intestate

Dying without a Will is known as dying intestate. In this case, each State has its own rules for how your estate will be distributed and it is highly unlikely to match your intentions. Contrary to most misconceptions, the estate usually does not automatically pass to your spouse. In general, there is never a good reason for dying without a Will. It takes only about 20 minutes to create your Will, and this saves loved ones a great deal of stress and frustration.

Estate Planning: Best Advice for New Parents

There are around four million births every year in the US. That’s a lot of babies to clothe, feed and diaper change. Becoming a parent is one of the greatest joys in life but it also brings with it a lot of responsibilities.When your child is born you might not think immediately about estate planning, but if you’re smart, you will know that you need to consider this question now! Getting this planning done right away is some of the best advice for new parents that we can give.

Best Advice for New Parents: Estate Planning with Children

Every parent wants to make sure their children are provided for in the event something happens to them while the children are still minors. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives often want to leave some of their assets to young children, too. But good intentions and poor planning often have unintended results. The following points will help guide you through some important steps to ensure careful planning for your estate and children.

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Why you need a Will – and why your excuses make no sense.

It seems that the subject of making a Will is something that most people simply want to avoid as much as possible. Every survey ever done about the topic shows that the majority of adult Americans have not made a Will. We just avoid the subject and dig our heads in the sand. But you need a Will. No matter what your circumstance, you need a Will.

No doubt there are many reasons for the excuses. None of us wants to think about our own mortality. Some people are even superstitious enough to think that making a Will might hasten our own demise. However, even if you do not have a penny to your name, you should make a Will.

A recent article from Porch.com summarized the key reasons for writing a Will and the need for estate planning.

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about making a Will. Here we talk about the confusion that people have about the reality of why you need a Will.

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Notorious Wills of the Rich and Famous

The lifestyles of the rich and famous are endlessly fascinating. Sometimes they become even more fascinating when they are no longer with us. You would think that the privileged among us would have it all sorted out when it comes to estate planning and wills. However, as you will see from these notorious cases, all too often they make huge errors. Here are some stories of the most complicated and prolonged disputes over wills and estates.

Anna Nicole Smith

Last Will and Testament

The ill-fated and rather tragic life of Anna Nicole Smith involves not just one, but two estate disputes. Anna Nicole married J. Howard Marshall in 1994 when he was 89 years old. Anna Nicole, a former Playboy Playmate was just 26 at the time of their marriage. Some saw the 62-year age gap between the couple as an excuse to label the bride a gold digger – you can of course draw your own conclusions! Continue reading →

Are there even fewer Americans without Wills?

A number of surveys over the last few years have reported that anywhere from 55 percent to 64 percent of Americans have not written their Wills. However, one under-reported statistic is the number of people who have their Will in place, but made it so long ago, that it no longer reflects their current circumstance. At USLegalWills.com we wanted to explore the current state of Will writing in the US, and delve deeper into the issue of outdated Wills.

Executive summary

The USLegalWills.com survey was conducted within the United States by Google Consumer Surveys, June 2016, among 2,012 adults aged 18 and older, and has a root square mean error of 1.4%.

Results are weighted by age, gender, and region. For full information on Google Consumer Surveys’ methodology and validity, visit here.

  1. Across all age groups 28.4 percent of Americans had up-to-date Wills. 8.6% had a Will but it was out-of-date. 63% had no Will at all. This means that 71.6 percent of Americans do not have an up-to-date Will.
  2. Even when we focus on Americans over 35, two thirds don’t have an up-to-date Will.
  3. Only half of Americans over the age of 65 have up-to-date Wills in place.
  4. One in six Americans over the age of 65 have a Will that is out of date.
  5. Wealthy Americans are no more likely to have written their Will.
  6. Wealthy Americans are more likely to have an out-of-date Will.

Number of Americans without Wills

Our aggregated numbers show that 71.6 percent of Americans do not have an up-to-date Will. We rarely see the number of out-of-date Wills reported, but it makes a significant difference to the story and clearly demonstrates that there are significant improvements needed in the way that Will writing is presented to Americans.

Wills

We know that everybody needs a Will, and consistently over the years we’ve heard that around two thirds of Americans don’t have their Wills in place, but now knowing that nearly ten percent have an out-of-date Will adds to this concern. Continue reading →

Making a Will; 5 reasons to not procrastinate

Thinking about Making a Will, but not managed to get started? don’t worry, you are not alone. Unfortunately, many people procrastinate the estate planning process for a variety of reasons. People might think that estate planning is complicated, time-consuming, or will cost them hundreds of dollars in fees.

Making a Will

According to a survey by legal insurance firm LawPRO, 56% of Canadian adults do not have a Will, more than half of them because they either don’t know how to get started or think they can’t afford to. The numbers are almost identical south of the border: the American Bar Association cites 55% of American adults as not having a Will or estate plan. Continue reading →