I’m young and healthy, I don’t need a will, right?

Wrong. There are lots of problems with this statement, the most obvious one being that no one can predict the future. As difficult as it is to think about, we don’t know when we are going to die. Having a will or other estate planning documents in place such as a revocable living trust, saves your family a lot of money and trouble.  As people who have served as administrator of someone’s estate who died without a will can tell you, it is a thankless and time consuming job. Maybe you don’t care about what happens to your property when you die, its just stuff right?  Well if you have minor children or are caring for an adult relative with special needs, you may want to think about what happens to them if you haven’t made arrangements in advance.  You can designate in your will the people that you would like to serve as guardian of your minor children if something happens to you and the Court will consider your wishes when making that decision. There are famous people who died without a will including Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Hendrix and Steve McNair and in some cases their estates took years and lots of money to settle. You might say, well I don’t have a lot of money so it doesn’t matter.  Yes, but its your hard earned money, do you really want all of it spent on legal fees and costs while your loved ones fight over it.  A lot of people are not familiar with the laws of intestate succession (basically the laws as to who gets what when someone dies without a will) and you might find that you don’t like those laws. For some people this might mean that a biological parent with no involvement in their life may get all of their property. It is not uncommon for clients to tell me that their spouse, parent or other relative talked about getting a will or trust, but never got around to it, don’t let that person be you.

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