A
will is a legal document that describes how a person's property will be
disposed of, and who a parent wants to care for children after his/her
death. A will can also describe the person's wishes regarding burial or
cremation. To name a guardian for children, a parent may also create a
deed of guardianship or name a standby guardian.
Wills
let people allocate their assets more specifically. They can also
appoint a personal representative, or executor. If you don't have a
will, the court appoints the executor, and a cost that can be
significantly higher.
Choosing
an executor ahead of times means you don't burden your survivors or
loved ones with sudden stress and with a mess. And though people may
want to leave most of their possessions to their spouse and then their
children, writing a will lets people plan for unusual circumstances. But
people without children also need to plan ahead.
Many
people think owning property in joint tenancy means they don't need a
will, because assets such as a house held that way transfers directly to
the other owner, normally a spouse (but, how about with single parent
and child or only single.) Assets covered by contract, with direct
beneficiaries such as life insurance and pension plans, are distributed
before a will goes into effect.
But
joint tenancy and assets that nominate a beneficiary don't dictate what
happens if both people die at once -- say, in an accident -- or too
close to each other to change their financial planning.
Leaving
everything to joint tenancy is dangerous, because laws also vary
according to the kind of asset. It's easy to remove a child from joint
tenancy of a bank account, for instance, but you need permission to
remove someone from joint tenancy of property such as a house.
Your
will is something you'd likely want to review regularly, particularly if
you have a major change in your life -- such as a divorce or a
significant increase in your assets. Even if you don't think much has
changed, it's probably worth looking over your will once in a while.
