease his mother .


he said it is clear those step children were to get nothing but i the court can’t add the missing verbiage and i can’t rewrite history.

so they had to notify the step children that even though their grandfather ruled them out the paperwork might be defective and if the court decides to not use it then their fathers will be used which called for all his children to get equal shares .


the court advised my wife to reach a settlement with the step kids to buy them out of the business as if he ruled. that the paper work is defective she may get nothing .


so we had to buy them out for multiple 6 figures .

when we shopped for our own attorney i bright that document to see if he could spot what was wrong .

he read it and immediately said there is nothing in it for predeceasing .


so get a good estate attorney because it can be a minefield
 

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