Estate Planning: Wills, Trusts, and Probate
Wills
What is an Estate?
● The legal entity created to have legal title to your stuff after you die until we figure out what to do with it
● This area of law, if practiced well, does not involve disputes because we engage in Estate Planning
● Estates are used to distribute property to heirs and to pay debts of the decedent (debts, generally, take priority over
inheritance)
● The legal process of dealing with your stuff after your death is called probate
Will- document by which an individual provides for the distribution of his or her property upon death
● A writing
● Provides binding legal instructions
Witnessed- a document is witnessed when the witness signs his or her name attesting that he or she observed the execution of a
particular document or instrument
Real Property- land, including anything affixed to the land or growing upon the land
Personal Property- goods and money
Testator/Testatrix- a person who has made a will; a testator is a man, testatrix is a woman
● "The Last Will and Testament of John Smith"
Types of Wills:
Formal Will- the type usually prepared by attorneys; needs witnesses
● Subscribe- to sign one's name at the end of a document
● Acknowledge- to affirm that a document is genuine
● Beneficiaries- a person named in the will who will benefit from a transfer of specific property; cannot be a witness
● This kind of written document manifests testamentary intent- shows that it is clearly a will and not some other kind of writing
● Typed wills must be witnessed
● Must be dated
● Beneficiary may act as the executor
Holographic Will- handwritten by the testator; does not need a witness
● Also must be subscribed
● Also must be dated
Nuncupative Will- an oral will made by one on his or her deathbed
● Not valid in every jurisdiction
● Disfavored
● In Mississippi, an oral will is only valid if made during the testator's "final illness" and must be witnessed by two disinterested
persons
Wills
What is an Estate?
● The legal entity created to have legal title to your stuff after you die until we figure out what to do with it
● This area of law, if practiced well, does not involve disputes because we engage in Estate Planning
● Estates are used to distribute property to heirs and to pay debts of the decedent (debts, generally, take priority over
inheritance)
● The legal process of dealing with your stuff after your death is called probate
Will- document by which an individual provides for the distribution of his or her property upon death
● A writing
● Provides binding legal instructions
Witnessed- a document is witnessed when the witness signs his or her name attesting that he or she observed the execution of a
particular document or instrument
Real Property- land, including anything affixed to the land or growing upon the land
Personal Property- goods and money
Testator/Testatrix- a person who has made a will; a testator is a man, testatrix is a woman
● "The Last Will and Testament of John Smith"
Types of Wills:
Formal Will- the type usually prepared by attorneys; needs witnesses
● Subscribe- to sign one's name at the end of a document
● Acknowledge- to affirm that a document is genuine
● Beneficiaries- a person named in the will who will benefit from a transfer of specific property; cannot be a witness
● This kind of written document manifests testamentary intent- shows that it is clearly a will and not some other kind of writing
● Typed wills must be witnessed
● Must be dated
● Beneficiary may act as the executor
Holographic Will- handwritten by the testator; does not need a witness
● Also must be subscribed
● Also must be dated
Nuncupative Will- an oral will made by one on his or her deathbed
● Not valid in every jurisdiction
● Disfavored
● In Mississippi, an oral will is only valid if made during the testator's "final illness" and must be witnessed by two disinterested
persons
