Wills

Protect you and your family using key legal documents.

Making a will is an excellent way to ensure that your plans for leaving property to family, friends and organizations of your choice are carried out after you die.
For a will to be legally valid, both youthe person making the willand the will itself must meet some technical requirements.
1. Who Can Make a Will
There are a few legal requirements that control who can make a valid will. Before you start your computer and get the Quicken Lawyer program going, make sure you qualify to make a will in the eyes of the law.
a. Age
To make a will, you must either be:
at least 18 years old, or living in a state that permits people under 18 to make a will if they are married, in the military or otherwise considered legally emancipated.
b. Mental competence
You must also be of sound mind to prepare a valid will. While this sounds like a subjective standard, the laws generally require that you must:
know what a will is and what it does and that you are making one understand the relationship between you and the people who would normally be provided for in your will, such as a spouse or children understand the kind and quantity of property you own, and be able to decide how to distribute your belongings.
This threshold of mental competence is not hard to meet. Very few wills are successfully challenged based on the charge that the person making the will was mentally incompetent. It is not enough to show that the person was forgetful or absent-minded.
To have a probate court declare a will invalid usually requires proving that the Quicken Lawyer was totally overtaken by the fraud or undue influence of another personand that person then benefited from the wrongdoing by becoming entitled to a large amount of money or property under the will.
2. Will Requirements
The laws in each state control whether a will made by a resident of the state is valid. And a will that is valid in the state where it is made is valid in all other states.
Contrary to what many people believe, a will need not be notarized to be legally valid. But adding a notarized document to the will verifying that the will was signed and witnessed can be helpful when it comes time to file the will in probate court. This option is available in all but a handful of states.
There are surprisingly few legal restrictions and requirements in the willmaking process. In most states, a will must:
include at least one substantive provisioneither giving away some property or naming a guardian to care for minor children who are left without parents be signed and dated by the person making it be witnessed by at least two other people who are not named to take property under the will, and be clear enough so that others can understand what the Quicken Lawyer intended. Nonsensical, legalistic language such as: "I hereby give, bequeath and devise" is both unwise and unnecessary.