Foundation Trusts

Should you have real estate property and kids under your responsibility, you must ensure that you write a will for yourself. The Will should explain who would take ownership of your property and assets after your death. Should one die without leaving a will, he would be called as a Testator. If a person dies without having his father/mother or any other ancestors leaving a will on him, he would be called as an Intestate.

To understand Wills and Trusts, one would need to understand the clear definition of probate estate. All solely owned property constitutes Probate Estate. The property must not be classified as one that could pass to someone else, as mandated by the state's operational law. Property held jointly with the clause of survivorship has some twists.

Let us take an example:

Two brothers have a jointly owned property and one day, one of the brothers die. This does not mean that the property ownership would be transferred to the kin of the person who died. In this case, the other brother who held the property will assume sole ownership of the property. Wills and Trusts have legal paradigm attached to them, and hence deciding whether you need a will or not is entirely dependent on you. There are no tips or guides available to educate you if you require a will. The only thing I can tell you is, for you to consider if there is someone responsible to look after your assets after your death. If you think there is one, you could write a will just so to ensure that there are no conflicts in your home after your death by appointing an executor in the will that would be responsible for making sure that your wishes are fulfilled.

Remember, your will should be in line with the state law to ensure that you do not line yourselves up on the wrong side of the law. A simple will statement would be something like “After I die, the ownership of all my real estate property would be transferred to my daughter”. A will statement like the one quoted implies that the daughter would be able to claim ownership of her father's property after her father's death.

One important note for anyone who wishes to prepare a will must consider is that for a will to be legally binding, it does not need to have complex legal language. A simple document with straightforward language is all that is required and most stationary stores carry forms that can be easily filled out. A trust however is something quite different as there are various types of trusts and would normally requires the aid of an attorney to make sure that they are properly executed. So do not confuse wills and trusts as they are quite different from each other with the only commonality between them being that they are both instruments for passing property.

Foundation Trusts |