by Katherine N.
Something I’ve always wondered about was who inherits your wealth if you die? Very weird but it’s an interesting thought to have if you end up passing away suddenly and didn’t write will, who will be taking your assets? Imagine if you had to write your will as the last prerequisite to graduate high school. After you submit that, you get your diploma. It may sound really strange to most people but after this milestone, it goes on to graduating college, getting married or living with your committed partner, you’ve established an estate by then. You never know what could happen to you so it’s always good to have something prepared when you’re young so you can skip the long process I’m about to tell you.
Before we carry on, here’s some definitions of the vocab highlighted:
Estate: all the money and property owned by a particular person
Intestacy: the condition of the estate of a person who has died without having a valid will or other binding declaration
Beneficiary/beneficiaries: a person/group of individuals who have the advantage of something like a trust, will, or life insurance policy
Probate: the legal process that takes place after someone passes away
One key thing to know about this topic is what an intestate is. It refers to dying without a writing will. When the person passes away under these circumstances, intestacy determines the distribution of the deceased’s assets which becomes a responsibility of a probate court. If it is decided that the person died “in intestacy”, there will be a court-appointed administrator who will gather any assets of the deceased, pay any liabilities, and allocate the remaining assets to those parties deemed as beneficiaries.
The probate process to distribute the assets depends on each state’s laws but once the court appoints an administrator to look more into the estate of the deceased, they will act like an executor (legal representative named in the will). They will receive legal claims against the estate and pay off any outstanding debts like bills.
The administrator’s responsibilities is to locate any legal personals like surviving spouses, children and even parents. The process gets even more complicated when things need to go through the probate court on who will get the money and how the assets could be equally distributed. In most states, they divide the property among any surviving spouses and children. According to Investopedia, “a resident of Arizona, New Mexico, California, Texas, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington, who dies without a valid will, will have their estate divided according to community property laws in the state”. The distribution hierarchy starts with the surviving spouse where they can receive at least half of the estate, they can even earn all of it if there’s no living children or grandchildren. If they were unmarried or widowed at the time of the death, the assets would be divided to the children before reaching out to any relatives. If there’s no next to kin, the person’s closest living blood relative, the assets become the property of the state. You may be thinking, “well they could give it to my close friends”, they are not considered on the list of beneficiaries under the state’s probate laws for intestate estate. This only works out if they have a JTWROS (joint tenants with right of survivorship), where they have equal rights to the account’s assets. Owning a property jointly with them too will get you the rights for their estate as well.
So after learning about intestacy, please prepare a will or have a will on behalf of your estate lawyer. It’s extremely important to have this ready so your loved ones don’t have to be stuck with figuring all this out because it takes a while to get everything settled down.
To learn more about this topic, check out this link for more information and resources on estate planning:
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/intestate-succession
Works Cited
“Intestate Succession.” Www.nolo.com, www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/intestate-succession.
“Intestate vs. Probate - What Is Intestate?” Trust & Will, trustandwill.com/learn/intestate.
Kagan, Julia. “Intestate.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 14 Dec. 2020, www.investopedia.com/terms/i/intestate.asp.
I really think that this post would be very beneficial for many people because no one thinks about their death and what could happen after it. Thinking about where your money could go is a long and painful process if there is no will to go off of and it can make it really difficult for the court to decide where your money does once you die. I think students shouldn’t have to write a will in High School because they are still very young and sometimes don't have much in their name. Maybe implementing it in the college graduation would be a better idea because people are much older and might have more to their name at that time. I did learn a lot about how writing and having a will is extremely important, especially if you have lot of asset in your name.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting blog because it is something that nobody thinks about frequently, although it may not apply to people one day, you never know! I think that it may be strange to make a will before leaving high school but after reading your blog, it almost sounds practical and beneficial to those who will have to take care of your belongings after you die. I also thought that it was really interesting how in certain states, a person without a will, will have their estate divided equally according to community property laws. Overall, I thought this blog was really interesting and definitely a new thing to think about in my future, as I wouldn’t like to create this long process.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was extremely interesting and intriguing. As many other high school age people, I have not yet considered really anything about my will, and I definitely have not written my will yet. Which is why it’s so important to know the information that you gave on this blog post. If I want to make sure that my family and close friends get some of my estate when I die, I need to make sure to write a will. As you stated in your article, not creating a will can create a difficult process in order to fully distribute my estate, so it’s important to create a will so that parts of your will aren’t wasted on fees from lawyers. Considering that anyone can die at any moment from different emergencies or just bad timing, when do you think a person should write their will? I think it might be a good idea to make high school students write a will in order to graduate so that in case if they die they will never be considered an intestacy. Overall, I thought your information was extremely important and your organization of your article was extremely well written, nice job!
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this article because it was something I did not expect to be posted on the blog. Not everyone thinks of their death and where there money will go when they are so young. Before reading your blog I would have thought writing your will before your 30 is impracticable but now I see that it is very practice and beneficial. I also enjoy how you added definitions and highlighted key words instead of assuming the reader knows the vocab being used.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy this blog post because the title intrigues us. Obviously as teenagers we don't really have to think much about leaving a will but as I read the title I realized this was a question I didn't know I wanted the answer to. The highlighted words being defined really added to this post as sometimes big words that most people don't understand can leave the post feeling very standard and for adults. I think it is great how you (maybe subconsciously) tailored this post to your audience. Great work!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic indeed. I personally believe that their assets should go to their closest family (after debts have been paid). However, this reminds me of a scene from “The Hobbit”, where the main character Bilbo is away for so long that everyone assumes he is dead. When he eventually returns, he finds the town auctioning off all of his stuff! That scene is hilarious, but it does show that different places have different ways of dealing with intestates. I think this is fine to do, as different communities will have different opinions, so letting them decide will lead to less conflict. Overall, nice blog!
ReplyDeleteThis was beyond interesting Katherine! I’ve always wondered what would happen if you got into some kind of accident and unfortunately passed away but hadn’t spoke terms of the will. My first initial thought would be that your money went straight to your parents but that’s only if you’re a minor. If you are an adult then everything is distributed in crazy ways that you described perfectly! It’s so weird to think that in a year or two we have to start thinking about wills and where our own personal belongings should be distributed when we pass away. It kind of makes me sad that if you pass away and you want your best friend of 15 years to have your home but they can’t because they aren’t under the list of beneficiaries. Overall, great job Katherine!
ReplyDeleteI alway found this question/topic to be interesting. You did a great job at explaining it. I didn't think that it would be this complicated, but then again, there are a bunch of laws about this stuff to make sure the money is allocated correctly.
ReplyDeleteI've never really thought of the legal complications where a person dies without a will, so this was a unique reading experience to me. I wonder how much money would be taken out of liabilities, considering the potentially lengthy task of mapping out the family and dividing the properties equally.
ReplyDeleteWow! They amount of legal complications are astounding! As for your blog I thought that is was super unique and amazing that you provided a word bank that made your blog super smooth and could be understood. This made my reading experience much better and I very clearly understood your point of view.
ReplyDeleteMan there's a whole lot of red tape around these things when it really seems quite simple. Your section that included vocab was a really nice touch, good job!
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