Worry

Not having a plan in place to protect your assets and family puts you and your family at risk!

Having no protection plan can make the future uncertain.  Uncertainty leads to worry.

And, worry can keep you up at night.  You can spend hours lying in bed wondering if your family will be okay during your lifetime and beyond.

The problem with losing so much sleep is that during the day you just can’t think straight.  You don’t have the mental energy to deal with day to day activities, not to mention creating your plan.

Plus, studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can affect your mental and physical health with ailments such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.  Lack of sleep can cause accidents.

Are you going to keep worrying?

Are you going to keep laying up at night?

Or have the peace of mind by putting your plan in your place?  Losing sleep is just going to make you more tired and less able to deal with your family effectively.  You don’t want to take the chance of affecting your health with a lack of sleep.

Let me help you.  I can show you how to stop worrying, and create a custom plan just for you and your family that protects you and your family during your lifetime and beyond.

Click here to set aside 15 to 30 minutes to chat, no obligations. 

Take care of this quickly and easily so you can get your sleep back, stop being tired, enjoy life more, and stop worrying about it.

Know that you and your family are protected.

PS:  You can do something now to stop worrying about the future.  Click here to set aside 15 to 30 minutes to chat without obligation.

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Wills for Estate Planning

A Will is the primary tool of the probate system. Your Will is like a letter to the Court telling the Court how you want your property distributed.  Then you must make sure that you prove to the Court that all your property is collected and appraised, and all your bills and taxes are paid, before your property can be distributed to your heirs.

In Arkansas, the administration usually takes 6 to 18 months.  During this time, the deceased person’s property must be inventoried and appraised.  Heirs must be notified.  Estate and inheritance taxes, if any, must be paid.  Contested claims, if any, must be settled.  Creditors must be notified and paid.  If all of this is not done before the estate is distributed to the beneficiaries of the estate, the personal representative will be personally responsible for those claims.  As a result, most personal representatives won’t distribute property until they are sure all claims have been settled.

Because probate is a public legal proceeding, your estate may become a matter of public record.  This means that anyone — including nosy neighbors and salespeople — can go to Court to find out the balance in your savings account, the value of your stocks, even the appraised value of your diamonds.

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Will Preparation and Will Drafting

First: A Will is a COMPLEX WRITING

All the normal people are fighting to discover how to write a will.

However, this presents a unique opportunity for the smart planner like you.

The government usually has a plan in place if you don’t.

However, by writing a will, your plan takes over.  Your goods go where you want them to go (with certain limits).

A Will has many components that must be done in order for the will to

1. Not be challenged easily
2. Be valid
3. Revoke all prior wills
4. Disinherit children and heirs properly
5. Be properly signed (in a signing ceremony)

These are only a few of the things you need to know.  Only a professional estate planning attorney knows all of the ins and outs of a will.

Second: A handwritten (holographic) will is valid in Arkansas

You can write your will out longhand. At probate time though, it may take the testimony of three credible witnesses, who are not mentioned in the will, to validate the handwriting and signature. (Arkansas Code Annotated § 28-25-104).

However, it is not recommended by me, except in emergency situations, that a person writes their own will without knowing all of the pieces that are needed and how real estate is handed down properly.

Third: Introduction

The introduction to a Will must

1. Declare that it is the last Will and Testament
2. Declare that all past wills and codicils are not valid, in the right language

Fourth: Leaving Gifts other than Real Estate

It is best to just make a list of what you want to go to whom and not attach conditions.  When you start to attach conditions to gifts, it muddies the water.  By leaving gifts with conditions, it opens the will up to challenges.  And, the more vague the condition, the more likely challenges are.

Fifth: Leaving Gifts of Real Estate

It is best to just give gifts of real estate outright to the person you want to have them. When you start adding conditions you may run into a thing called the “Rule Against Perpetuities.” It is a complex rule that can cause the real estate to not go to the person you intended.  And, like above, the more conditions you put on something, the more likely a challenge against the will.

