Your Last Will and Testament provides instructions about how you want your estate distributed upon your death. Your Will is like a letter to the court. It is to the court and not your heirs because a Will must be presented to a probate court before it is deemed legally valid. The process of administering your Will is known as probate.
The person designated to administer your affairs and make sure your wishes are followed is known as your executor or personal representative (depending on your state). The probate court oversees your executor's actions to make sure that they do everything that you requested. On average, the probate process takes about 12 months and, depending on complexity, costs between 3% to 8% of your total assets. In addition, probate is a public proceeding As such, the details of your Will become part of the public record.
To cut costs and time delays associated with probate, most states have a simplified probate process for individuals without real property and whose wealth is less than a specified amount (generally a very low dollar amount). That minimum wealth threshold varies from state to state. A streamlined probate process makes using a Will a viable option for individuals who do not own real property and have limited wealth.
Note: Not all assets are subject to probate. Assets with named beneficiaries, such as life insurance, IRAs, 401Ks, jointly-held assets with rights of survivorship, and financial accounts with POD (pay on death) designations all pass outside of the Will directly to the named beneficiary and are not considered part of the probate process.
Suppose your circumstances are such that a Will-based plan, combined with properly named beneficiary designations, will not trigger unnecessary costs. In that case, the online platform will recommend that your estate plan be built around the use of a Will. Wills are individual documents, so your plan will contain one Will for each spouse if you are married.
Finally, in addition to outlining how your assets are to be distributed, guardians for minor children are named in the Will.
Changes to a Will are provided in a document known as a codicil. In practice, it is often just as easy and cost effective to write a new Will than to modify an existing one.
In order for your Will to be valid, it must be signed and dated in front of at least two witnesses. Witnesses must be of legal age and not be named as beneficiaries or be potential heirs. Many states allow for 'self-proving wills.' This type of Will includes an affidavit added at the end of your Will. You as the testator, along with the witnesses sign the affidavit and swear under oath, usually in front of a notary public, that you were the individuals who signed and witnessed the original Will. Having this document eliminates the need for witnesses having to testify in probate court about the validity of your Will after you pass away. This helps the probate process go more quickly.