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Setting up a Will - ATOT legal advisors!

Atty

Atty

Golden Member
My Grandmother is having a pretty serious operation done in the coming weeks. There is a strong chance she will be just fine but the threat is there.

The family has realized she doesn't have a will and we all want her wishes to be kept.

What is the most cost effective way for her to write a will? Is it as simple as writing a piece of paper that says, "I want Jimmy, Johnny, Bobby, and Judy to split my stuff evenly and sell the house." Or is it involved?

We live in the State of Florida. What are our options?

Thanks guys.
 
waggy said:
pretty much.

have her go to a attorney. it cost $200 or less. its well worth it
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Any way to avoid this? She has plenty of money but doesn't want to do it if it will cost her, she's just like that. Is there no free way to do it?

I've heard that she can fill it out, have two non beneficiaries sign it, and it is all the court will need to divide up the assets.

I want to make sure this is true or if there are other options. I don't think she will go to see an attorney in a week. :-\
 
Atty said:
Any way to avoid this? She has plenty of money but doesn't want to do it if it will cost her, she's just like that. Is there no free way to do it?

I've heard that she can fill it out, have two non beneficiaries sign it, and it is all the court will need to divide up the assets.

I want to make sure this is true or if there are other options. I don't think she will go to see an attorney in a week. :-\
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You're right you should skimp a tiny bit of money in the hopes a hand written note holds the family together and in court.

Save yourself and your family a horrible outcome and just get it done right with a lawyer.
 
Atty said:
Any way to avoid this? She has plenty of money but doesn't want to do it if it will cost her, she's just like that. Is there no free way to do it?

I've heard that she can fill it out, have two non beneficiaries sign it, and it is all the court will need to divide up the assets.

I want to make sure this is true or if there are other options. I don't think she will go to see an attorney in a week. :-\
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dude its $200.

IF anything goes wrong in court that is money well spent.
 
Atty said:
I agree. I'm looking at it from her POV.
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she needs to look at it from teh POV of the people who recieve the stuff. a will makes it easy. they know who gets what.

cold? sure. me and my dad sat down and went through everything on who gets what. there is not a question when he dies on what happens to his estate.

death is part of life. in death a will makes everything much easier. the $200 is well worth it

hell even i have one and im only 38. its cheap and a good thing to have.
 
Here is some advice if you have a little cash and care about your loved ones: Set up a TRUST. Probate is a bitch and causes family to shatter...and then the .gov takes a cut.
 
This is why it's so common for people to die without a will. They are too cheap to pay for one to be done right, and then the survivors have to deal with a tsunami of crap.

I would tell her that if she has any specific wishes for her estate beyond "I don't care what happens to any of it" she needs to pay a lawyer a couple hundred bucks to make sure her wishes are carried out. The will also provides the executor with the authority to make sure it is done as she wanted. If she doesn't want to pay the money, then tell her there is no way to guarantee her estate will be handled the way she wants, and the state will determine what happens no matter what she wants. That's just how it is.

Her choice.
 
If you want to get off cheap, have her write the will, then have witnesses sign it.

Lawyer is the professional way to go, but hand written wills have held up in courts for hundreds, even thousands of years.

The thing to do is have her give away everything "before" the fact. After the person has died is the wrong time to be dividing up the property.

When my grandfather was suffering from alzheimers, he gave away everything he wanted his kids and his grandkids to have. Property was deeded, guns were given to his kids, my mom got my greatgrand mothers revolver, 1.75 acres,,, and a few other things. I got my great grandmothers shotgun and my grandfathers book collection. I bought the 1.75 acres from my mom for $20 a couple of years ago.

By giving all of the property away, if the grandmother has to go on government assistance, she has no property to sell or give away.

Recently the government has passed some laws about giving or selling property to relatives X number of years before someone can get government assistance. Someone that is 65 years old, has a stroke, can not sell that 100 acres for $25 to their son to get the property out of their name.

When someone dies, they should die broke and homeless, that way there is nothing the government or debt collectors can take.
 
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Tell your grandmother you found a lawyer who will donate his services (you can even use a big word if you like and say he is doing it pro bono) to get the will done, and then you pay him behind her back.
 
hey bro, not paying only works if you know what the fuck you are doing.

Google creating a will and go from there.
 
D1gger said:
Tell your grandmother you found a lawyer who will donate his services (you can even use a big word if you like and say he is doing it pro bono) to get the will done, and then you pay him behind her back.
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This.

There's a lot that can go wrong with a handwritten will, or even one you make with some of those $49 will kits sold in Staples etc. Then you are again at the mercy of the Probate lawyer, who will charge by the hour. In Florida the average cost of a Probate lawyer was estimated to be $1500. If there's any dispute, or the estate is large enough (houses, land, jewellery, etc), that can grow much larger. I've heard of a family that had to shell out around $20,000 to a Probate lawyer because their g-dad's home-made will had some loopholes. And he was just well-to-do, not a millionaire or something.

We got our will made for $300, and you cannot imagine what all the attorney has manged to cover in the will, including the 'living will' (what if you die in an accident together? what if one of you is on life-support and the other dies? what if you die when you are travelling in a different state? in a different country? what happens if you die because of somebody else's fault and your estate is paid a fat load of money? and-on-and-on <I can't even remember whatever more was in it>).

Best $300 spent - lots of peace-of-mind for us. But I'm sure you could shop around and get somebody cheaper too.
 
You can certainly do it yourself if you spend enough time looking at the requirements. Or you can spend something like $50 and buy software like Quicken Willmaker and go from there.

If you're in southeast Florida and want to go the lawyer route, I have a guy at my firm that does nothing but estate planning and could take care of you.

You have options.
 
Atty said:
My Grandmother is having a pretty serious operation done in the coming weeks. There is a strong chance she will be just fine but the threat is there.

The family has realized she doesn't have a will and we all want her wishes to be kept.

What is the most cost effective way for her to write a will? Is it as simple as writing a piece of paper that says, "I want Jimmy, Johnny, Bobby, and Judy to split my stuff evenly and sell the house." Or is it involved?

We live in the State of Florida. What are our options?

Thanks guys.
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This will be a disaster. I wouldn't leave the language that generic. Spell out who gets what, and how any monetary balances are split. Spell out whether the house is to be sold or left to a needy family member. The others that don't get a portion of the house's value will be upset. What if one group of family members wants to sell the house for profit, and other members want to move in?
 
When settling an estate, having a well-drafted will is nice, but it's no guarantee things will go smoothly. An equally important factor is whether or not the family and other possible heirs decide to make it ugly, and are willing to spend money on lawyers to draw out the process. My father died without a will and settling his rather meager estate was a breeze, because my siblings and I could all agree on an equitable outcome, and the court was happy to have an easy and simple case. Even if he'd a will, if one of us wanted to contest it, it could've resulted in a long, ugly battle.
 
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