Secure Your Legacy: The Importance of Having a Last Will and Testament

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Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00:00) - Please don't wait till it's too late. Cope. McIntyre Elder Law,

Speaker 1 (00:00:09) - Good morning. Hi, this is Greg McIntyre with the Elder Law Report, and I wanted to talk to you about the three great things about last wills and testament, often referred to as wills. So wills sometimes get a bad rap because people talk about, oh, I wanna avoid probate. Avoid probate. By far, probate is our largest, um, department and people, a lot of people choose to use wills to pass their assets, and wills have served quite well over time to pass assets. So let's talk about the great things about wills. So if you don't have a will or other way to direct your assets to pass, then you are depending on the statutes of inte, state secession in North Carolina. So we call that the state's will, they have determined how your assets will pass if you don't choose to have a will or some other way to pass your assets.

Speaker 1 (00:01:06) - So a will is a way to do that, and it's a very straightforward way to do that. So a will appoints an executor to control the passage of assets under the watchful eye of the court in the probate process to your loved ones or whomever. Charities. It could be a combination of those, but if you don't, many people are surprised spouses to learn that if they don't have a will or some other way set up that they now own real estate or other assets with their children. Uh, when a spouse passes away, um, you know, if you have stepchildren that you want to take care of, if you have, you know, anyone that you want to make sure gets taken care of out of your estate, a will can accomplish that. Or else you are just depending on the statutes of test state succession that state's will, and that could end up with your assets somewhere where you don't want them to be.

Speaker 1 (00:02:07) - I like to be proactive. I am not a victim, I hope. And, uh, you know, if I have the power to control things and get ahead of them, I like to do that. And once I have gotten those things done, then I have peace of mind. So that's something estate planning and will, can bring you also, um, you can choose how your loved ones take those assets. You could give it to them, let's say a car outright free of trust or a house a and they could have ownership in a house or children could share ownership in a house or other real estate, or you could direct the executor to sell real estate, the house, for example, and then distribute the proceeds to your children or loved ones or some goes to charity. But you can direct that in your will. Or you might have young children or grandchildren who you don't want to give a lot of money at one time.

Speaker 1 (00:03:09) - Well, wills can also contain, and we draft these all the time, testamentary trust. So testamentary or testamentary trust tomato, tomato are trusts that are built in a will and appoint a trustee and hold assets to give them out over time. For instance, to help a grandchild go to college or, and then maybe after that to give out 10% a year, uh, of income and principle from that trust for that specific person coming outta the will over the next 10 years after they turn 25, for example. Trust allow you to do that. Or you might have a vacation home that you want to be a family vacation home and you can pass that through your will and then have a testamentary trust. Also, special needs trust really in a will. It's called, it is still an s and t, but it's a supplement. Supplemental needs trust.

Speaker 1 (00:04:09) - So a supplemental needs trust would allow you to fund that trust for a disabled individual, say a disabled child or grandchild that you wanted to set aside some money for to be able to purchase anything they needed but not kick offline. A really needed income like ssi, disability income, which comes with it, a Medicaid healthcare component. And you wouldn't want to kick that offline because sometimes people with special needs have, uh, an elevated, uh, healthcare need or other, you know, expense and the supplemental needs trust can really help. And a point third party trusted trustee, uh, for ex for example, another child or family member to be over that trust.

Speaker 1 (00:05:01) - A question I get all the time. Three, if I have a trust or I'm creating a trust, do I need a will? Like why do I need a will if I have a trust? Because a trust has beneficiaries and passes things outside of probate and a will uses the probate process. Well, the reason you still need a will is because whatever else is hanging out there that either you missed or some money that came back, maybe a vehicle that needs to change title that's not in trust, the will would kind of be the cleanup crew or insurance, so to speak, that would take whatever needed to change title, place it in the trust. That's why we call it a pour over or a companion wheel. Place it in the trust so the trust can do the heavy lifting to give those assets out either instantly or over time.

Speaker 1 (00:05:57) - So trust are great things, but even if we do one, we're going to draft a will that works along with the trust because we want your estate plan to be harmonious and everything kind of moving in the same direction and singing the same song and working together. So a will allows you to control the passage of assets instead of just pending on the state and how they would pass your assets. It allows you to choose how you pass those assets either all at once or summit once and others over time, right? And it also should be drafted even if you have a trust or creating a trust. So I thank you so much for, uh, watching the video today. Um, you know, I put a lot of thought into these things, researching and listening to client questions. So this video today and this topic came out of a consult that I had earlier in the week and I wrote down that I wanted to talk about how great wills are and some really great things about wills because we always talk about avoiding proby or we do that a lot.

Speaker 1 (00:07:11) - And I thought I would ra come back and just point out the really great things about a last will and testament. Hey, if you or your loved one, your family wants to sit down and have a consult with us, I would be glad to offer a free consult. You can take advantage of that by calling 1 8 8 8 9 9 9 6600 or go online and schedule right on our website, which is mc elder law.com. Hey, I'm Greg McIntyre, love, uh, uh, coming to you from, uh, video, uh, written materials. We have magazines, books, um, all those mediums and thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time on The Elder Law Report.

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