Wills Lawyer Ridgefield, CT

Thinking about what happens to your property when you pass away can be a sobering, sad thought. However, creating a will can be one of the most important things you do in your life to take care of yourself and your family once you are gone. A will can protect your children, your spouse, and all of your assets. When you pass away, a will can denote how your items should be handled.


What Can a Will Help You Do?

  1. Power to decide the distribution of your estate. After you pass on, your will is the legally binding document that can decide how your estate is handled and by whom. Without a will, you might hope things are handled a certain way after your death, but there will be no legal guarantee that those hopes are carried out. You can better set your family up for success by having a legally binding document to determine how your estate will be distributed.
  2. Avoid the long probate process. All estates are required to go through some type of probate process. This will happen whether or not you have a will. The probate courts will determine how your estate will be divided if you have passed away without a will. On the contrary, if you have a will, the probate process is typically sped up because it will inform them of how you would like everything to be divided.
  3. It decides who takes care of minors. If you have underage children, a will can determine who is responsible for taking care of them once you pass away. By having a will, you can determine who is the most responsible and who you trust the most to raise your children if a tragedy happens. Without a will, the court will determine who a minor child should be raised by.
  4. You can choose who receives an inheritance. Without a will, the court will decide how your estate is divided up, which means it could end up in the wrong hands. By writing a will, you have the power to disinherit individuals who might otherwise have inherited your estate.
  5. It gives you flexibility. A will can be changed at any point. Frequent reasons for changes in wills are for life events, like deaths, divorces, and births.
  6. It can minimize your estate taxes. You can reduce the value of your estate when it comes time to pay your estate taxes by looking at the value of what you choose to give to charity or to your family.
  7. Donations. Many people choose to have their name live on in positive ways after their deaths by using their will to donate to charities. There is also a certain amount of money that can be gifted that may be excluded from your estate tax.

What Are My Next Steps?

Creating a will can make you think long and hard about what and who you value most in life. If you have any further questions about how to create a will or the benefits of creating a will, please contact a wills lawyer Ridgefield, CT trusts at Sweeney Legal today.