Keeping Wills &Trusts Simple. How Boise, Idaho Lawyers Can Do It.
I once had a widow ask me to prepare a “Simple Will” for her. After we discussed to whom she wanted to leave her estate and who she wanted to serve as her Executor, I told her that I expected the Will to be just two or three pages long.
She seemed relieved to hear that. Then she commented that the last Simple Will she had prepared by an attorney in Boise, Idaho, had been 26 pages long. I was incredulous. I wondered out loud how a Simple Will could possibly be that long?
She asked if I would like to see the Will? She showed it to me and, when I quickly thumbed through it, I realized that it technically fell into the category of a “Simple Will” because it did not include any provisions leaving her estate in a trust for her heirs. But what it did include was a whole raft of provisions that did nothing other than extend the length of the document and make it more difficult for the client to understand. For example, it included a full ten pages of definitions. In the industry, that sadly falls under the category of “preserving the mystique” of the practice of law.
In the end, this client was delighted to sign a very short, easily understood Will. She could tell that her Will did exactly what she wanted done. No padding. No boilerplate. Just a short simple Will that turned out to be just two and a half pages long.
So what are the essential elements of a Simple Will? They are:
- Full names of the person making the Will and his or her spouse and the names of all children (whether or not they are to receive an inheritance)
- The name of the person who is to serve as the Executor to make sure that the wishes of the person making the Will are carried out.
- The names of the persons who are to receive the person’s property after he or she passes away. The gifts can be either:
- Specific items left to certain persons (“my baseball card collection to my brother, Bob”),
- Gifts defined by their value ($10,000 cash to my sister, Susan”), or
- They can be a fraction or percentage of the total estate (“half of my estate each to be given to my brother and sister, Bob and Susan”).
Other provisions can be added, but the foregoing provisions are the essentials. For example, it’s generally a good idea to state that you take away the inheritance that you otherwise have left to anyone who contests the Will. But that is not something that is legally essential.
To make the process quick, easy to understand, and economical, it is important to know if your attorney tends to make a mountain out of a molehill. Or is he or she able to distill the complexities of your Will or Trust down into an easily-understood format? In the arena of Wills and Trusts, “Less really is better.”
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Whether you live in Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Star, Nampa, or other nearby communities – in fact, anywhere in Ada County or Canyon County – for additional easy-to-understand information on Wills, Trusts, probate, and estate taxes, visit the user-friendly website at http://barrypeters-law.com. Then call attorney Barry Peters’ offices at (208) 939-2600 for an expedited appointment to begin the process of setting up your own Living Trust. Or, if you have questions, please call Barry for a free telephone consultation or visit his Q & A pages at http://barrypeters-law.com/common-questions . As always, your total satisfaction is guaranteed by Barry Peters, Attorney at Law, where all clients receive individual attention to the details of their unique circumstances.
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