Today’s news that late actor Heath Ledger’s will was outdated (filed in 2003) and did not include provisions for his former girlfriend and their 2-year-old daughter is a timely reminder.
Do you have a will? Have you updated it to include new children, spouses, property or investments? When WichiTalk ran a cover story last year about wills, we found that as many as 75 percent of adults don’t have wills, according to some estimates.
Do you have questions about wills? Post them here and WichiTalk will seek out the answer and publish them in an upcoming issue.
13 Comments
Beware of the joint bank account with surviorship rights. The joint bank account trumps the Will. You may not get what the Will says. Watch out for relatives or caretakers who may be able to put their name on joint accounts. If the executor of the Will will not communicate with the benficiaries on financial matters near the time of death - be suspicious!
How do you deal with who will take guardianship in a will? When I lived in Colorado, the state would take children if there was no will exactly stating who would take guardianship which scared the heck out of me. Is Kansas like that too?
What are some options for single parents or people who can’t afford an attorney?
Are those wills you can create with software programs legal/will they stand up in court?
I currently live in Wichita and had an attorney prepare a will in Texas. Do I need to do anything to update the will?
We had an attorney prepare our Living Will when we lived in Ohio. We moved to Wichita,KS about two years ago and we are concerned about the legality of our will since we now live in a different state(KS).
Please advise.
If someone changes executor of their will, are they required to inform the former executor in writing of such action?
In regards to the last comment - you are not required to inform the former executor that you removed them.
To the third, fourth and fifth comments - wills are complex documents. It would behoove you to pay a small fee to a local lawyer specializing in wills, to ensure that your document is in order in the unfortunate event of your passing. The fee you will pay will be a drop in the bucket compared to the peace of mind you’ll get from making sure your affairs are in order.
Are their other ways in finding an attorney, other than looking in the AT &T phone book or word of mouth?
Are there any recommended lawyers who deal with setting up wills and/or trusts for parents of handicapped children who require guardians/conservators to manage the the children’s assets?
What good does it do to have a trust and will when the courts and judges do not honor the instructions? I am going on 5 (five) years with 7 (seven) other siblings, 3(three) are jerks and disagree on everything. My mother’s trust had instructions that “Majority rules”. 2 (ex-cops) of the 3 had judgements against them (foreclosure and fraudulent bankruptcy on one and 3 counts of embezzlement for $95,000.00 for using his 3 boy’s conservatorship money to pay for their child support on the other one. A real dog dad, make the kids pay their own child support. He finally got charged for that. Now the bank has control of the kids money and tried to garnishee his last bit of inheritance to pay back the judgement.
His crooked attorney and him backdated a contract to sell his trust share to the attorney. The judge allowed it. The three keep complaining about every little thing that comes along and the courts and judges allow it. We are on the third judge. The three split off and each have their own attorney, so now there are four attorneys involved and it’s still going on, 5 years after mother’s death. What a waste of her time and money! Where is the justice?
If I prepare my own will what do I have to do to make it legal other than having it notarized?
I had the same question as someone else posted. How do I go about finding a lawyer to draft a will. Ours should be really simple, but I don’t know where to start and with who.
I am named as a joint owner on my fathers bank account. I am also the executer of my fathers will. Is it true that any property labled with joint ownership such as a bankaccount or car is not applicable under the will. I fully intend to honor my fathers will and we are all agreeable to this but were wondering about doing some of the dispersing outside of the will.
If i had a will prepared by a lawyer years ago, and I recently purchased a ‘make your own will kit’ that is suppose to be legal in all states, and I changed things that was in the one I had done by the lawyer, is my most current one the one the court will go by? do they go by date signed?