Book Description

This essay sheds light on what is a will, demystifies the different types of will, explicates the benefits of having a will, and reveals the problems with not having a will. Succinctly stated, a will refers to a document that specifies how a person would prefer to have his assets distributed in the tragic event of his passing. If a person lacks a will, then his requests appertaining to how he would prefer to have his assets distributed in the tragic event of his passing are inapt to be granted. There are a copious amount of disparate types of wills. One common type of will is “a last will and testament”. The “last will and testament” demystifies how a person would prefer to have his assets distributed in the tragic event of his passing. For instance, “a last will and testament” may instruct an executor of the estate to distribute a person’s assets to other specific people, such as his family members or friends, in the event of his passing. The executor of the estate has the onerous burden of administrating the estate. The “last will and testament” can serve as “the foundation of an estate plan”. Even though the “last will and testament” is not the only document that is utilized in an estate plan, it however can serve as the presiding document which is utilized to guide the lengthy process of settling an estate. The establishment of the “last will and testament” renders an estate all the more aptly poised to be settled in a manner that is aligned with the testator’s requests in the event of his passing. A testator’s beneficiaries that are listed in his “last will and testament” do not have to be limited to his friends and family members. For instance, a testator of “a last will and testament” is at liberty to have his assets doled out to organizations in the event of his passing. A testator of “a last will and testament” can even have his assets dispensed to a church in the event of his passing. A testator of “a last will and testament” has the autonomy to choose the parties to whom his assets will be bequeathed to in the event of his passing which can allow him to provide his assets to his family members and friends if he chooses to do so for the prospect of helping them to be able to ameliorate their lives. Being bequeathed assets can have bearing on helping the testator’s family members and friends to be able to ameliorate their lives if it allows them to be able to augment their standard of living. People are eminently eager to elevate their standard of living and are able to more easily facilitate the elevation of their standard of living if they have been bequeathed liquid assets. If someone is bequeathed real estate properties, then it can also help them to be able to enhance their standard of living, especially since real estate properties can potentially provide them with perpetual cash inflows in the form of rental income if they incessantly rent them out to tenants. “A last will and testament” does not need to remain outmoded if a testator is keen on modifying the provisions that comprise the “last will and testament”. It is possible for “a last will and testament” to be updated with the usage of codicils. Codicils allow the provisions of a will to be modified if the testator is adamant about modifying the provisions in his will. With the usage of codicils, a testator of a will can add provisions to his will, alter the provisions in his will, or revoke the provisions in his will. A codicil is not a will, but rather is a separate document which “references and amends the will”. The provisions of a will are not immutable during the lifetime of the testator since he can modify the provisions of a will with the utilization of codicils if he chooses to do so. Even though it is possible for a person to draft a will without procuring the services of an attorney to do so, a prospective testator should procure the services of an estate planning attorney to assist him with establishing a will. Prospective testators will often procure the services of an estate planning attorney to assist them with establishing a will. There are complexities involved in establishing a will that prospective testators are unfamiliar with dealing with. It can be a time-consuming process and complex process for a prospective testator to establish a will even with the assistance of an estate planning attorney to assist him with establishing a will. An estate planning attorney can draft a will on behalf of the testator to assist him with establishing a will which significantly eases the process of establishing a will on the testator’s end.