Six Misconceptions about Wills and Probate

♦ I don’t need a will

While some people truly don’t need a will almost everybody can benefit from a simple will. Some of the advantages include:

• Making sure your wishes are followed about who you want to be guardians of your children.
• Dealing with blended families.
• Having the right person administer your estate.

♦ Why do an “estate plan”? I don’t have enough assets to make it worth while.

Even the most simple estates can benefit from some advanced planning. Did you know--

• You might be able to pass your real property to your heirs without probate and without a living trust---for less than 50 dollars ?
• Banks and other financial institutions offer a simple way to pass your property instantly upon your death—at absolutely no cost?
• You don’t need complicated and expensive documents to provide for your heirs and avoid the expenses of probate.

♦ Probate costs thousands of dollars, so I need one of those “Living Trusts”.

There are a lot of horror stories about probate out there. They are often designed to scare you into a living trust or other expensive estate planning tools you don’t need. For substantially less than the cost of a Living Trust you can:

• Avoid probate all together with just a few simple forms and documents;
• Avoid the years of hassle of living with and maintaining a living trust;
• Make simple revisions and additions to your estate plan with inexpensive documents.

♦ I need a Living Trusts to avoid estate taxes.

Living Trusts never avoid estate taxes. Often, as part of a Living Trust, a will is used to create a “marital deduction trust” which can avoid estate tax liability. But you need to know:

• Unless your estate is worth more than 5 million dollars you  never will pay a dime in estate taxes to either the federal or state government;
• Estate tax thresholds, under current law, are quite high. Only folks with  very large estates need be concerned about tax liability.
• Even if tax liability is a concern, a martial deduction trust can be created in a will.

♦ I can do my own Will because my estate is pretty simple

It is tempting to use the many “do it yourself” web sites or even us independent document preparers or paralegal to prepare your will. However, just the slightest mistake in execution of your will, or the omission of a key term can leave you with a worthless document.  With divorce and re-marriage, families situations can become complex. Internet forms or document preparers can't give you legal advice about your particular situation.  To much is at stake to try and and package your unique facts into a one size fits all form.

♦ Probate is expensive and time consuming.

Most estates can be taken care under the Arizona Probate code in less than 6 months. Depending on the amount of debt an estate may have, assets can quickly be distributed, often within days or weeks of starting a probate. Probate fees and costs often are less than the initial cost of a living trust depending on the size of the estate.

If you still have questions, please feel free to call my office. I have been offering
low cost and effective estate planning and probate services to clients for over 27
years. We can start with a $40 dollar consultation and determine your specific goals and needs.

I believe that every one’s treasure and their hard work should be protected
but not at outrageous costs. You need competent and experienced legal help to
insure that a simple mistake or lack of proper planning does not cost your estate
thousands of dollars. Or worse yet, that you are talked into expensive estate
planning solutions that you simply do not need---especially when there are many
easy and simple ways to carry out your wishes and meet your needs.