Are you among the 75% without a valid will?

I recently came across a survey by Western & Southern Life Insurance that confirms my own experience as a probate attorney. According to the survey, only 25% of Americans have a valid Will. The problem was not simply lack of documents. Only about half of the respondents felt confident knowing their spouse’s end-of-life wishes, and the same was true for their parents’ preferences.  

My primary practice is probate, which is the process of administering estates. We handle a wide variety of estates and family dynamics. The biggest difference between an estate that proceeds normally and one that is a burden is whether the loved one left a professionally prepared Will. When an investment is made in a professionally prepared estate plan, the family usually respects the documents and there is greater harmony. 

Estates that do not have a professional Will often cost 50-100% more to administer. Why? Because negative behavior is harder to control when there is a self-written Will or no Will at all. If there is any tendency towards family conflict after a death occurs, the self-written Will has less “authority”. A common attitude is that “the self-created Will shouldn’t count” or “was not what my loved one really intended”. Self-created Wills often create a worse situation than if there was no Will at all.

Courtesy of Michael Daiello, Esquire - 215-918-4242