Sixth:  Disinheriting children or skipping a generation

If you have children that have either made it on their own, or you just don’t want to leave anything to, that is your right.  Just remember, to disinherit or skip a child:

• The child must be mentioned in the will
• You should explicitly state that they receive no gift, or that they get $1.00

Seventh: The no compete clause

It is very important to have a no compete (in terrorem) clause in your will.  Basically, if somebody challenges the will and doesn’t win, then they won’t take under the will.  This paragraph needs to be specifically crafted.

Eighth: Disinheriting a spouse

Don’t even try to disinherit your spouse.  The spouse can make a, usually valid, claim against the will for about 1/3 (in Arkansas).

Ninth: Signatures, Self affirming affidavits, and Witnesses

Of course, a will requires your signature.  And it requires the signature of “disinterested” witnesses.  Disinterested witnesses are those that are not mentioned in the will.  They will not gain anything because of the will.  During probate, the witnesses may have be called to validate your signature, unless…

You have added a self affirming affidavit to the will, by which the witnesses swear they saw you sign, and it is your signature.  This affidavit takes the place of calling the witnesses in probate proceedings.

Tenth: Capacity

Of course, since you are reading this, you should have the needed mental capacity.  To create a will, it does not take much mental fortitude.  A person must simply be aware of what they have and who they want to give it to.

Eleventh: The rest and residue clause

I almost forgot one of the most important parts of a will…  This part of the will tells who everything you have not specifically given away goes to.

This article has just touched on the basics of writing your own will. There is so much more to know to write a good will. If you also add in a trust, then it just gets more complicated.

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Last Will and Testament

What is a Last Will and Testament?

A Last Will and Testament is instructions on how to pay the final expenses, who should take care of wrapping everything up, and who gets your stuff.

A Last Will and Testament is only one of the many estate documents of a complete estate plan. If you die without a will or trust, you are said to have died “intestate.” The state will determine who gets what in that case. You really want to put your plan in place of the default state plan.

A Last Will and Testament is a COMPLEX WRITING

All the normal people are fighting to discover how to write a will.

However, this presents a unique opportunity for the smart planner like you.

The government usually has a plan in place if you don’t.

However, by writing a will, your plan takes over.  Your goods go where you want them to go (with certain limits).

A Last Will and Testament has many components that must be done in order for the will to

1. Not be challenged easily
2. Be valid
3. Revoke all prior wills
4. Disinherit children and heirs properly
5. Be properly signed (in a signing ceremony)

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from DeWitt Law Firm, PLLC

Wills

Wills are just one tool in the planning toolbox.  It is usually the first thing people think about when you say “estate planning.”  In its simplest terms, a Will is a list of gifts and some very basic instructions to your loved ones.  However, a lot of formality surrounds the creation and execution of a Last Will and Testament.
Unlike a trust, a Last Will and Testament must go through probate to be validated and the assets distributed. The “testator”, creator of the will, does not get to have long term control over the gifts. Typically, if a trust is involved, the will simply “pours” everything not in the trust into the trust.

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Personal and Financial Goals

If you could have anything you want, personally and financially, what would it be?

What are your dreams?

How do you and your spouse want to spend your retirement years?

Without answering these basic questions, you are really wandering aimlessly through life.  Do you want to continue to wander in the desert, or come into the promised land?

Everybody has a vision, their internal plan, for everything in life.  Whether it is family, career, or finances.  Whether conscious or not, the vision is there.

All of these visions form the basis for your estate and life plan.

An estate plan ties all of your other visions and plans together and protects your and your loved one’s future.

Not everyone has the foresight of vision of an estate plan and what it does for a family.

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Misconception #4

Joint ownership is a good way to avoid probate

It is true that joint ownership with right of survivorship (the most commonly used form of joint ownership) allows the jointly owned asset to transfer automatically to the other joint owner when one owner dies, without probate. However, if both owners die at the same time or if the surviving owner does not add a new joint owner before he/she dies, the asset will have to go through probate before it can go to the heirs. So, in most cases, joint ownership merely postpones probate.

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