Questions tagged [wills]
A will or testament is a legal document by which a person expresses their wishes as to how their property is to be distributed at death.
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Issues with Foreign Executor of American Estate?
A long-divorced parent has two adult children, one residing in same state (Idaho for example), the other living overseas. Parent dies without debts, the only asset is a small home, and they pre-paid ...
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Surrogate Court Petition for Probate NY Notification To Others In WIll
I am in the process of filing papers with the surrogate court for petition of probate. I am just compiling all the needed information and such before I do so. I was told others named in the will need ...
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How to best express dispositions in a will
Suppose that a person (let us refer to the person as T for Testator) wants to leave someone (who we will refer to as B for beneficiary) say $100K in a will, which is well below the value of T's ...
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Clause in will invalidating later wills
I was reading an article about Hetty Green and it mentions her challenging a will on the basis that there was an earlier will with a clause invalidating any later wills.
Is such a clause enforceable, ...
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Will and Living Revocable Trust
Imagine a single person with a net worth in the millions but less than 10 million. He / she is thinking about having a new will drawn up and setting a living revocable trust. Part of the idea behind ...
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WV Probate court changing interpretation of will AFTER probate closed
My mother's will states that real-estate 'goes to my children' with no mention of their descendants. In the residuary estate section, it states the Residuary estate goes to my children and their ...
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Are holographic wills really routinely thrown out by probate courts?
A lot of states do not permit holographic wills and specifically state in their laws that an unwitnessed will is invalid.
This seems like a cruel provision to me. So, if a person writes out in their ...
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Children and grandchildren must be explicitly disinherited in wills?
I was reading the following clause in the NH Wills Act:
551:10 Child Not Named, Etc. – Every child born after the decease of
the testator, and every child or issue of a child of the deceased not
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How to write your own legally binding will [closed]
As a laymen, without seeking a professional lawyer.
How can one write a will that is legally binding and will be respected after your death.
I know you need witnesses. Maybe even a notary would be ...
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Inheritance after a homicide
I was watching a “true crime” type of TV show, which raised an interesting question (to me) regarding wills and inheritance. Here’s the scenario:
An elderly wealthy man had a neighbor who was his ...
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Freezing funds with positive balance
My spouse's son is on an account with his stepmother. Both were put on the account at different times by his dad. Unfortunately his dad passed away recently. The money in the account was to be split ...
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Unreasonable terms in a will
I'm trying to find information on whether a will in the UK is unenforceable, based on the fact that the terms in it are unreasonable, and can't seem to find any information - all advice on the ...
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How complex can a will or testament be?
How many resources will be expended to execute it? Is this process self-funding?
Say, if it prescribes that assets should be disseminated only upon a condition, possibly many years in the future, can ...
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How do will holders discover the will maker has died?
My question relates to the UK, though the question could apply to other locales.
Say I lodge a will with a legal representative in one part of the country (or even in another country) and years later ...
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Wills and burial requests
Can I be held legally responsible for not burying a person as specified in their will, if there are not enough funds in the estate?
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Just the executor, or executor and witnesses to open a safe deposit box of the deceased?
The court assigns a family member or friend of the deceased to be executor so that a safe deposit box can be accessed.
What are the laws and court considerations that govern when/whether another ...
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Court appoints executor; the will found in safe box names a different executor (USA)
Someone dies and their will cannot be found. Two people petition the court to be the executor. They do not get along and do not want to be co-executors.
The court appoints one of them to be the ...
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Intestate succession in Utah: Parent and Siblings
Joe owned a home. He died without a will. His survivors are a mother and six siblings.
Do I understand correctly that the mother inherits everything and the siblings nothing? Here is a link to the UT ...
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Clarification of "per stirpes"
If it matters, this is in the US state of Oregon.
If we bequeath equal shares of something to our two children per stirpes, is his/her spouse automatically included, or only their children?
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Wills and probate question. When is a will considered contested?
Venue is likely Idaho.
Under what authority or condition would a stipulation of a will be considered contested?
Will Contest. If any person shall for any reason or in any manner whatever, directly ...
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Can my sister-in-law be barred from my parents' will? [duplicate]
My sister-in-law is a horrible person, and I was wondering what would happen if my brother passed away after my parents' will was already executed. In the event my brother passed first, it's obvious I ...
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How to prevent assets in a will from being passed to a person suffering from incurable dementia?
Triggered by this question, a similar one. How can I write a will such that if a beneficiary is suffering from senile dementia at the time I die, they are passed elsewhere? The situation may well ...
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How to protect assets from being passed to a beneficiary in a will when they are likely to die soon also
I'm going through the process of creating a simple (my first) last will and testament.
I'm young with modest assets. I'm married with no children and live in the United States. I'd like to have ...
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Simpler way to handle living trust/will for property than transferring into a Trust
I just completed the Nolo Quicken Willmaker. It prints the following notification/warning:
You're done making your trust document. Congratulations!
Your living trust is not yet effective, however.
...
