Wills Introduction

Question 1

Intestate Succession Basic Idea

Answer 1

Property is distributed along a fixed set of rules to your relatives if you die without any instructions saying where your stuff should go.

Question 2

Wills Basic Idea

Answer 2

Society allowed a person during life to determine where property was to pass upon death. There’s no constitutional right to dead hand control. Most states have strict compliance with formalities.

CA permits a will with “harmless errors” with the formalities to be probated under some circumstances.

Question 3

Will Substitutes - Probate Avoidance

Answer 3

This is a form of avoiding probate. Some property passes outside the will as a format.

When you distribute someone’s property, you gotta pull out the nonprobate property first.

Question 4

Nonprobate Property

Answer 4

Gratuitous transfers of property that pass upon death but not under the testator’s will or through intestacy.

Nonprobate property must first be removed from the decedent’s estate.

Question 5

Examples of Nonprobate Estates

Answer 5

1) Inter vivos gifts
2) Inter vivos trusts (living trusts govern it, not the will)
3) Future interests (like a life estate to A with remainder to B)
4) Co-ownership of property
-> Tenancy in common (no survivorship)
-> Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship (goes to surviving joint tenant, not under the dead guy’s will)
5) Assets held in pay-on-death format:
-> Bank accounts
-> Corporate securities
-> Life insurance
-> Retirement plans
-> Annuities
-> 401ks