Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Alabama

Re: correct form

Can you still use the will form? Well that depends. How much money is in the estate? If a lot of money then yes indeed, but make sure that I get to be the attorney to represent the estate - I could use that kind of attorney fees to help pay for my kids' colleges. OK, I'm just kidding. Get a lawyer! The following 19th Century poem by the Lord High Commissioner for Ireland (the Chief Justice) aptly demonstrates the reason:

The Jolly Testator Who Makes His Own Will

Ye lawyers who live upon litigants' fees,

And who need a good many to live at your ease,

Grave or gay, wise or witty, whate'er your degree,

Plain stuff or Queen's Counsel, take counsel of me:

When a festive occasion your spirit unbends,

You should never forget the profession's best friends;

So we'll send round the wine, and a light bumper fill

To the jolly testator who makes his own will.

He premises his wish and his purpose to save

All disputes among friends when he's laid to the grave;

Then he straightaway proceeds more disputes to create

Than a long summer's day would give time to relate.

He writes and erases, he blunders and blots,

He produces such puzzles and Gordian knots,

That a lawyer, intending to frame the thing ill,

Couldn't match the testator who makes his own will.

This poem is as true today as 150 years ago when Lord Neaves penned it. Spend a few hundred dollars on a lawyer to do it right. We're not that expensive - unless it is a multi-million dollar estate.

Sterling L. DeRamus

Attorney at Law

[email protected]