Families are not as well protected as
they think. Many people have assumptions about what happens to property when
a husband or wife dies, but many times they are wrong.
Everything does not automatically go to a spouse
In North Carolina, a "typical" family unit may mean a mother,
father and two children. If the father passes on leaving no Will, his wife
will receive the first $15,000 of personal property (all property not
considered land or buildings attached to land), a third of the rest, and a
third of all real property (land and buildings). Children receive their
inheritance at age 18, regardless of how immature they may be, and can spend
it all on an expensive sports car if they wish. The children can also force
the family home to be sold, and the wife may end up moving into an
apartment. All because the husband didn't bother to write out a Will.
Your
Burial Plans are Left to the Whims of Relatives
Whenever a person passes on without leaving specific burial
instructions, their relatives decide how the service should be conducted,
what type of burial is to be performed, and how much money will be spent on
the funeral process. Grief-stricken families may be talked into needless
services and "extras" by unscrupulous funeral home directors or, as is more
often the case, their own desire to give "only the best" to their deceased
loved one. A person who may have wanted a $1,000 cremation while wearing
their softball league uniform and a simple service may end up with a $15,000
burial in an expensive casket while wearing a tuxedo. All because they
didn't bother to write down their wishes beforehand.
Wishes
For Custody of Minor Children are Unheard
Everyone who has a minor child could be setting them up for a
childhood of grief and hard times if they don't carefully select guardians
and name them in a Will. If something does happen to you and your spouse, do
you know who will take care of your children? A court will end up making the
final decision, but an unfit brother that would be the last person you want
to raise your children may be favored over the life-long friends you trust
implicitly. A court will not consider what you may have wanted had you
bothered to write it down, but it will instead use its own judgment, morals
and preferences to arrive at its own conclusion.
If you care for your children and are at all concerned about who would raise
them if you weren't there, then you must have it in a Will. You will have no
say unless you write your wishes down. Your children are worth the time and
money it will take for you to write your wishes down in a legally executed
Last Will and Testament.
Your
Children May Be Left With a Huge Tax Bill
The federal government imposes an estate tax upon the death
of every person. For most people, the impact of the tax is negligible
because every person also has lifetime estate tax exemptions. In short, if
you own less than $675,000, then you need not worry about federal estate
taxes. In addition, the lifetime exemptions for each individual are
increasing over the next several years until the year 2006 when it reaches
$1,000,000. The federal estate tax exemptions will rise as follows:
Year Exemption
 |
2006 $2,000,000 |
|
|
2009 $3,500,000 |
|
|
2010 Unlimited |
|
|
2011 $1,000,000* |
* Exemption amounts are reduced to $1 million in 2011 unless Congress reauthorizes the RELIEF Act of 2001.
Keep in mind that these exemptions are not cumulative. So if a husband died in 1999 with $650,000 going to his wife, and the wife dies later in 1999 with $650,000 of her own plus the inheritance from her husband, she had an estate of $1,300,000. Her children would have received $1,300,000 from their mother, but only $650,000 was exempt property. The federal estate tax would have amounted to $258,500, leaving the children with $1,041,500. With proper estate planning, there would have been no federal estate taxes in this example.
There are many reasons to create a Will or Revocable Living Trust, and the few pages of this website are not sufficient to go through all of them. The bottom line is that your family is worth the time and investment it takes to create an estate plan. For more information, see Contacting Us or go to the Downloads page.
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