Family Law Practice Area

Wills

Rachel Li, Attorney at Law • Plano Estate Planning Attorney

Reasons you should have a current will:

• You decide how to distribute your possessions when you die rather than allowing the legislature to dictate how your estate will be divided.
• Circumstances have probably changed since you signed your last will several years ago - you married, you divorced, children or grandchildren were born, your children married or divorced, you bought or sold real estate, stocks, or other assets, relationships with people mentioned in your will have changed… Change happens, and your will should reflect what you want now, not what you wanted then.
• Laws may have changed since you signed your last will.
• It takes more work and time for an attorney to probate your estate when there is no will, so more of your money will go to an attorney and court costs instead of going to the people you want to have it.
• If you have children under the age of 18, you may want to designate in your will who should be their guardian, providing for their care, education, and well being, and managing their assets until they are old enough to control their own assets.
• You may want the assets of your minor children to be managed by a guardian until the children reach some age older than 18; you can stipulate that age in your will if you have one.

Reasons you don’t need a will:

• You don’t care how your estate is divided when you die, or how much it costs your family to pay a lawyer to help them divide it properly and legally.
• You don’t own any significant assets. Of course, ANY assets you have still need to be divided, and it’s almost as much work to probate a very small estate as a large one if there’s no will, so your heirs may have to use a good bit of your small estate just to probate it without a will.
• You think everything will go to your spouse even if you don’t have a will. The Probate Code may not divide everything the way you think it will; we can help you understand how the law currently directs that your estate should be divided if there is no will, but that might change any time the Legislature is in session.

Rachel Li, PLLC – Focused on your future