October 2024
So you have some free time to do some research on the Internet to find out how to draft your own will. There are too many forms online for you to pay a lawyer. Lawyers are just so 1990s!
You find a site that promises a document that will be effective “in all 50 states.” That’s good, you think, because you don’t really want to stay in Maryland forever. Taxes are too high here.
You start clicking boxes. You select “simple will” and type in the name of your kids and your executor. You know your estate can’t be anything complicated. You just have a house and bank account, and a couple of IRAs.
You want everything to go to the kids equally. Except for grandpa’s watch and your guns. The watch goes to your nephew, and your guns go to your niece, who’s always hunted with you. There’s no place to put this, so you save the will as a word processing file, under “Distributions” right after the stuff about everything going to your kids.
You print your will, sign it and take it over to your neighbors to sign as witnesses. You put it in your safe deposit box.
Then you die.
Your kids get out the will and find out that they are supposed to split everything equally. The next sentence is your special distribution of grandpa’s watch to your nephew, and after that is the distribution of the guns to your niece. The watch is worth $2,200, and the guns are worth a little bit more.
If the will says “all to my kids in equal shares,” and then says “watch to nephew and guns to niece,” have you just contradicted yourself?
Did you mean for the watch and guns to go to the nephew and niece now, or only if your kids didn’t survive you? Nobody knows.
Your kids learn that your eldest daughter is a joint owner on all your bank accounts. She informs them that the bank has told her that the surviving joint owner owns the accounts, and she says you told her that’s what you wanted, because she took care of you. She says that the others get nothing. They’re not so sure that’s really what you wanted.
Then your kids find out that the beneficiary on your IRA is still your ex-wife. Because you did your divorce yourself, there’s no agreement that your kids can rely on to demonstrate to the IRA custodian that you intended to change the beneficiary. They won’t make distribution to your kids without a court order. Then your ex tells the kids that she was supposed to have the IRA – that was your agreement. It’s a mess.
Then you wake up, and realize you fell asleep while working on the DIY will. Was that a nightmare – or did you just see into the future? Time to call and meet with a professional. It’s cheaper in the long run and you’ll sleep far better at night.
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Attorney Tim Barkley
The Tim Barkley Law Offices
One Park Avenue
P.O. Box 1136
Mount Airy
Maryland 21771
(301) 829-3778
Wills & Trusts | Estate Planning | Probates & Estates
Elder Law | Real Estate | Business Planning