Making a will? 5 things your lawyer won’t tell you.

Making a will? Here are 5 things your lawyer won’t tell you.

Wills are important if you want to make sure that your estate, personal belongings and anything else left behind is properly taken care of—and distributed—in regards to your family. After all, everything from lucrative estate holdings to precious family memories can be left behind when you pass, and you want to make sure that everything is in order. However, there are some things that lawyers won’t tell you when you’re making up a will. The following are 5 things you need to know about making a will if you want to make sure that your family history legacy and interests are properly represented.

You can’t—or shouldn’t—leave anything to “your family” 

Yes, you can leave things to your family—but you should never literally leave anything (whether it’s the management of your estate or specific objects or houses or other financial holdings) to the descriptor “my family.” For instance, you should not have your will say that you “Leave the distribution of my savings to the discretion of my family,” or “I leave my house with my family to split up.” This vague description leads to massive legal problems because it does not designate a specific person. Anything that you are “leaving” to someone in your will needs to be clearly spelled out to a specific person. 

You don’t need a lawyer to draft the entire will

Lawyers don’t like to admit it, but you don’t actually need a lawyer to draft an entire will! If you have a vast estate or a lot of financials then you should consult a lawyer; but the average layperson can get away with carefully creating a will using a template and then having a lawyer look it over at the end. 

The witnesses to your will need to meet a certain criteria

In most legal jurisdictions, your will needs to be signed by witnesses. These witnesses, however, do need to meet certain criteria in order to be considered valid. For instance, in most jurisdictions, a witness cannot inherit anything in your will.

Some countries might not accept your will if it’s handwritten.

Although handwriting wills is common, many legal jurisdictions require that wills be typed in order to be considered valid in a court of law. The reasons for this are varied, but the short of it is that you need to have your will typed up and then signed by witnesses in order for it to be enforceable. 

Letters of instruction are helpful—but might not be legally enforceable

Letters of instruction are often created as a supplement to a will. They are designed to give more specific instructions about what you want done with certain things, and most people use them to designate who gets what in terms of household objects, personal items, and so on. However, you should note that letters of instruction may not be legally enforceable. So make sure that a lawyer helps you designate these instructions in your actual will, not just the supplement.

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