Pros and Cons of Using a Will

In my last post, I discussed what a will is and who needs one. You can read that post here!

When you meet with your estate planning attorney, one of the biggest decisions you will need to make is whether you want to use a will or a trust to achieve your estate planning goals.

Today, I want to talk about the pros and cons of using a will (we will talk about trusts in a later post!)

What is the value of using a will? What are some limitations to consider?

PROS

You Make Your Wishes Known

A will makes your wishes known, so everyone understands how you want your property divided. Maybe you want the house to go to your oldest daughter and your bank account to go to your son. Or perhaps you prefer everything divided equally. This is what a will does - it makes your wishes known to your loved ones.

You Can Choose Your People

A will allows you to nominate a guardian for your minor children and an executor to your estate. You can choose who will assume these roles once you are no longer here. These are things that you can’t do with trust.

I talk in more detail about these in this post. Please check it out if you would like to know why these are important to have!

CONS

Lack of Privacy

When you tell your family your wishes through a will, you are essentially telling the world.

When your will becomes in effect, it must go through the probate process if you have more than a certain amount of value in your property. In Illinois, that number is $100,000, and when you think about combining the value of your home, your bank accounts, and your vehicles, it isn’t difficult to reach $100,000 in property value.

Once your property goes through probate, it becomes part of the public record. So, if there is anything in your affairs that you wish to remain private, a will cannot give you that privacy. Anyone interested can go and see the information in your will.

Are there millions of people going through a database of wills? Chances are, probably not! However, there is the possibility that someone with bad intentions can access the information and use that to approach someone named in your will, i.e., someone who receives a gift from you upon your death.

It is also important to note that the probate process has a cost attached to it. This cost could range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars depending on different factors and is something you should consult with your attorney.

Lack of Control

Once a decision is made, there is no changing it.

Another limitation of a will is that any asset you allocate is effectively distributed shortly after your death. Therefore, you will have no say over what happens to that asset once it is in a beneficiary's name. In order words, once the decision is made, and the will is effective, you no longer control how your assets are managed -- the beneficiary does.

Let’s take this example….

You have a vacation property that you have worked hard to purchase so your family can spend quality time together. You want this property to stay in the family, so you give it to your children in your will. Let's say you have two children, and you divide the property 50/50 between them. You tell your kids you would love for them to keep this property for the next 20 years, and they all agree and say, "that sounds great!"

Well, once this property is given to them in the will, it is not their property, and they have the right to do anything they want with it. So if they want to turn around and sell it immediately, they could! If one of your children wants to sell it, but the other doesn't, they could sell their portion.

In other words, a will allows you to designate where or to whom your property will go, but that is it. After that, the beneficiary of that property will be able to make whatever decisions they want about it.

This may be perfectly fine with you!

And that's okay! However, when I talk about this with my clients, many of them do care. Especially parents with young children or teenage children (then they REALLY care!) And the reason is that they don't want their young children to make poor financial decisions while they are still young and developing. A will cannot give you this level of control if that is what you want.

Let’s Recap

Almost all adults will need some type of will. There are many benefits to having a will but also a few limitations that are worth considering. In some cases, a will is the perfect solution and is all you need! In other cases, using a trust instead is the best option because of the additional features it can offer.

I hope you found this information helpful! If there are any questions you have about wills, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks!

Jayme

Are you ready to take control?

Follow these steps to get the ball rolling in your court!

Download our Estate Planning Workbook to help you think through some of the questions you will be required to answer
Review our Estate Planning pricing plans to learn more about how we help you plan for your future.
Get started working with us when you are ready to take control of your legacy!

Contact