Get peace of mind with a last will

A last will is quicker and easier to set up, but it needs to go through the court probate process after your death. Probate court can be time consuming and expensive, depending on your state. 

A living trust allows your loved ones to avoid the potential hassle of probate court. But trusts require you to change the title to most of your assets, which means more paperwork and ongoing maintenance.

Probate is the legal process through which the court oversees how an estate and assets will be distributed. While there are many benefits to having oversight of the process by the probate court, it can be time consuming and expensive depending on your state.

If you create a last will, your assets will be distributed to your named beneficiaries as part of the probate process. If you create a trust, your assets will be distributed to your beneficiaries without going through the probate process. 

In many states, probate may not be required if the estate is of minimal value.

Yes, our team of experienced attorneys have designed our last wills to meet the specific laws and requirements of each U.S. state.

Last wills need to meet the following criteria to be legally binding:

• You must be of sound mind when you write it
• You must be acting of your own free will without undue influence or duress from others
• It must be signed and witnessed according to the applicable laws of your state

Yes, for the most part. You can leave anyone out of your last will, subject to certain limitations. Many laws have been enacted to protect spouses and minor children. If you wish to do so, you should consider talking with an attorney and clearly state your intentions in your last will.

Yes, you can revoke a last will any time before your death by making a new last will that states that all prior last wills are no longer valid. To revoke a last will without making a new one, all you have to do is intentionally tear it up, deface it, burn it, or destroy it.

One way to make changes to a last will, without revoking it entirely, is to make a codicil, which is an amendment to a last will. A codicil to a last will must be signed and witnessed in the same way as the original last will. If you ever want to amend your last will, you need to follow the same signing requirements each time or else your last will may not reflect your current wishes and could be more subject to dispute.

The general rule is that all debts must be paid before any assets are distributed. Your outstanding credit card balances, for instance, are generally paid before any money or gifts are distributed to your heirs.

An exception to this general rule is for "secured debts," that is, debts that allow the lender to take possession of a specific piece of tangible personal property if the debt is not repaid. Examples of such secured debts are mortgages or auto loans. If a piece of property is collateral for a secured debt, that personal possession can be distributed, but the debt will generally go with it. For instance, say you have a car worth $10,000 and a loan on the car of $5,000. You can leave the car to someone in your will, but it will be that person's obligation to pay off the loan.

What happens if you owe more than you own? In general, people cannot inherit another person's debts. If there is not enough cash in the estate to pay debts, all property of the estate will be sold to pay the debts and no one will inherit anything. For example, if someone dies owing $12,000 in credit card debt, but has cash and property worth only $10,000, the property will be sold and the $10,000 will be paid to the credit card issuer.