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If you are an adult reading this, and you haven’t yet heard it from somebody already, let me be the first to tell you. You need to set up a will. Far too many people think that setting up a will is for those who are of retirement age, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In this article, I want to discuss why it is important to set up a will right now, regardless of your age. I will also touch on what it entails, and how to go about it. Before we get into that however, let’s talk about what happens when somebody passes away.
When somebody dies without a will, the distribution of their belongings is left to chance. Unfortunately, when you die, you no longer get a say in who your assets go to. You no longer get to decide how your affairs get handled. If you decide against taking charge while you can, it could leave your family with a significant mess on their hands. While I always strive to be an optimist, the reality is – none of us know when we will die. And as much as I hate to say it, none of us are guaranteed to make it until retirement age.
To give a brief rundown of what happens to your assets when you pass away: if you are married, all your assets will, by default, go to your spouse and children. If you are unmarried, or your spouse is already deceased, your assets will be distributed to your children. If you have no children, other family members may get considered. And if there is no-one… the money will get passed to the commonwealth.
This “default arrangement” may be fine for some, but for most, there are nuances that need to be specified. This becomes even more true if you have children. Again, while I hope against all hope that this never happens to you – let’s say you and your spouse are in a fatal car accident. Let’s also assume you didn’t have a will in place. Not only will you not have control of how your assets get distributed – you also do not have control over who gets custody of your children. It is nice to assume that your children will be put under the care of a trusted friend or family member. But that may very well not be the case without you proactively specifying what should happen to your children in your absence.
Another scenario that I see too often are disputes among siblings. Without a will in place, your children are left to decide among themselves who is entitled to what. Instead of bringing your children together, too often, families are torn apart over inheritance disputes.
For adult children with parents of retirement age, time is of the essence in setting up a will. If one (or both) of your parents would ever need to enter into an elderly care facility, any assets that have not been pre-gifted within a 7 year period may need to be sold in order to pay the nursing home fees.
Let me put that another way. Joe is 67 years old, and finally decides to set up a will, leaving assets to his wife and children. Five years later however, Joe needs to be put into an elderly care facility. The wife and children cannot afford to pay the fee’s from the care facility. At this point, the care facility can go after the assets that were willed to Joe’s wife and children, because it is within that 7 year period. Seizing those assets effectively leaves Joes wife and children with no inheritance.
While I fully acknowledge that nobody likes to think about this – it is important to be responsible and handle these things while you still can. So, if you even “think” that a nursing home may be needed for one (or both) of your parents, it is important to act sooner rather than later. If they are nearing retirement age, you cannot ask them to distribute their assets first, and then apply for elder care shortly after. That would be considered fraud. So it is important that your parents set up and gift their assets earlier rather than later, to avoid this scenario. I have seen many situations where parents held onto their assets for too long, and ended up having to sell them all in order to pay nursing home fees, effectively leaving nothing to the children.
Another unfortunate situation that I see is when one parent needs to be admitted to a care facility with ungifted assets still in their possession. In this situation, it ultimately robs their spouse of those assets, leaving them to live their remaining years in poverty. Both of these situations can be avoided by setting up a will sooner rather than later.
When you set up a will, you get the benefit of saying exactly how your assets should be divvied up and distributed. As an example, let’s say you have an estranged family member that you specifically want to exclude from receiving any of your assets. With a will in place, that can be arranged. But without a will – they may find themselves laughing all the way to the bank.
The objective here is to not promote bitterness among families. The aim here is to empower each and every person reading this to take control of their belongings. When you pass away, it will already be hard on your surviving family members. Don’t make it even harder by leaving them with a mess to sort through. You work entirely too hard to amass assets throughout your life. Your home, your vehicles, your investments, your keepsakes – they all have both monetary and sentimental value. Usually, the sentimental value of an asset is more important than the monetary value of the asset. You want to be able to specify who the recipients of those assets should be, according to who would yield the most sentimental value of it. This not only gives you peace of mind now, but it also ensures peaceful resolution upon your death.
So with all of that being said, let’s talk about the process of setting up a will. Setting up a will is actually much simpler and more affordable than many people realize. To do a simple will, the entire process takes roughly 30 minutes. 30 minutes and a small one-time fee is an incredibly small price to pay for the peace of mind that it can bring.
If you are looking to set up a will, some things that you will want to bring with you include:
– A list of all of your checking and savings accounts
– Any retirement and investment accounts that you have
– A list of assets that you want to specify the recipients
– The names, addresses, and contact information for any persons who will be named in the will
To set up an appointment, you simply need to call the office of a law firm that handles wills and estates.
As with insurance, the same can be said for a will: it is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. But unlike insurance, setting up a will is a small one-time fee, and something you can generally set and forget.
If you have any questions about setting up a will, or planning your estate, we would love to answer them for you. With offices in both Clearfield and DuBois, our team is ready and willing to help you navigate this process. For questions, please do not hesitate to call our office at (814) 765-9611, message us on Facebook (facebook.com/clfdlaw), or check us out online at clfdlaw.com.
As always, thank you for reading, and we look forward to answering your questions. If you have any questions that you would like us to answer in the future, please email us at jhubler@clfdlaw.com.
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