Why Wills Are Worthless!

Perhaps the all-time greatest myth concerning estate planning is that a Will avoids probate.

Though few people understand the probate procedure, almost everyone realizes that probate is bad news. Consequently, when attorneys urge their clients to invest in a will, many clients naturally assume that the Last Will and Testament the attorney is recommending will avoid the cost and headaches of probate. However, attorneys are not required to tell their clients that a will is an automatic ticket to Probate Court!

Rather than being a magnanimous gesture on the attorney's part to save the client's estate money by avoiding probate, the strategy has always been just the opposite: Set the attorney up to receive fat and easy probate fees at the death of unenlightened clients!

Even when you write your own will or buy a will or a "will kit" off the Internet, the result will be the same. You have bought into an ages-old trap that will create 12 to 24 months of frustration and delay in Probate Court for your loved ones. Plus, you will have sacrificed 5 to 15 percent of your heir’s inheritances to court costs and attorney fees.

To verify this, call your bank (or any financial custodian you choose) immediately and ask them if they will release your savings accounts, certificates of deposit, checking account and other assets directly to your heirs when you die on the strength of what you have written in your will. You will be shocked to hear them say that your will must first be probated!

To learn the real story of Last Will and Testaments, follow this scenario:
John Smith dies. Several days later, John Smith's son, Rick, walks into the bank with the will his father drew three years ago that says Rick is to inherit his father's $25,000 savings account in the bank.

The will looks authentic enough; crafted by an attorney, neatly typed by the attorney's secretary, signed by Rick's father and properly witnessed by several disinterested people. So the banker turns the $25,000 over to Rick. The following day, Rick's sister, Sally, walks into the bank with a will her father drew three months before he died.

Not only does it supercedes the will her father drew three years ago, it also names Sally as the heir to the $25,000 savings account! The bank must now find a way to get Rick to return the money, which Rick has no legal obligation to do, or defend a lawsuit filed by Sally. The chances are that in the end the bank will have to go down in its own pocket and dig up another $25,000 to ward off the lawsuit by Sally. End of scenario and back to the real world.

There are other possibilities, too. A will can be overturned simply by proving that's its maker was mentally incompetent, under duress, or dead drunk at the time the will was drawn. Wills have also been nullified by disinherited children who proved to a sympathetic judge that they were inadvertently forgotten.

E-mail your trust questions to Jim Stiner, NAOEP founder or call: 913-220-2149.

Honesty counts for nothing

Think about it; no amount of halo polishing can prove to your financial custodians while you are alive that you have written only one will. You may be the most honest guy in town, but the financial custodian is not going to bet its depositor's money (or its own) on your reputation any more then they are going to loan you money without your signature on a note or mortgage.

Fearing lawsuits by disinherited and disgruntled heirs, no financial custodian is going to release your assets directly to your heirs until some legal authority reviews your will after you are dead and guarantees its authenticity. That legal authority is Probate Court. The average time required to do the job is 12 to 24 months, depending on in which state you live.

The cost: an average 8 percent off the top of the estate. Contested wills are often tied up in Probate Court for years. John Wayne, the movie actor, died in 1979, yet his will is still in the clutches of California Probate as competitive and greedy heirs attempt to drag all they can from Mr. Wayne's estate. After court costs and attorney fees are paid in such long and vexing Probate Court fiascoes, there is scant little left for the legal heirs.

All this means that a will is an automatic summons to a mandatory court procedure that generates a major portion of the legal profession's annual income. Is there any wonder why most attorneys insist that everyone have a will and why they pooh-pooh, misrepresent or simply "forget" to mention anything that would circumvent it?

E-mail your trust questions to Jim Stiner, or call: 913-220-2149.

The Ultimate Goal of estate planning

Thus, this vague term avoiding probate is really just a two-word phrase for somehow convincing your financial custodians while you are alive that they can safely release your assets directly to your heirs after you die, free from the fear of lawsuits, without the need of a guarantee from Probate Court.

That is the name of the game! That is what this is all about! That is the ultimate goal in estate planning! It is the home run, 75-yard touchdown pass, and slam dunk of estate planning. To win the game, you must get the assets out of your name!

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