Can you write your own will?

[BK911]

Talked to a couple estate law firms today and most want around $1k to write a will.
Any chance this is something that can be done with some google-fu?

My situation is not that complicated, but there are some rental properties and investments involved. And not everything is paid off yet.

Worth the $1k?
Spend a couple hours googling around and see what develops?

[Tobra]

Depends on how complicated it is and what the chances are of it being contested, I would think.

[id10t]

Sure you can. Or get one from teh internet.

BUT... any competent lawyer would probably be able to tear it apart should it be contested in court. Of course, you'll be dead at that point so you wouldn't care...

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Depends on how complicated it is and what the chances are of it being contested, I would think.

I also think it's state dependent, some require more "official-ness" than others.

[GH85Carrera]

Each state will have different laws about it.

One of my buddies is an attorney and he handled my parent's estate filing and I was the executor of the will. I asked him about things like internet based wills and programs like Will Maker. He said in this state, they will be tossed out of court. The lawyers of course working as representatives and senators passed the laws to make it pretty much mandatory to hire an attorney for almost any legal document to stand up to court.

[greglepore]

I call bs. Famous law school case of a probated tractor fender on which a dying farmer (he was under tractor) had scratched his will.

Having it done officially can avoid problems, but the will itself is likely valid.

[GWN7]

My father wrote his own will. Hand written. He copied one written by a lawyer and just changed who his executors were. Everything else was the same. The probate judge refused to accept it as a valid will and because it was written after the one drawn up by the lawyer he refused to accept the first will as valid. We (the beneficiaries) had to hire a lawyer to tell him that everything was ok at a cost of $3,000. So having no problems with probate it's worth it to get one done. Now saying that I just had a new will written up and it was $430 (Canadian)

[Por_sha911]

Find one on the internet that is valid in your state. Have several copies notarized.

[dan88911]

Lawyers, Legal Forms, Law Books & Software, Free Legal Information - Nolo.com

[MRM]

The rules vary from state to state and can be pretty complex. The main thing I remember from Trusts and Estates class was the movie Body Heat with Kathleen Turner. Seriously, the plot of the movie turns on the old Rule Against Perpetuities (the movie actually gets the rule wrong but it makes a great plot) so the author of the text book had a note at the end of one of the chapters discussing the movie. It was one of the only interesting things in the class and why I remember the movie to this day. Oh yeah, I highly recommend it, even now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Heat

Anyway, the only other thing I remember from that class are the problems with holographic wills. That means a will written by the deceased. The problem isn't that they are self-written, it is that if people write the will themselves they don't usually follow the requirements for witnessing the will, and without the proper witnessing the will isn't valid. Some states recognize hand written holographic wills because they are self-evidently created by the deceased, but some states won't recognize a typewritten holographic will. I have no idea what the witness requirements are in my state and when I do my will (my current one is 20 years old and embarrassingly out of date) I will have someone who specializes in wills do mine.

I just don't see how the risk is worth it. Real property has to go through probate, so if you have rental property, you'll want to handle the executor and other formalities with some care. Your investments can be easily converted into a taxable event for your heirs if you don't handle it correctly, but it's easy to keep them out of taxes if you know what you're doing. It's like changing spark plugs: it's not hard to do, but if you don't know enough to recognize the signs telling you it's time to change them, you'll end up with a professional working on your engine soon enough. It's a thousand bucks. Sure, you might guess and guess right and have your will go through perfectly with no adverse tax implications and everything. But you will be just guessing, and what if you guess wrong? I have a buddy who tried to save $500 by not calling a plumber and doing a quick and easy plumbing repair on his own. A couple of weekends later he ended up with about a $5,000 repair bill and more new parts in his bathroom than he cares to remember. Don't make the same mistake with your will.

The only other thing I remember from Wills Trusts and Estates is the importance of where you put copies of your will and why you don't want to hide the key to your safe deposit box. (It's a safe deposit box, not a safety deposit box) There was a story of an old bachelor rancher in Montana or Wyoming who had been successful but didn't have a close family. He died with a substantial estate but no one could find a will. Years of litigation went by with no one getting anything but aggravation. Finally he was declared intestate (meaning he died without a will, I remember that from Paper Chase, not WT&E) and the estate was closed out. This was doubly a mystery because he had a reputation for being very careful and businesslike, and no one could imagine him not having a will.

Years went by and the family who lived at the ranch he used to own were doing some fencing and dug some fence post holes behind the old milk house. The post hole digger clanged against something, and it turned out to be a single key sealed in an old mason jar. Nothing else, no note, not explanation, no nothing.

After a lot of sleuthing, the family determined that the key was an old-style safe deposit key and they were able to track down the bank that uses that type of key, and from there they were able to identify a branch of that bank, and eventually the safe deposit box that matched the key. They opened the safe deposit box and found a sheaf of paper. The top page said:

"You'll find my last will and testament in a safety deposit box at xyz Bank in Billings. The key to the box is in an old mason jar buried ten feet due west of the threshold of the door into the old milk house by the barn. When you dig up the key you'll be able to get my will."

