| POUR OVER WILLS….read on
READER QUESTION:
Am I to assume that, because I personally own a car, and all my other assets are in a revocable trust or have a beneficiary, my will has to go through probate anyway? Wasn’t one of the reasons to set up the trust to avoid the cost and time to probate the will?
MY RESPONSE:
If all of your assets avoid probate, there is no reason to probate the will just because you have one. You only probate the will when you need legal authority to transfer an asset on your death. If everything knows where to go, we do not probate the will.
If the plan was set up to avoid probate, then why do we do a will at all? Because I have to assume that every client is going to screw up my plan. 😊
If a mistake is made and you die owning something that is not in the trust, is not held jointly, and/or does not name a beneficiary, then the will can be very helpful to clean things up. We call this type of will a “pour over” will. The will simply says that the beneficiary of your will is the revocable trust…that it pours over the asset into the trust. This way everything remains coordinated… if necessary.
I hope this helps! |
