Will

If you die without a Will and you have not provided for the transfer of your property in some other way (such as through a trust), your money and other property will be distributed according to your state’s laws of intestate distribution. The result may or may not reflect your wishes about how your property should be distributed.

Also, if you have minor children and you die without a Will, it will be left to the courts to decide who will take care of your children. When you have a Will, you can appoint a person you trust to be the guardian of your children in the event that you die before they are old enough to take care of themselves.

A Living Trust and a Will both allow you to provide instructions for the distribution of your property after you pass away, but there are important differences:

A Living Trust has important benefits. Unlike a Will, a Living Trust does not have to go through probate court, which is a process that can be time-consuming and that can take significant fees from your estate. With a Living Trust, the successor trustee you choose can handle the distribution of your property without having to go to probate court. This allows you to keep your family matters and finances out of the public eye and handle them privately.

On the other hand, a Will has important benefits, too. For example, a Will allows you to choose a guardian for your minor children and to state your funeral and burial preferences. It is also a flexible and simple way to pass on your assets because it doesn’t require the additional paperwork required to create a trust.

Generally, experts feel a good estate plan should include both a trust and a Will. With a Bloomwell Living Trust, you get the advantage of both documents because Bloomwell’s Living Trust package contains a pour-over Will. A pour-over Will is a will that makes sure that any assets that are not included in your trust are distributed according to your wishes.

With regards to Wills, “beneficiary” is the term used to describe a person you name in your Will to receive property after you die. As an example, your Bloomwell Will gives you the option to leave specific gifts (such as a car or jewelry), to certain people: if you leave a specific gift to your sister, your sister is a “beneficiary” of that specific gift.

The executor is the person that you name to carry out your Will. This includes going to probate court and validating your Will, then managing your estate and distributing its property. Your executor should be someone you trust and who is willing and capable of doing the job. In some states, executors are called “personal representatives”.

Survivorship is the amount of time that someone must live after you die in order to inherit under your Will. Wills normally have a survivorship clause. A survivorship clause requires a person to survive for a number of days before he or she can inherit under your Will. Your Bloomwell Will requires that beneficiaries survive you by at least 30 days.

Therefore, if someone to whom you have left property does not survive for at least 30 days after you die, the property will not go to them. Instead, it will go to the back-up, or "alternate," beneficiary you have named for that person. If you have not named an alternate beneficiary, then the property will go back into your estate and will be distributed according to the choices you have made for any property left in your estate.

The purpose of a survivorship clause is twofold. First, it makes sure that your property is distributed according to your wishes. As an example, if your Will does not have a survivorship clause, then your beneficiary could die a few minutes after you and your property would go to them even though he or she has died; this would mean that your property would be distributed according to his or her Will instead of yours. Second, a survivorship clause makes sure that your property isn’t held up in multiple probate proceedings.

A legal parent is a natural parent or an adoptive parent. In the event that something happens to one of a child’s legal parents, a court will usually look to the other legal parent to take care of the child (unless the other legal parent has lost his or her parental rights to the child or is considered unfit for parenting).

When something happens to both of a child’s legal parents, a court will choose who takes care of the children. Unless you have named a child guardian in your Will to take care of your children, your wishes about who should take care of your children may not be taken into account if this were to occur.

While making your Bloomwell Will, you will have the option of providing inheritances to “all of your children in equal shares.” If you choose this option, you can also indicate that you want an inheritance to go to children that are born to you or adopted by you in the future.

However, not all states equally protect children who are not named in a Will.

In order to ensure that your Will best covers your children’s interests, you should consider making a new Will when you have or adopt a child. Making a new Will can be extremely important in order to protect later-born children.

Yes, you can. Some document preparation services only allow you to choose one type of property management for your children. But Bloomwell understands that modern families can be complex.

For example, a simple option is to put all your children’s inheritance into a single fund. However, if you are in a blended family situation, have stepchildren or children of very different ages, you may wish to make different property management arrangements for different children. Bloomwell lets you do it either way.

No: Property management is never required for adult children; however, some people feel that 18 or 19 is too young to inherit a significant amount of property and would prefer that their child receive the inheritance when they are more mature. Depending on the type of property management you choose, Bloomwell's property management options can extend up to when your child is 30 years old.

Yes. If you live in a community property state, you generally own one-half of the property that you and your spouse have acquired during your marriage. You can give away your half of that community property through your Will; however, if you try to give away your spouse’s half of the community property, the gift will not be successful unless your spouse decides to permit it.

It depends on the state where you and your spouse reside. For example, in most community property states, your spouse is entitled to one-half of the money and property you acquire during the marriage. In community property states, your spouse is generally not entitled to property acquired before your marriage or property that was clearly given as a gift or inheritance only to you.

In other states, though, spouses may be entitled to a certain portion of your money and property, usually between one-third and one-half of your total assets -- this is called a “statutory share.” In some states, even if you give away your home to someone other than your spouse, your spouse may still have a right to live there until he or she dies. This is called a homestead right.

If you have a prenuptial agreement, some of these spousal rights may not apply. However, if you want to leave less than half of your estate to your spouse, you should consult a lawyer.

State laws vary with regards to divorce or annulment. If you name your spouse in a Will and later get a divorce or annulment, the gift you make to your former spouse in the Will may or may not be revoked automatically.

In most states, a gift or inheritance made to a former spouse will be revoked and he or she will receive nothing under the Will. In other states, though, your former spouse has a right to take the property as set forth in the Will, regardless of the fact that he or she is no longer married to you.

Some people may want a former spouse to inherit, even after a divorce. Other people want to be 100% sure that their former spouse receives nothing.

If you get a divorce or annulment after making a Will, you should make a new Will to make sure that you are in control of what your former spouse does or does not receive.

If you have already named a beneficiary for your property, you cannot give that property away in a Will. There are several types of property for which you may have already named a beneficiary, including some types of bank accounts, stocks and bonds, insurance policies, retirement plans, pension plans, etc. If you have already named a beneficiary for one of these types of property, you should not include it as a gift in your Will. If you want to change the beneficiary, you should do so directly with the institution with which you have the account.

Some states entitle your spouse or registered partner to claim a right to live in your home until he or she dies, even if you give the home to another individual in your Will.

Property owned as joint tenant automatically goes to the surviving owner when the other co-owner dies. An attempt to give this type of property away in your Will would likely fail. Also if you live in community property state, you can generally only give away your half of the community property.

If you leave property through a living trust to someone, you cannot give it away to another person in your Will. With the Bloomwell living trust, this is not a problem because it contains a pour-over Will, such that the two documents work together to pass on your assets in a coordinated manner.

If you have assets in another country, you should consult a lawyer in order to create an 'international will'.

There may be other types of property that could be difficult to give away in your Will. If you are concerned about this, you should consult with an attorney.

Handwritten Wills, also known as “holographic wills,” are legally valid in only a few states. Even if they are legal in your state, a handwritten Will is risky because it is vulnerable to claims that it was not actually written by you or intended by you to be your Will.

Too many people wait until they are older before they make a Will. If you have assets and you care about how they would be distributed, then you should make a Will.

Most importantly, if you have young children, a Will is essential for naming a child guardian should something happen to you.