The lessons of this story are: use a lawyer, it's money well spent, Kathleen Turner is so hot it doesn't matter what device on which the plot turns, and don't hide the key to the safe deposit box that contains the stuff you're trying to keep safe. It might be so safe no one ever finds it.

[Bill Douglas]

Please note my name spelt correctly is William Douglas

I go a few changes made to mine; small stuff. And it cost me $575 just for the update. So $1,000 sounds a bargain. Some of this is for the signing and for them to do the " Of stable mind" stuff too.

Write up as much as you can with full names addresses etc to minimize their hours.

[Joe Bob]

All my kids are shyteheads except one, she gets all my crap (Kristen).....sent that one sentence to her, my Momz and Dadz, (shut up Sid). Think I'm kidding?

She's also the bene on my Life Insurance and residuals.

[SCadaddle]

A Will is one thing, a Trust is a whole separate matter. In my families instance, the Will simply designated the Executrix to handle the trust. This was the case with my 99 year old Aunt, a long time widow with no children. I, along with her 2 brothers of age 89 and 91 cold called the long time "lady at the bank" one day after the probate period and asked her if my Aunt even had a will. She said she did not know. I said to my dad and uncle that if she did have a will that it would probably be recorded at the County Courthouse. The banker lady' eyes took a very different look. 30 minutes later at the Courthouse I had a copy of the Will. And the lady we just cold called....she was named as the Executrix of the Trust in the Will. Even had her signature. At death, the estate became the trust. And the bank and the banks lawyer managed to abscond about a half a million dollars from a 99 year old woman where apparently none of the family were designated as beneficiaries of the Trust, and the court ruled that since the family, being brothers and next of kin, that filed the lawsuit against the bank were not named beneficiaries, they had no recourse on finding out how the money in the Trust was paid out. My Aunt was a very secretive lady. She was sold on the whole idea that the Trust would be secretive to the probate of her estate process. I was more than certain her church was a beneficiary to the Trust. I asked her Preacher for info. He took it up with the Elders. They decided that since my Aunt was "so secretive in life, it was their intent to have her remain secretive in death". In the end, the bank sold her 18k worth of jewelry through an on-line auction. So much for being secretive.
It's a very long story. I went to the States Attorney General' Vulnerable Adults unit with no resolve and I even went and sat down with the FBI to no resolve. The latter spent what, 42 years and 5 million dollars to try and figure out how DB Cooper made off with half as much money?
So the moral of the story is IF you go with a Trust, leave $10 to a friend named as a beneficiary to make sure everything went down on the up and up. There's a reason the local community based non profit charitable organizations print brochures and leave them on the coffee tables in the communal areas of nursing homes. And when you find the one brochure and do a little investigating to find that the banks lawyer and a member of the banks Trust department are on the Board of Directors of said charitable organization you start to smell the rats.

[recycled sixtie]

A $1000 may seem like a lot to get a will done with a lawyer but I think it is worth it. I understand setting up a trust is for the truly wealthy so I don't fit in to that category. Interesting story above about trusts - thanks for that.

My mother had a will made with a lawyer and so did my father. My father passed away from cancer in 1967. Because he knew he was dying he changed his will a few months before he passed away.My mother was not aware of this. When my wife and I updated our will with a lawyer a few years ago I mentioned my father had changed his will a few months before his passing. My mother was not aware of the changes made. If I remember correctly the lawyer said that the will should be changed if necessary in the presence of the the husband and wife.

This is why a will should be made with a lawyer. Good documentation and a good lawyer make life so much easier. Legal types feel free to input about keeping the significant other informed(or not) about will changes. I have no idea of those rules as my wife and I have no secrets!

[wdfifteen]

My wife and I each have revocable trusts. We are the trustees of each other's trust and of course we have secondary choices. I wouldn't pay a bank or atty to be a trustee unless I had no one else I could rely on.
I'm no attorney, but $1000 seems like a lot for a simple will.
Back when I had a will I wrote up the substance of what I wanted it to say and emailed it to my attorney, he copied and pasted it into a standard document with all the whereas and wherefores and made sure it was a legal will. It cost me $350. This was probably 10 years ago.

[pavulon]

I have an attorney drafted will but wish to remove a beneficiary yet leave the rest, can that person be removed without destroying the validity of the entire document? Does the entire thing be need to be rewritten by an attorney or can I remove that name and have it notarized?

[Tobra]

Dad is an attorney, so I get the family discount.

[MBAtarga]

Wife and I had mirror wills, trusts, POAs and Medical Directives written up about 3 years ago. $1200.

[BK911]

Thanks guys.
My biggest concern is the financed rental properties.
They are all income producing, but with her not working, I am worried about her being able to keep the loans.
Googling found something called Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act.
Supposedly this requires the bank to transfer the loan to the wifes name, even if she isnt on the deed or loan, or had a job.
Reading the (very boring) law, I am not so sure that is what it really says.

6 Situations Where The Lender Can't Call Your Mortgage - tribunedigital-chicagotribune

Anybody have any experience with this?

[Don Ro]

"Real property has to go through probate,..."
~~~~~~~~
What about a simple notarized Beneficiary Deed? The simple forms are downloadable from the interweb.
The local county (Maricopa, AZ) says that that is legal and valid.