FAQ

A Will is an important legal document that expresses your wishes as to how you want your assets to be distributed after you die. You can also appoint someone to look after your assets (ie, your trustee) and your children (ie, your children’s guardian) if they are under 18 years old. From a social perspective, a Will is your last testament and forms part of your legacy. A well crafted Will ensures that you don’t leave problems or a mess for your family and friends to sort out.

Anyone over the age of 18 years should have a valid and current Will, and if that’s you – then you need a Will too. It doesn’t matter whether you’re married or have children, and it doesn’t matter whether you think you own anything of value. The reason that you need a Will is because one day, you will die. This is the common thread that connects all of us. We’re born into this world and we’ll eventually leave this world – and when that happens, what are you leaving behind? Someone’s going to have to sort out your estate after your passing, and having a Will is intended to make their job easier – so even if you don’t do it for yourself, you really should be doing it for the friends and family that you leave behind.

Having a valid Will is the best way to ensure that your assets will be taken care of and distributed as you intended. Otherwise, your estate will be distributed according to the law in your State and result in an outcome that you never wanted or expected.

An old Will doesn’t necessarily mean it must be updated. You should check the old Will to determine whether it’s still relevant. If there’s been no significant changes in your life, then maybe it doesn’t need to be changed or updated. On the other hand, there’s nothing stopping you from making a new Will just because you want to either. Making a new Will helps to ensure that your current intentions and wishes are properly reflected in an up-to-date Will which has also been drafted according to current drafting styles. For us, the process of making an updated Will is the same as just making a Will. We need to go through the same questions to determine your current situation before proposing any draft – we don’t (and can’t afford to) make any assumptions about you or your circumstances based on a previously made Will (even if we made that Will for you).

If you die without a legally valid Will, there’s no formal record of how you intend to distribute your estate or to whom you wish to distribute it to. In such cases, the laws of intestacy apply and your belongs will be distributed according to a pre-determined formula based on the law in your state. If the formula isn’t according to your wishes or not in the best interest of your family, then you’ve basically left problems for them to deal with on top of having to deal with your passing. Is that what you really want for them? There may also be other potential challenges, whether legal or otherwise for the surviving members of your family which can cause them unnecessary financial and emotional distress.
Your executor will be responsible for carrying our your wishes as specified in your Will. Generally, the person that you appoint should be someone that you can trust and you are confident that they will follow your instructions. In most cases, people appoint their spouse, their children or their next of kin (ie, closest relative). If you have challenging family dynamics (which could create problems for a family member if they were appointed as your executor) you can also appoint the public trustee or some other professional service as your executor.