Your will is designed to offer for the disposition of your possessions and tie up any free ends in your property. To perform these objectives, chances are you’ll embody particular bequests to named beneficiaries. For instance, you may want your daughter to inherit jewellery or art work that’s been within the household for generations.
However be cautious of constructing bequests that might finally lead to unintended outcomes. A frequent drawback beneath this state of affairs is that the deceased now not owns the asset on the date of dying. For instance, let’s say that Jim bequeaths considered one of his three kids 100 shares of a inventory that was value $100,000 a long time in the past when his authentic will was drafted. However, between then and the time of Jim’s dying, he had bought the inventory. Consequently, that bequest fails, and that youngster could possibly be left with lower than Jim had supposed.
In the same state of affairs, let’s say Debbie bequeaths actual property to her son and life insurance coverage proceeds to her daughter. However from the time Debbie contains the bequests in her will to the time of her dying, she sells the house and invests the cash, whereas finally permitting the life insurance coverage coverage to lapse.
On this scenario, one potential end result is for her kids to separate the funding account, which can be precisely as Debbie supposed. Probably, although, Debbie could have supposed that her son would obtain the funding account — in spite of everything, she reasoned, it was created with the proceeds from the sale of the home. Debbie could have deliberately let the life insurance coverage coverage lapse as a result of different belongings had already been transferred to her daughter. Slightly than create the uncertainty, Debbie may have left clear directions in order that her intentions had been recognized.
As you possibly can see, doling out particular bequests to beneficiaries can result in unintended outcomes. Contemplate that you could be not nonetheless personal the identical belongings at your dying as you do now. To keep away from this example, evaluate your will and revise as wanted frequently.
