Well, before we answer that question let’s first answer the question of what happens when you die.

So lets say you die.

Your family surrounds you and mourns your death. Everyones crying.

But then one minute someone goes, “hey, now that mom’s dead, what’s going to happen to her Mercedes?”

And someone else says, “yeah and what about her baseball card collection?”

So you call Jake the Lawyer at 207 550 5604 and ask “what do we do?”

And the first question Jake the lawyer asks is… “Did she have a will?”

Everyone looks at each other.

I don’t know? Did mom have a will? Oh yeah, She wrote one years ago I think it’s in her safe deposit box? Safe deposit box? Or was it under her bed?

Who knows. Point is, the first step is always finding the will. And sometimes families have trouble tracking down the will and that’s normal. Typically it can be found, but that’s why it’s important to know if your loved ones have wills and where they keep them.

Anyway, the family comes back with a will and says now what Jake? Can we just take moms house and car and money and be on our way?

And Jake the Lawyer says NO. We need to legally transfer these assets to you. Since your mom is dead she can no longer transfer her own assets. Luckily though, she left a will whose purpose is to do a job for her which she is no longer capable of doing. The will is the instruction template on how to transfer her assets after death.

Now, to ensure that there’s no funny business with the will and to ensure that all her assets are transferred in accordance with her wishes, we send the will to what’s known as the “probate court”

There are many court systems in America, supreme court, superior courts, district courts, housing courts, even vaccine courts. One court system is the probate court.

If you google probate court in your area youll see where your local probate court is. A lot of towns have maps of which districts each probate court serves. If you are domiciled in that district, your will will have to go to the probate court in your district.

So we send the will to probate and the court will take somewhere in the ballpark of 9 months to properly distribute your moms assets in accordance with her will, make proper transfers of title of her property and pay any taxes and creditors owed. In Connecticut there are no taxes due if her assets are under 9.1 million and in MA it’s under 1 million, which is substantially lower.

 So, why are wills beneficial?

Many reasons.

A will first and foremost directs where you want your assets to go to. It offers almost unlimited powers in how you want your assets divided. “My boat to Chris, my car to the church, $3 to Jeff, $400 to my mom, $8,000 to my newborn nephew, $600 to go into a trust that I made separately, and my stocks to my sister”

Secondly, a will appoints your “executor” or “personal representative”… What does that mean?

Remember how we have to bring your assets to the probate court? Well, your will can name the person who you want to handle your assets and divy them out to the proper beneficiaries when you die. Your executor or PR will work with the probate court to collect your assets and give them out in accordance with your will.

Now, probate courts typically require a bond for this because an executor can potentially run away with your money. That’s why you should have someone you trust. Furthermore, a will can waive the bond requirement, which is what most people do. This saves time, and money.

Thirdly, if you want to leave assets to non family members, you NEED a will. Otherwise your assets will default to relatives. (Read more about that here.)

Lastly, a will is a strong document. If properly drafted it is presumed valid by law. That means that the burden is on a person contesting it to show it was not properly drafted, which is tough to do.