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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Executor Pink Slip [closed]
How much time do I have to contest that an estate executor is accurately reporting the value of the estate and distributing the assets in accordance with the will?
Jurisdiction: Oregon, US
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Does the digital will need to be separate from the regular will?
Do I need to maintain two separate wills, one for my digital life (accounts, passwords, etc.) and one for my regular life (assets), or I can I bake my digital will into my regular will?
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What to do if you have a possible 'zombie' relative
An elderly uncle of mine spent the last 10 years of so in assisted living until dying in his late 90s. He has a sister (who has mild dementia) and a brother who has been not reachable for ages, along ...
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Probate Must Or Bust?
Does an inheritance have to go through probate in the Oregon, United States?
If probate is required is there anything else that needs to be done in its place, besides the executor paying any ...
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Inheritance Query
My mom recently passed leaving her estate to be split equally between me and my siblings. The assets were sold prior to my moms death and placed in a DA Davidson account to manage will she lived in ...
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Inheritance D.A.Davidson
My mother recently passed leaving my two sisters and I to split the estate equally. I am in US and my mother lived in Oregon when she died. My sister is the executor and I don’t really get along with ...
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Inheritance Help
I am expecting to receive a considerable inheritance for my mother that recently passed, I think in the range of ($10k-???) It could be a lot but I have no idea my sister is the executor of the will ...
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Mom paid for a will, what does the payment cover?
Around 2001 or 2002 my mother went to the law firm where my deceased father had been a partner and drafted her will. I'm not positive, but I suspect this was done after George W. Bush rewrote the ...
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Can the executor of a will be the sole beneficiary?
In the United States, can the executor of a will be the sole beneficiary?
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What is the minimum information required to specify a person in a will?
If person A wants to leave assets to person B in their will, what is the minimum amount of information for person B that person A needs to specify?
Obviously, they need their name... but is anything ...
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What is the best way to determine if a living person in the UK has a will?
I'm doing some research for a side project where I want to determine whether a living person in the UK has a will or not.
What are your recommendations?
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Can beneficiaries be pursued for damages inflicted in life?
This is only for fictional literary research
If a person confesses to a crime on their deathbed, one that caused unfathomable property damage and loss of life, will their heirs be forced to forfeit ...
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How can I legally petition for a home that has been in the family for generations but the deed has another name on it
There is a house in my family that has been lived in for almost 70 years. Originally the family member that purchased the house used a family friend to procure the mortgage (she did not know better as ...
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Can I legally dictate the disposal of my body after death?
Is there a legal document that can prevent my body from turning over to my family after my death?
When I talk to my family they say my thoughts don't matter. Their ceremonies will defile both my body ...
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How to proceed when there is no will/last testament?
The Situation:
My best friend's mother (Grace) passed away on Monday. Grace told her sister Hope and her son that she had a will. We cannot locate it (at home, not filed with lawyer or the city).
We ...
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Is a digital last will and testament on my cloud drive legally binding?
For example:
Let's say I simply put the signed, digitized document on a cloud drive and inform my executor of how to retrieve it via an email with instructions for safe keeping. Will my Executor have ...
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Do I inherit some portion of property if there's no will?
My mother passed away without a will a month ago. She owned a house with my stepdad in Albany, NY. He still lives there. I live in FL. What portion of the estate value do I get as a result?
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Inmates and inheritances
Someone dies and an indigent prison inmate is one of the heirs. The state has a statute that allows (or may even require) recovery of prison-related expenses (medical or otherwise) when the prisoner ...
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Is it kosher to leave your primary doctor a small bonus in your will
Or, visiting nurse or social worker. People who are paid by the government generally can't accept cash payment in addition to what medicare pays them. My understanding is that it's outright ...
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Can an executor (personal representative) name a successor executor? (Utah)
Chris died and named three co-executors.
The estate involves property but no complications, so informal probate seems viable.
For various reasons, the co-executors want one person to be named executor ...
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Can I release all my copyrighted works into the public domain upon my death?
I would like all my copyrighted works into the public domain immediately upon my death (rather than the current United States law specifying that it will be released 70 years after my death). Is this ...
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Family trust but probate (informal or formal?) needed
(Based on @ohwillieke's answer, I've updated this to clarify the facts)
Family trust:
was set up by parents as a revocable living trust.
had "upon death" instructions to transfer all to beneficiary #...
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Timing of disclaimers for an inheritance vs. an interest in a trust? (USA)
Context Update
The context is a trust and beneficiaries who disclaimed earlier did so to help another beneficiary. The ones who want to disclaim now also want to do so to help the same beneficiary.
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Special provisions in the will of a divorced parent
What special issues or topics might a divorced, custodial parent of a six year-old consider in writing a will? What issues or topics might become more important as the child gets older.
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How to exclude somebody from being a guardian in a will?
My wife and I are completing our last wills and testaments. We have named 3 guardians for our children in case we pass away (the guardians are in descending order, so the first has priority etc.). We ...
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Is it possible to take someone to small claims court while living and working abroad? [duplicate]
My father passed away two years ago. My brother was issued executor of my father's assets. My father left a will stating I have equal rights to the assets he left when he passed away.
