Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Hello. My aging father has been separated for 27 years from my mother. They are in the middle of a divorce, one that started about 4 years ago. It seems they will never agree and it will just drag out til one of them passes away.
My father, a well of man, is not very good at protecting and safeguarding his assets. I am 40 and I already made a will for my 3 year old son. My father doesn't work like that, unfortunately.
He said that he and my mother (through their attorneys) recently created a "void of..." something or another, which prevents the other from inheriting the other's assets should one pass away. He also said that he went to the bank and "willed" his accounts to me. But he hasn't done anything with his 8 properties, of which he currently co-owns with my mother. Can I will his half of the properties to me, should he perish before my mother does?
AND does a will have to be "official", or can he write one out, sign it, hand it to me w/out using an attorney or any other public official? I just have no clue how these things work and he asked me to find out for him. I know he should've done this, and done it years ago, but I cannot control his irresponsible ways.
Any help/advice would be much appreciate.
Thanks,
J
2 Answers from Attorneys
First of all, your father should be encouraged to consult with a qualified estate planning attorney in your area. Hopefully the divorce will be completed but if it is not and your father dies first, all of the properties could go to your mother, depending on how title is held. Even if they don't, transferring title to you will require his estate to be probated, which will cost tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees. To avoid the time and cost of probate, he should consider a trust, which he will need an attorney to assist.
Now, to answer your question specifically, if he refuses to speak to an attorney, he can handwrite a will, date it and sign it. It must be in his handwriting. This will not avoid probate.
Good luck.
I agree with Scotts advice. Your father can also use the California Statutory Will form that is on the State Bar web site. This and the hand written will are really "stop gap" tools, and the family will pay dearly for leaving assets to go through probate. You are not able to do a testamentary document for your father, he must do it.
The right thing to do is to engage an effective estate planning attorney to go over what he wants, either in the case of death or incapacity. This is not a horrible experience. You are hiring someone to make sure your wishes are respected and that things go smoothly with minimun disruption. I suspect he would be quite upset if his wishes were not respected, and the only way to assur they are correctly respected is to have him make the decisions and to implement them.
Good luck in your efforts to assist him in getting proper planning done.
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