Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    I think  the  hard  part  is figuring out what you want to do with
    your  assets,  and  then  considering  a  couple of cases: You die
    before  Joe,  You  die  at  the same time... It's a lot cheaper if
    you've  already  thought  about  this than if you do your thinking
    while the lawyers clock is running at $125/hour.

    Any reasonably competent lawyer should be able to handle it.

--David

    
    I go along with David.  Sit down and figure out what you really want
    before you go to the attorney.  Knowing the following ahead of time can 
    save you time and $$$$$ 
    
    1)  You will need an "executor" to handle your estate.  This is
    normally a close friend or family member.  They don't need legal
    knowledge - usually an attorney is hired to help with the probate
    anyway.  You should also have a substitute "executor" in mind in case
    the original predeceases you or is otherwise unable to do th job.
    
    2)  List your real estate and how the title is held. (i.e. by you
    alone, a tenant in common with someone else, joint tenancy etc.) The
    type of tenancy will depend whether or not the property becomes part of
    your estate and should be included in the Will ro passes outside of it.
    
    3)  List all personal property that you would want to go to a
    particular person and that person.  I ask clients to also give me an
    address for the person and the relationship (i.e. friend, brother,
    sister etc.) so its very clear who the person is later.
    
    4)  List all other assets.  You may not want to leave them to a
    specific person but it helps to get an overall sense of the total
    estate value.  This can be important.  If your estate is over $500K you
    should probably have an estate plan done which minimizes taxes etc.  If
    this is the case I recommend finding an attorney who specializes in
    probate work.
    
    5)  If you want to leave money to children, you probably want to put it
    into trust for them.  You will need a trustee and a back-up trustee.
    (If they're not your kids, you may want to make their parents
    trusttes.) Think about how much of the money you want available for
    their educations etc. and what age you want them to get the balance.
    You may want to give them up to a certain amount of the balance at, for
    instance, 21, and the rest at 30, or whatever.  Think that through.
    
    6)  If you want organ donations that should probably be included in the
    Will but you also need to make sure those close to you know your
    wishes.  Otherwise, by the time someone gets to the Will it may be too
    late.
    
    7)  If  you have a primary beneficiary - "I leave my entire estate
    to..." be sure that you have a back-up plan in case that beneficiary
    predeceases you.
    
    If you go to the attorney with this all done you will minimize
    revisions and the time the attorney has to spend asking you questions.
    
    Polly 

    There exists at least one application for IBM compatible PCs for
    writing your own will, without involving a lawyer; I've been meaning to
    look into it, so this is FYI and not an actual recommendation. (Putting
    lawyers out of business is always a good idea. If your estate is
    unusually complicated, I suppose you must have one, though.) It's
    called "WillMaker" from Nolo Press, and I've seen it advertised in mail
    order outfits and at Eggcetera (a software retail outlet).

    Anybody used it?

Paul et al,

I have WillMaker for the PC.  It came with disk plus a 14 chapter
book on more than I'd ever want to know about wills.  The program
asks questions about your property, your family, your friends,  
how you wish to dispose of your property, and checks to see if you
have special needs - like alternate beneficiaries, debt forgiveness,
naming a guardian for minor children, children's trust, etc...

With even the simplest of wills, WillMaker (t/m of Nolo Legisoft)
will spit out a several page document will complete with all the vaguely 
familiar, proper legalese, with a cover sheet and places at the bottom
of each page for your signature and 3 witnesses.  And you always have
a copy of your will on a disk available for easy modification in case
your life situation changes 

WillMaker is legal in every state but Louisiana.  It claims to be
designed so that your beneficiaries can avoid probate.

MEZ or Paul, if you want to look at it I could show it to you on a 
VAXmate in my office (in the Mill).
							nancy b.


p.s.  Mr. Eagle...if you're looking for someone to leave your
      guns to... :-] :-]

    
    
    Wills, in Mass., have to be signed in front of two (2) witnesses and 
    a notary. The notary makes it much easier when it comes time to probate
    the will.  There is also a way to make the Will "self-proving" which
    means that the witnesses don't have show up at court when the Will is
    put into Probate.
    
