What Is a Will?

A will is a written document, which is signed and witnessed indicates how your assets will be disseminated at the time of your death. Will is revocable and subject to modification at any time during your lifetime. It also allows you to assign a guardian for your minor children.

Creating a will is especially important for people with young children, because wills are the most excellent way to transfer guardianship of minors.

If you go to an estate planning lawyer, he/she will make you understand that you may modify your will at any time. In fact, it's a excellent idea to review it sometimes and particularly when your marital status changes.

One should seek professional assistance when preparing an estate plan, whether for a "simple" Will or for more complex planning. There are too many issues to try to do it yourself. The challenge is that we don't know what we don't know. Without understanding the assets, family, and goals of the person asking the question the answer is a shot in the dark

In my experience, a Client should never attempt to draft their own Will. Whilst I am not doubting the Client's ability to fill in a pre formatted document or even to create a Will from a blank piece of paper, my problem with DIY Wills is that how does a lay-person know whether the document they are creating is suitable for their own circumstances?

Far too often, we see Clients who have attempted to draft a Will themselves and are not even aware that it is lacking in important details pertinent to their own situation.

#wills #estate planning