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    JustPassingThroughDara Sharif
    4/19/19 9:05am

    We always talk about wills, but I want to add that trusts are extremely important for folks who are single. When you have no children and no spouse, your heirs can be family that you actually do not want to inherit your assets. Unfortunately, wills have to go through probate; trusts, on the other hand, stand on much firmer ground (at least that appears to be the case in my state).

    For example, I own a home and my mother lives with me. If I die, the only person who get this home is my mother, followed by my sister and my nephew. Notwithstanding, I have a father who I’m on good terms with, but he didn’t raise me for much of my childhood. I do not want him inheriting much of anything from my estate.

    The only way to ensure my father does not inherit my assets, was to put everything I own into a living trust. I could’ve done a will, but wills can be contested in probate and my father is definitely the type to go to court for some extra change despite my wishes.

    If you are single with no kids, and you know there are folks you do not want to be an heir, you need to look into setting up a trust. There is so much piece of mind once you get that officially setup. Everything in the trust is outside of probate and is clearly transferred to your heirs by the trustee that you have already named in the trust itself.

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      Darth TigrisJustPassingThrough
      4/19/19 11:50am

      OR you can be like me have no assets for anyone to fight over ...

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      ROCNationJustPassingThrough
      4/19/19 12:03pm

      It’s probably just as, if not more important, to have a trust if you’re married and/or have kids. My friends established their trust (and custody for the kid) as soon as they were expecting a child. If anyone dies, the kid doesn’t lose their home while tied up in probate.

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    Once You Pop, You Can’t StopDara Sharif
    4/19/19 8:13am

    Half those people he didn’t even want to see get a penny. I’m still amazed he didn’t have a will because he was such a savvy businessman and wasn’t on terms with all of his legal heirs, but maybe being JW, he thought nothing about his earthly stuff mattered once he died. (I’m not JW—just guessing).

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    Old white guyDara Sharif
    4/19/19 10:15am

    A will doesn’t solve everything, though. Several years ago, a friend of the family, who had no known relatives, died, leaving everything to my uncle and father. Most of the estate was fine and settled, it she had a condo, and the court said that if she had a relative, they needed to have the option of the home. So the lawyers spent about a third of the value of the condo doing genealogy studies and searching the old country (Poland and Germany) looking for some third cousin. I believe my uncle passed before it was settled.

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    SessoMatto (Yes, I'm really fun at parties.)Dara Sharif
    4/18/19 11:35pm

    Part of me thinks that it must have just not mattered to him what would happen once he was gone.

    He was so exquisitely detail oriented about absolutely everything else!

    I just wish they’d work it out so that more live sets can be released.

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    Bronx Resident Benjamin WhiteDara Sharif
    4/19/19 6:40am

    This is why you need a damn will. 

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      SuppperBronx Resident Benjamin White
      4/19/19 4:39pm

      Not necessarily.  Wills still have to be probated.  And in most states, attorney’s fees on a probate are calculated based on the FMV of the estate’s property, so if it’s taking this long just to value the property, him having a will likely wouldn’t have changed things much. 

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    SessoMatto (Yes, I'm really fun at parties.)Dara Sharif
    4/19/19 4:27am

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