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Can I (proactively) prevent someone from leaving me something in a will?
What can I do to prevent someone from leaving me something in their will?
Generally speaking, in North America:
Do I have to take responsibility for things left to me in a will or are their other ...
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Last Will and Testament
If you search for will services there are many that seem to do nothing more than fill your name and other details into a predefined format. These services also often charge money for it.
Of course ...
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Can a Last Will legally specify beneficiaries at a specified url?
Can a Last Will legally specify beneficiaries in an external document? For example, can the Last Will point to a url that shows a list of beneficiaries?
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Can an interest in real property by adverse possession be inherited?
In Australia can someone has a an interest in property by adverse possession bequeath the property to an heir? If so, will that claim be able to defeat the interst of an heir of the legal owner?
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Witnessing a will
I am living in Punjab. My father has made a will favoring his property in my name. The will is on a simple paper. Will has two witnesses . One is his wife I.e. my mother. She is not a beneficiary In ...
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Living will to euthanize me in a Phineas Gage/Tila Tequila situation?
There are fates which scare me more than death, more than permanent comas or disability, more than amnesia or dementia. It's suffering brain damage which would render me abhorrent to my former self. ...
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Example of wills being declared forged without the signature being forged?
Is there case law in common-law-based legal systems regarding claims that a will is forged - but without the signature being forged, and without the text being altered after the signature?
For example:...
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Are there tests to apply to wills to check their validity?
What kinds of tests can one reasonably apply to wills to check to see that each stipulation holds up without going before a judge and can withstand a courtroom challenge?
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Joint executors: can one be silent?
In a will where two executors have been named, can one be "silent" without having to go through renunciation?
I believe the writer named two in case one didn't survive the other, but only one has an ...
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How is the passing of an estate's property handled when the recipient has also died?
This is a theoretical question so I may not have thought it through completely.
We have a grandmother who has died, leaving behind a will that is several years old. In it, she has given an asset (...
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Is a testator not an executor if they execute their will?
Just want to make sure I have the right terminology. The person who makes a will and testament is a testator. The executor (also known as an administrator) has the responsibility to carry out the ...
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What are the consequences of forging a will, in common law and in civil law?
In any legal system (in which individuals can transfer property ownership upon their death through wills), there are probably criteria for when a will is admissible (e.g. the deceased was cognitively ...
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Making of a will
My father has made a will in favour of me but it has been got written from someone else but not written by my father himself although signed by him . I want to know whether it is a valid will and can ...
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Drafting a will to have a third party sell an inherited home? [closed]
The question title may be a bit misleading - it's hard to word my issue. Apologies in advance.
Background
I am 27 and my sister is 23. We stand to inherit a 1500 sq. foot home should anything happen ...
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Writing an easy-to-change will
Let’s take the following example: Alice is a web developer and she is in her 20s. She owns a business and some properties, bank accounts, Cryptocurrency wallets etc.
She wants to write her will so, ...
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Causing a sedated person to sign a will: Is it fraud or not
Is it legal for parties to put a pen in a sedated person's hand and sign their Will?
Or is it fraud?
I really need to know, please
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Parent dead without a will
A person dies without a will in California, US, and one of several children proposes to take control of real estate. Under what conditions is this legal? How can such action be challenged, if it can ...
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Estate Planning - Spouses with survivorship clause - could a named beneficiary "double up" on simultaneous death scenario?
Lets say there is a married couple and they both have identical wills; with a survivorship clause along the lines of:
I direct that the reside of my estate shall be paid, transferred and delivered to ...
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Accidentally writing self in beneficiary signature
My father-in-law who recently died accidentally wrote himself as the beneficiary for some investments many years ago. Now the company will not give his wife the money even though The Will says she is ...
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How can my company become an executor for social media account removal in the event of a death?
I'm starting a business with a friend where we plan to automate the process of closing social media accounts, bank accounts, etc. on behalf of deceased individuals. Looking into this further, some of ...
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Protecting myself against my future self
There is always a grey zone between being 100% mentally operational and the beginning of, say, age-related dementia.
Before a physician can declare that someone is not able to make clear, rational ...
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Foreign national drawing up a will in the US
My wife is a German she wants to draw up a will in the US. Will it be valid in Germany and Canada?
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How do I protect my child's assets against medical expenses incurred by their potential guardian?
I am in the process of drafting a will for my estate and would like to designate friends of mine as potential guardians for my children in the event of my death.
The concern I have is that my friends ...
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1000-year trust? (fictional)
PREMISE:
I'm writing a novel about a man who creates a legal entity intended to last 1000 years, and I'm not sure how to classify it. For lack of a better word (and total ignorance on my part), I ...
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Plain English Follow Up
This is a follow up to my previous question: Plain English Meaning Of Trust Language, which I included a picture of for clarity. The trust article outlines what happens if an heir is deceased but what ...
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Plain English Meaning Of Trust Language
Can someone please translate the paragraph means into plan English? The image is taken from a revocable trust.
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