Even if you have taken the trouble to make your own Last Will legal documents, you must still ensure that you have addressed all the formalities as laid down by the laws in your state. Failure to meet the statutory requirements means that your Last Will may not be accepted as being legally binding on your beneficiaries at law.
Another spin-off to not creating a Last Will is that by not creating one it will put unnecessary stress in the minds of the surviving relatives; surprisingly, many Americans fail to understand the need to make a Last Will and their ignorance or folly can cause surviving relatives to undergo much stress and bother in dealing with the estate of a deceased person that has not made out a Last Will.
Anyone that is of sound mind and who is a legal adult can create a Last Will. In the US the minimum age for making out this legal document is eighteen years and in addition there are certain guidelines given by the states in the US to determine whether a person is of sound mind or not and competent to make the Last Will.
These guidelines include that the person must be competent enough to understand and be conversant with the minutest details of their property and they should also know whom to leave the property to and also be aware of how to leave this property to their beneficiaries. At the same time there is no legal requirement that a person be of a certain intellectual capacity or be someone that enjoys the best of mental health.
It is only necessary to be able to write the Last Will legibly. Unless you are mentally deranged or who are incapable of writing a will; under normal circumstances you can create a Last Will for yourself if the aforementioned criteria do not apply to you.
You need to also ensure that Last Will legal documents contain the names as well as addresses of guardians of your children that are presently not old enough to make decisions on their own. Other instructions that you will need to write down in your Last Will include how you want to gift money or even property and also the complete names and addresses of the beneficiaries.
In case you fail to follow the formalities of a Last Will your Last Will will not be legally binding and this will lead to much stress and suffering for your heirs at law. It is therefore most important that before you get started with creating Last Will Legal Documents to understand all the legal formalities and then create the will according to these formalities.
Finally, you can specify in your Last Will how your funeral is to take place and you can also create a trust if you so desire.
Another spin-off to not creating a Last Will is that by not creating one it will put unnecessary stress in the minds of the surviving relatives; surprisingly, many Americans fail to understand the need to make a Last Will and their ignorance or folly can cause surviving relatives to undergo much stress and bother in dealing with the estate of a deceased person that has not made out a Last Will.
Anyone that is of sound mind and who is a legal adult can create a Last Will. In the US the minimum age for making out this legal document is eighteen years and in addition there are certain guidelines given by the states in the US to determine whether a person is of sound mind or not and competent to make the Last Will.
These guidelines include that the person must be competent enough to understand and be conversant with the minutest details of their property and they should also know whom to leave the property to and also be aware of how to leave this property to their beneficiaries. At the same time there is no legal requirement that a person be of a certain intellectual capacity or be someone that enjoys the best of mental health.
It is only necessary to be able to write the Last Will legibly. Unless you are mentally deranged or who are incapable of writing a will; under normal circumstances you can create a Last Will for yourself if the aforementioned criteria do not apply to you.
You need to also ensure that Last Will legal documents contain the names as well as addresses of guardians of your children that are presently not old enough to make decisions on their own. Other instructions that you will need to write down in your Last Will include how you want to gift money or even property and also the complete names and addresses of the beneficiaries.
In case you fail to follow the formalities of a Last Will your Last Will will not be legally binding and this will lead to much stress and suffering for your heirs at law. It is therefore most important that before you get started with creating Last Will Legal Documents to understand all the legal formalities and then create the will according to these formalities.
Finally, you can specify in your Last Will how your funeral is to take place and you can also create a trust if you so desire.
