Your Will and Your Estate

Your Will

You Should Have A Will

A Will is the logical, thorough way to plan and control how the things you own will be managed or distributed at your death. With a will, you can:

• Give away personal items --- clothing, jewelry, silver, china, antiques, paintings, boats, etc.
• Give legacies to individuals or to schools, hospitals, churches, and other organizations.
• Provide for the distribution of your real estate.
• Make sure that, after your specific provisions, what is left over (the residue) goes to the persons you want to receive it.

A Will is Better Than Joint Ownership

A Will lets you control where your property will go when all the joint owners have died. Joint ownership of residences, bank accounts and securities is appropriate to a limited extent, but it can produce unnecessary taxes and may ultimately leave the property in the hands of persons to whom you do not want it to go.

A Will is Better Than Intestacy

If you die intestate (without a will), state laws will apply. Those laws --- rather than your own wishes --- will determine how your estate is distributed.

A Will Expresses Your Wishes

A Will, drawn by your attorney, can provide for contingencies and ensure that the distribution of your property is definite, certain and in accordance with your wishes.

A Will Can Increase Family Protection

With a Will, you can:

• Make sure your family will be cared for as you think best
• Arrange for professional management of your assets so that heirs are protected against loss, caused by inexperience, carelessness, or unwise spending.

By Your Will, You Name Your Personal Representative

Your Personal Representative (or executor) is the one who will take charge of your estate at your death. Your Attorney files the papers in Court to get the Personal Representative appointed. Your Personal Representative has a great many details to attend to. In fact, being a good Personal Representative means being painstakingly careful, thorough and accurate about details.

Your Person Representative's Job Is To:

• Collect your assets and inventory them --- bank accounts, stocks, bonds, notes for debts owed to you, insurance payable to your estate.
• Take charge of real estate which you own alone, review fire and liability insurance, and look for any needed immediate repairs.
• Find out what debts you owe --- routine monthly bills, installment debts, mortgages --- and arrange for current payments.
• Make important tax-planning decisions with your Attorney for the purpose of reporting the income and expenses in connection with your estate.
• Arrange for appraisals of the property which will be taxed in your estate.

This is only the beginning. Before the job is finished, your Personal Representative will have filed the federal estate tax and income tax returns, paid the taxes, and answered any questions which are raised on the audit of those returns. Your Personal Representative will then distribute your remaining property according to the terms of your will, either outright or in a trust, and will then prepare and file a final accounting in the Court.

This is by no means a complete catalog of everything that has to be done, but it should be sufficient to persuade you that being a Personal Representative is not a part-time job or one for the inexperienced.

The alternative to permitting the state to determine the ownership of your property, real and personal, is for you to have a will of your own. In this way, you decide for yourself haw and to whom your estate shall pass.

By Making A Will You Can:

• Name the executor of your estate.
• Simplify its administration.
• Minimize expenses.
• Make provisions for your loved ones in accordance with their needs and capabilities.
• Create trusts, if desirable.
• Effect tax-saving provisions.
• Direct how a going business shall be liquidated or continued.
• Provide for minor children according to your wishes.
• Assure payment of unpaid charitable pledges.
• Make charitable gifts with the entire amount usually deductible for federal estate tax and state inheritance tax purposes.

The Procedure is Simple:

1. Talk to your spouse and adult children. While your desires should be done, your family is likely to have your interests and desires at heart, also.
2. Talk to your Attorney. Explain what you want to accomplish through your estate. Your Attorney will then put your wishes into a form which assures your desires.

Your Estate:

It is the sum of what you own. It includes your home, farm, automobiles, securities, antiques, business interests, your bank account, paintings, china, silver, and much more.

AND

Regardless of its size, your Estate will someday belong to someone else.

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