Why You Need a Will: Intestacy Nightmares

We often hear people say, “My kids and spouse are my legal heirs. I don’t need a will, because they will get my assets anyway.” 

Everyone needs a will. If you do not have a valid will, then probate takes longer and costs more in legal fees, even in a perfect circumstance. The court must appoint an additional attorney (in addition to the one you hired) to prove that the proper heirs have gotten notice. 

Many intestate administrations are, frankly, nightmares. Did these decedents need a will? Yes, they did. A valid will would eliminate all these horrors:

1. Young man dies unexpectedly at age 35 with no spouse or kids. He has no will. He has accumulated assets worth $250k through hard work and saving. His mother raised him alone on meager wages and hard work, and the man’s birth father was physically abusive to his mother. Who inherits? 50% to mom, 50% to an abusive dad who never supported him financially. There was absolutely nothing to be done to stop this from happening.
2. Woman dies unexpectedly at 53 from COVID without a will. She has lived with a man for 15 years, wears a wedding ring but is not formally married to him. Her body sits in a cooler for 2 months while her children and paramour argue over whether he can be listed as “spouse” on the death certificate. A protracted argument over whether the couple was informally married under Texas law ensues in court, leaving everyone bitter and with large legal fees to pay.
3. A man dies without a will. He has no spouse, children or living parents. His siblings stand to inherit his estate under Texas law. All siblings are harmonious. One of the brothers predeceased the decedent. Under Texas law, that brother’s children take his share. The problem? The predeceased brother never formally adopted his wife’s child but raised him as his own child. He is an informally adopted child. The adult child who stands to inherit doesn’t even know that he was adopted at all. The heirship takes 2 years to complete as a result of these delays. In the meantime, the real estate in the decedent’s portfolio accumulates $30k in expense and decreases in fair market value as a result of market conditions.