As uncomfortable as planning for your passing is, it is incredibly important especially when in making sure that your family and loved ones are able to be able to handle your estate properly. For this type of future planning, it is advised that everyone create a will that states exactly how you want all your assets divided after you pass. There are four types of wills that a person can have created; a last will, living will, self-probating will, simple will and oral will. The most common type of will is either the last will or simple will, and the least common due to it only being proper under specific circumstances is an oral will.
Depending on the size of the estate and the amount that is to be dealt with in the will, will determine which type of will is best for your specific situation, but our office can help you with the determination as well as drafting the will for you. Call now for a free consultation with one of our experienced New York Estate attorneys.
Last wills are the most common form of wills that are produced, though those who do not have a large estate with many different specific divisions may opt for a simple will instead. A simple will is just as it sounds, simple. Instead of multiple divisions or creating a trust, a person’s entire estate is left to their spouse or to be equally distributed to their children. This option is for those who are naming a specific person or persons to have their estate instead of naming specifically who were to get what property.
If the person creating the will wants to divide their estate between multiple people, be it a spouse and children, or children and other relatives. What this type of will typically looks like for a married person would be leaving their entire estate to their spouse unless their spouse dies before them. If their spouse passes before them, the house would go to child A, the money in the bank accounts to child B and the items in the storage unit to child C. For blended families, it might be more of specified amount division, in the sense that 75% of the value of the estate is left to children A & B, while 25% of the value goes to stepchildren C & D. All decisions like this of course are up to the person making the will and it is actually against the law for anyone to influence the decision of how the estate is divided.
Oral wills are probably the least common, as mentioned above, as they are not something that is prepared ahead of time, they are spoken to witnesses during extended sickness or right before death. New York does allow these wills, but only under limited circumstances and should not be the option used unless absolutely necessary.
Living wills are the last type of will, even though they are not a full will. A living will is the decision on how a person wants their medical situations handled in circumstances which they personally can longer make medical decisions. This type of will would come into play if a person was placed on life support following a sudden illness or injury and no longer able to communicate their wishes. The living will would state exactly how they want the situation to be handled.
No matter what type of will you are thinking about creating, call now to speak to one our experienced New York Estate attorneys for assistance in deciding on the type of will as well as how to formulate it.