WHY PEOPLE WRITE WILLS. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE DIE WITHOUT A WILL? WHO GETS THE LOOT THEN? SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN MAKING A WILL.
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People often asks me if they need a will, or if their parents need a will. What happens if I die without a will? Will the state take all my property? What happens if I made a will twenty years ago and die without updating it? Is it still good?
It is never a bad idea to have a will, even if you have little or nothing to distribute to your heirs when you die. Who knows, maybe you will win the lottery just before you die. But if you die without a will, the state most emphatically does not take your property unless you have no heirs anywhere.. There are probate laws enacted by the legislatures of the states that provide for descent and distribution of the property of a decedent (dead person) who dies “intestate”, i.e., without a will. What those laws provide for is a distribution of the decedent's property in the manner most normal people would distribute their property if they had a will.
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. For example, if a widow dies leaving property, money, things of value, and she has 2 living children and 1 who has died before her, and the one who died had three children. The law would say that the estate is to be divided into three equal shares, one share for each of the two living children and one share to be divided three ways for the three grandchildren. If a man dies leaving a wife and two children, then in my state, the law provides that the wife gets the house for as long as she lives, then it goes to the kids, and she gets thirty per cent of the rest of the estate, with the balance being distributed to the kids. If someone dies who is married but without children, then everything goes to the living spouse.
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What happens if someone dies and they have neither spouse nor children? Well, then descent actually ascends, it goes upward to the living parents of the decedent. But what if the parents are dead? – then it goes laterally, to the brothers and sisters of the decedent. And what happens if the decedent has a million dollar estate, no spouse, no children, and no living parents or brothers and sisters? Well, that's where the proverbial “rich uncle” comes in: it goes to his nieces and nephews.
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Well, of course, you can go on and on this way. But sometimes it happens that someone with money dies and no one knows who his or her heirs are or if there are any. This is where the business of heir hunters come in. There are people who will research the genealogy of such a person, and if they find an heir they will contact them and, for a percentage of the estate, set them on the course of claiming the estate. If a person dies without discernable heirs leaving, say real property, the probate court will cause the property to be sold. The proceeds of the sale together with any other money in the estate will be turned over to the state. But even then, should there be hidden heirs somewhere, they have ten years to claim the estate upon proof of their right.
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People who want their property distributed in a certain way need to have a will. Say a husband and wife who have children. Usually the spouses want everything to go to the other spouse upon their death. Then, whatever is left, to be distributed to the children upon the death of the surviving spouse. You need a will to do that. We call them joint and mutual wills. You cannot make a joint will with two people making the same will. Each spouse has to have a separate will but they can both say the same thing. If I predecease my wife, then everything I have goes to her. If she predeceases me, then everything I have goes to the kids. She writes the same thing about him in her will.
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