I live and ...
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Can a will order private property be destroyed?
I'm just wondering if you can will that all your personal property, and real property be destroyed or discarded in a will? To what extent is such a request legal, or illegal and can we predict if the ...
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What happens if a person is thought to be dead and their estate is administered, and then they turn up alive?
Suppose a person disappears and is thought to have died (e.g. massive fireball plane crash, 'nobody could have survived that') and so their estate was administered.
And then, after their property ...
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What happens if I die without a will?
What happens to my property if I die without a will?
The jurisdiction is Victoria, Australia.
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Probate: Larke vs Nugus statement
When contesting a will in UK law a "larke vs nugus" letter may be sent to a solicitor holding the will to request they provide evidence relating to the how the will was drafted.
See for example:
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Can I create a will before our baby is born?
We are having a baby and I had a question about creating a will. I am planning on talking to a lawyer before doing so, but just wanted some quick advice. Can I create the will before the baby is born? ...
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What is the remedy if a lawyer forges a client's signature on a will?
Assume that a lawyer forges his or her client's signature on a will.
What is the remedy for anyone who believes they've been injured by the execution of the will?
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Can bones be willed to a family member after death?
Suppose I wish to leave some or all of my bones to a loved one after my demise (properly cleaned and bleached), or have a loved one leave me bones, is that something I am able to legally do (assuming ...
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Spouse as a witness to a last will
I live in PA and we recently completed a will. The lawyer who drafted our wills stated that my wife and I could witness each other's will. Because his office is small (two lawyers and a paralegal), ...
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In United States, can guardianship be meaningfully contested by other grandparents?
In case both parents die before the child reaches the age of majority, and BOTH of them leave the wills with identical wording about guardianship wishes; that explicitly name the same set of ...
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What are the downsides of using a service like LegalZoom for simple will / living will?
Let's say someone is interested in a fairly simple will (simple financial picture with a house, mortgage, 2 bank accounts, 2 retirement accounts; no prior wills; simple family structure, nearly-bog-...
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Is right of survivorship the same as tenants in common?
What are the practical differences between opening a joint bank account with one's spouse in these ways:
Joint tenants
Tenants in common
Joint tenants with right of survivorship?
I am concerned with ...
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Outstanding debt for deceased relative how to stop the bills coming?
My uncle passed away a few years ago, and owed quite a bit of money, I believe he owed on the house and perhaps on a loan. He did not leave any money in his will, and we ended up paying for his burial....
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What happens to debts when someone dies?
How are debts and loans recovered by the lenders after a borrower passes away? A debt can be as small as 100 bucks for the credit card bill. It can be as big as millions of bucks for mortgage (or ...
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Why would a person choose to amend their will via a codicil rather than create a new one?
According to Wikipedia, a codicil is as follows:
In the United States, a codicil is a document that changes an existing will. Amendments made by a codicil may alter, explain, add to, subtract from, ...
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Can terms of a will be legally kept secret before filed in court?
Let's say a father has two sons and he creates a will. He leaves something to son A and something else to son B. He doesn't want either of the sons to know the amount the other gets.
And let's assume ...
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Can I do my testament as a video on a social network in France?
Imagine if I do my testament as a video and post it in private on a social network. Will this video be legally usable and will a notary be able to force the company to give him the video?
Is there ...
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Is it possible to name an organization as the executor of my "last will"?
Is it possible to name an organization as the executor of my "last will"? I don't have any children. My will is just going to be a formality, since I'm only 41, so I'd rather not spend a ton on legal ...
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UK solicitors as sole executors of a will: any brake on their time and fees?
Somewhere in England:
John is the only child of the widow Jane and sole beneficiary of her will. According to her wishes he was living in her house and managing her affairs while she was sick. When ...
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Can a last will and testament require successors to attend the funeral?
My spouse and I worry that my multi-millionaire grandparent will pass soon, and based on interactions with other family members, we suspect that the will could contain language that says that all of a ...
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Do non-citizens in France need a notary or lawyer to draft a will?
I am looking legal information that applies to "Next of Kin" and wills in France:
My clients are an unmarried couple who are living in France; they are not French citizens. They have a current issue ...
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Who is responsible for the disposal of a body when there are no directives in the deceased's will?
If someone dies with a will, but does not mention their body or how to dispose of it, who decides what happens? Or, let's say a parent has two children and dies leaving no will; which of the siblings ...
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Can I waive the "slayer statute" in my will?
In most jurisdictions, a killer cannot profit from their crime, i.e. if someone kills someone else, they cannot inherit from them.
If I create a will, can I specifically ignore the slayer rule? Can I ...
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Does my will need to be in legalese?
My wife and I are planning to write a will, or have one written for us. To me, it seems very simple. Our wishes are:
If either my wife or I dies, the other one gets everything.
If we both die before ...
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Can wills contain conditions?
Can wills contain conditions which must be fulfilled in order for certain clauses to have effect? For example:
Uncle Fred wants his house to go to his niece, on the condition that the niece agree not ...
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