How do I know when to Write a Will? Am I too young?

Last year, we commissioned an independent study which showed that only 28% of Americans had a legal, up-to-date Will in place. Even if we took out the under 35’s from this survey, it showed that around two thirds of Americans did not have an up-to-date Will in place. The results clearly showed that most people don’t know when to write a Will, and that there is a common misconception that the best time to write one is later on in life.

When we looked specifically at under 35 year olds, nearly 90 percent of young American adults did not have an up-to-date Will in place!

Why are so many people woefully underprepared for their own death? Well, on a daily basis not many of us like to think about our inevitable demise. Frankly, Its just morbid and something that most of us don’t want to think about. Like going to the dentist or sitting an exam, there are some uncomfortable scenarios that we put off for as long as possible. Writing a Will should not be one of them, but it seems that the thought of going over your possessions and paying a lawyer is just too much effort for most people. Granted, writing a Will isn’t fun and when you’re young there are a million and one exciting things you would rather do but it’s really not such a long and laborious process as you might think. To help you see the benefits of having a Will we have outlined the reasons why you’re (almost) never too young to write one.

When to write a Will? Death comes to us all

You shouldn’t think of writing a Will as a once-in-a-lifetime activity. You do not have to wait for the perfect time when your family and financial situation has permanently settled down. We encourage everybody to write their Will today, and then update it throughout your life as your circumstances change. Continue reading →

How do you name guardians for children? – your Last Will and Testament

Why you should name guardians for children

Many people think the time to make a Will is when they’re old and two steps from the grave. That is not the case. Whenever anyone begins to acquire assets or income, they should think about a Will. On the personal side, whenever anyone becomes a parent, they need to anticipate that they may not survive until the child becomes an adult. It may be unlikely, but having a Will in place provides some insurance, and allows you to name guardians for children.

These are some of the main advantages of having a Will if you have children. If you have children, a Will is a must.

Naming guardians for children.

A guardian of is someone who takes the place of the parent and assumes the responsibility of raising the child until the child reaches the age of majority, typically 18 years of age. Raising the child means caring for their education, attending to all the child’s health issues, Continue reading →

Planned giving: the state of charitable bequests in the US

“A note on Privacy: the protection and security of the documents created on our web site are of critical importance. In particular, we cannot access any information contained in a specific Will, nor can we read a person’s Will. However, we are able to access aggregated data on planned giving from an encrypted database folder that summarizes the number of times particular choices have been made within our service. We cannot connect this information to individual accounts. It is this data that has been mined to provide the information in this post”

Background to our study

At USlegalWills.com, we help thousands of Americans create their Last Will and Testament. A Will contains a lot of important information, such as who will be the guardians of your children and who will receive your house after you pass on, and it can also serve as a great way to give back to the community upon your death. Leaving money or assets to a charity is called “planned giving,” which USlegalWills.com offers for all its Wills. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, in 2015, individual giving, which makes up the vast majority of contributions received by non-profit organizations, “amounted to $258.51 billion in 2014, an increase of 7.1 percent in current dollars from 2013.” Ever since the Great Recession in 2008, “individual giving has been increasing in both current and inflation-adjusted dollars for the last couple years, although it has not recovered to pre-recession levels.”

Actual word cloud from bequests made at USLegalWills.com

With this charitable giving trend on the rise, we were interested in the level of “planned giving” going on in the United States. According to Russell James, the number of people aged 55+ with a charitable estate beneficiary hovers between 5% an 6%.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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

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 →