    Life insurance policies pass outside of your Will.  The beneficiary you
    name will govern.  However, if the beneficiaries are children (under
    18) you may want to set up a trust in the Will for the kids and then
    make the trust the beneficary.
    
    I haven't looked at the PC package you mention but I'm always a little
    bit leary of claims that soemthing is good in all states.  The laws do
    vary from state to state. For instance, I did a Will for my folks who
    live in NY and had a NY atty review it to make sure that all clauses
    were valid in NY.  There were a couple that were not.  So, my caution
    is, that a Will done on one of these packages - as long as it is
    executed (signed) properly - is better than no Will but there may be
    poritons that would be invalid in your state.  

    RE .6 -
    
    Forgot one detail.  Witnesses cannot (at least in Mass.) be
    beneficairies under the Will.  If they are, the bequests to them are
    invalidated.
    

    'Nuther question on wills and estates in general... is the recipient
    taxed as if it were normal income?
    
    thanks,
    Marge

    Marge,
    our legal friends can answer you better for Mass. laws...but,
    in most states there are specific laws governing 'estate' and
    'inheritance' taxes.  Many states allow a certain $$$ value to
    be inherited without taxes (making the assumption someone already
    paid them before --- or several times before ! :-)
    Then the amount over and above that is taxed based on the
    particular estate tax laws of the state.  How the feds do it
    I think is similar....but
    
    i'm no lawyer...all the standard disclaimers apply....
    
    deb
    

What's an asset? Anything? Or anything worth a lot of money?
	Mez

    thanks, deb...  just needed a guesstimate... 
    
    grins,
    Marge

    An asset is a baby donkey.   :)
    
    Seriously . . . an asset is anything worth money.  As far as I
    know, it doesn't have to be a lot of money -- one of the assets my
    will disposes of is my extremely modest "collection" of depression
    glass (two cake plates and a candy bowl), which is worth about $50
    maximum.
    
    --bonnie

Re: <<< Note 769.10 by ULTRA::ZURKO "The quality of mercy is not strained" >>>

>>What's an asset?
    
    A chair, sofa, stool, etc. -- anything that you sit on.
    
                         Roak

    Well, I couldn't handle my own curiosity, so I called my "tax advisor".
    He used to work for the IRS as an investigator.  Seems that there's a
    thing called a Scheule K1.  If the estate attorney submits one to the
    IRS, you probably have to pay some taxes.  There are limits... so much
    per recipient, so much for the overall estate, that triggers the
    submission of such a form.
    
    Anyway, the "prudent" person should write a letter to the attorney to
    see if such a form was submitted, and see if s/he has a tax obligation. 
    
    Marge

 re: assets

 Anything at all that you care about the disposition of. The worth of an asset
can be monetary (diamond ring) or sentimental (old letters).

 The Doctah

    Re .3, Eagle, I think guns should be buried *with* their owners.
    :-)   (or cremated as the case may be)
    
    Lorna
    

    Hi Mez,
    
    Steve and I just went through this, and it was far less painful
    than others here have suggested.  First, you don't need to list
    all of your individual assets, as long as it's a "simple will".
    Ours was pretty simple.  It went like this: I die, Steve gets
    everything.  Steve dies, I get everything.  We both die together,
    Nature Conservancy gets everything.  We're each other's executor/
    executrix, and our mothers are our co-executrixes in the event
    of our simultaneous deaths.
    
    I called a lawyer in our town, made an appointment, we met him
    and he wrote all this stuff down.  A couple weeks later, we got
    copies of our wills in the mail, reviewed them, and made a second
    appointment to sign them.  We signed them in front of the two
    witnesses and notary (already mentioned), as arranged by the lawyer.
    
    Quite simple.
    

>              -< Call a lawyer today - what're you waiting for? >-

I had to laugh. You're right; I'm just procrastinating.
	Mez