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Marjorie was not a well woman, yet she refused
over and over again to
prepare a Will. She didn't see the point
because, as she repeatedly said, "Jim gets
everything, anyway."
When Marjorie died, her husband, Jim, also
thought he would automatically inherit
everything. He was shocked to discover that according to
the law in his state, he would NOT inherit everything. In fact,
half of his wife's estate was destined by law to
go directly to his wife's daughter by a former
marriage. This, mind you, was the estranged
daughter who no one had seen or heard from for
almost 20 years.
He lost one-half of
Marjorie's
share of their estate simply because she had not prepared a
Will. This loss put him in a precarious
financial position. Without the money from
Marjorie's estate he could not afford to pay for
enough help to stay safely at home. Instead, he had to
sell his home and use that money to pay for care
in an assisted living residence. He loved that
house, where he and Marjorie had lived together
for more than 30 years. To this day I am
convinced that having to sell his home and most
of his possessions almost immediately after
losing Marjorie shortened Jim's life.
Intestacy...(dying
without having made written instructions for the
ownership of your property after your
death)...it sounds like a dirty word, and in
more ways than one it is. Are you - or is
someone you love - still without a Will? Three
out of four adult Americans don't have one, you
know.
Did you know that dying without a will (dying
Intestate) can cause
unbelievable hardship, stress and expense for the people you leave
behind? Now, I'm not too worried about your
unwashed heirs who are waiting with bated breath
for your vast estate. Who I am concerned about
is the spouse of the person who has died - you,
or your spouse, or your widowed parent.
Intestacy laws are the laws used
by the courts of each state to determine who
will become the owner of a deceased person's
money and property if the deceased person did
not provide written instructions (a Last Will
and Testament).
Intestacy laws are not the same
in every state. So if you pass away without a
Will, how your estate is divided depends on
where you reside when you pass away.
It makes no difference whether a
spouse will be financially hurt by a state's
intestacy laws. The Court has no choice but to abide by the
rules when divvying up an estate of someone who
has died without a Will. This often means that
the estate will be liquidated so that it can be
evenly divided up according to the rules.
It means that your black-sheep
brother, who already got "his" inheritance
during his hippie days, will
inherit again. It also means that your great
grandmother's silver probably won't go to you,
even though your parent promised. It's not only
money that can be lost forever.
The only way to protect your
parents, or you and your spouse, from
inadvertently harming each other is to make sure
that each of you has a properly prepared and
signed Will (along with all the other
recommended estate planning documents, of
course).
If you or your parents are
procrastinating, I have discovered a fascinating
tool where you can look up how your state
decrees that an estate must be divided if
someone dies intestate. Take a look at the
intestacy rules for your state...this is
what will happen. Period.
Print the page for your state.
Show it to your spouse or your parent(s). Then
make an appointment with an attorney and get
your Wills done. Please.
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