Wills, Probate and Lawyers In The USA
Believe it or not but some people have a fear of lawyers and as a result when they need one they often wait till they have all ready hurt their chances of getting the result that they might have gotten if they had taken action and contacted a lawyer earlier on in.
For sure if there is a area that this is the most true is wills and the probate process. Once you are gone there is no going back and fixing it. Wills are necessary, if you want your family’s assets to remain with your loved ones, protect your rights and don’t let them suffer from being ripped at from many different sources including family members that you would have not directed those resources towards, exorbitant lawyers fees and even the state could end up with more of your wealth than is necessary.
The real tragedy of this is that this is something that can be done for most estates very inexpensively with a form will, or a simple will that is prepared by a cheap lawyer. Another option is to have a paralegal draw up a simple will for you and have it checked by an attorney.
There are several different types of wills and some are better than others but they all need to meet some criteria. Mental health of the testator, are they of sane mind when they write the will, were they on any medication that might have affected their judgment. Was the person declared incompetent before they gave the will? You have heard it and it is true “I being of sound mind and body” is the statement that covers this. Basically you need to be alert and responsive and that you understand what a will is and what it does. You need to know who the beneficiaries are. You must state that it is your will and you must sign it date it.
One of the things that helps a will if it is contested is the length of time before the passing that it was written, obviously the longer the better as you had lots of time to change your mind and act to change the will. In most states two witness are required for a will to be valid some states 3 and some states laws even say that they can not be related to you and that they can not be in the will.
There some other things that must be addressed for wills to be valid for instance un-emancipated children need to be taken care of. You must in some detail designate where the assets will go and where the unallocated assets will go. You can of course leave everything to one person. There are many different types of will like simple wills which would come from a service like Nolo law, holographic wills which are hand written, death bed will which can be contested many times, joint wills where you leave everything to your spouse and then also say what will happen once they depart as well, and many other types wills that depending on your circumstances can be used for you to get your last wish’s realized.
There is always going to be a need for lawyers and figuring out when is always going to be tricky. Many attourneys will answer some questions for you for free to see if you do need there services, others might charge a small legal consultation fee. If you do need a lawyer, looking for a cheap one might actually cost you more money in the long run!
This is not legal advice and should not be acted on as legal advice. This is general information for you to consider. If you have legal question get legal help from a licensed attorney or paralegal.
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