Most people have a concept of what a Will is. Easily, it is a Legal Document which holds the wishes of the deceased. It dictates how their Estate is to be handled after their death, who is appointed as Executor/Executrix, to whom their assets are to be distributed, etc… The aforementioned, Executor/Executrix, proceeds to pay all debts incurred by the deceased, all funeral arrangement expenses and then continues to follow the wishes of the deceased as it is written and witnessed in the Will.
Now we will use Jack and Jill as examples. Jack appropriately makes his Will out and leaves everything to his spouse Jill. He appoints her as Executrix unless they both perish at the same time then (for the sake of keeping this easy) he has his attorney on record as the Executor. Now remember, Jill perished so do not forget a residuary clause to name another beneficiary in your Will. You do not want the State to acquire your assets if there is no one else (family members). Also, if you are leaving someone out of your Will, such as a child from a previous marriage, you do not want the Will contested and held up in court. Make sure you state the reason why you do not want this person to receive any of your assets, such as “my child Beth Doe, from my previous marriage has already been compensated and monetarily taken care of”.
Back to Jill, she did not perish so Jill becomes the Executrix after filing the appropriate papers and is executing the wishes of her late husband, Jack. At the time Jack's Will was made, remember he was married (even if he wasn't married when his Will was made and later married Jill and made her the beneficiary, the result would not change).
Jack has a bank account that he acquired when he first started his job, he was not married at the time. On the account as beneficiary is his brother, Joe. Jack also has a life insurance policy through his company and Joe is also the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. Jack never thought of changing the beneficiary on his bank account or life insurance policy when he married Jill, especially since in his Will everything is left to his wife Jill. He accumulated over $250,000.00 in that account and was just keeping it as a retirement fund, while he had other accounts with his wife. His life insurance policy had a Death Premium of another $250,000.00.
Jill starts to liquidate the Estate paying off the appropriate bills, the funeral costs, filing for the life insurance premium, filing for Social Security Benefits and transferring monies out of accounts to another state as she was getting ready to move. Jill is rejected from receiving the monies from his life insurance policy and is also rejected from transferring the monies out of the bank with his brother as beneficiary. She is informed that she has no right to the money in the bank nor does she have a right to the premium from the insurance company. Jill goes to her attorney and shows him the Will where everything is left to her. Her attorney proceeds to explain to her that since Jack never changed the beneficiary on either account, she has no claim to that money, it all belongs to his brother Joe. The beneficiary on a bank account or life insurance policy overrides the wishes in a Will.
When you make your Will, make sure all your assets have the Beneficiary you want. I tried to keep this simple and I hope this helps someone.
