Survivorship requirement are designed to come into play in case of the simultaneous or near-simultaneous death of a will-maker and a major beneficiary—for example, a husband and wife. Such occurrences are extremely rare in real life, but the possibility worries a lot of people when they sit down to write their wills.
Here's the worry: Your assets would pass under your beneficiary's estate plan, not yours. An example may make it clearer. Say that in her will, Sara leaves everything to her brother Tomas, and names her favorite charitable organization as the alternate beneficiary.
So under normal circumstances, at Sara's death, her assets would pass to her brother; if he were no longer alive at Sara's death, her assets would go to the charity. But let's say that Sara dies, and then Tomas dies 10 days later. Without a survivorship period, he would inherit everything. The assets would then pass under the terms of his will—perhaps to Sara's no-good nephew—not to the charity that she named as alternate beneficiary.
The family would also have the added financial burden of two probate proceedings one for Sara's estate, another for Tomas's estate before the assets could be transferred to their ultimate owner. If, however, Sara's will contained a day survivorship period, then nothing would go to her brother. Instead, her assets would pass to the charity, as she intended. A survivorship clause requires a person to survive for a number of days before he or she can inherit under your Will.
Your Bloomwell Will requires that beneficiaries survive you by at least 30 days. If neither Betty Thompson nor EnglishPod survives me , I give all the rest and residue of my estate to my heirs as determined by the laws of the State of California, relating to descent and distribution. Would someone like to tell me what is the meaning of survive me? But it is odd if it means saving me. Thank you. Survive there means outlive. Click to expand If you run into such a provision, your best bet is probably to get all the beneficiaries together and try to agree on how best to fulfill the will-maker's wishes.
A probate judge will probably go along with your decision. In some states it's legal for people to refer, in their wills, to another document that lists tangible items of property and who is to inherit them.
If there's such a list, you'll find something like this in the will:. If the memorandum which may take the form of a letter or list is validly prepared under your state's law, you'll need to treat it as part of the will. A gift of a certain amount of money, without a specified source, is called a "general" bequest or legacy.
Here's an example:. After any specific and general gifts, a will usually directs who should inherit the "residue" of the estate—that is, whatever's left after the other gifts are made.
If the will makes no specific gifts at all—a common situation—then the residuary clause disposes of everything that's subject to the will. If the deceased person left children under 18, and there is no surviving parent able to raise them, look for a will clause that names a "personal guardian" for the children.
This is the person who will raise the children. You may find a clause that sets up a trust to take effect at the will-maker's death. A trust is an arrangement under which one person controls and manages property for another. Trusts created in wills are called testamentary trusts. The most common kind of testamentary trust is one that a parent sets up for children, so there will be someone the trustee to manage property if the parents die while the children are still young.
Here's a clause creating a "family pot trust":. Wills generally go on to set out the terms of the trust: how long it is to last, what the money can be used for, and so on.
You may find a clause that looks like this:. This means that the money will be owned by the granddaughter, but managed for her by her father, the "custodian" of the money. Under Iowa law, the custodianship will end when Mia turns In a few states, UTMA custodianships end when the beneficiary turns 18; in some others, it can last as late as age If the person who wrote the will also created a separate living trust to avoid probate , the will may contain a " pour-over " clause, directing that assets passing under the will be automatically put into "poured over" to the trust.
0コメント