Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New Jersey
Writing a Will
I am 49; my husband is 51. We have four daughters, ages 28, 27, 23 (those 3 live on their own sharing an apartment) and 16 (living with us). My husband an I want to write a will. We don't have much, but we each have a life insurance policy (total for both $500,000) and a house for which we owe around $280,000. In the event the two of us should die at the same time, we would like for the mortgage to be paid off so that the four girls own it free and clear and then they can either live in it or sell it; and the remaining proceeds split between the four. How do we stipulate this in the will? (We want to do it this way because they are not very responsible with money.)
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Writing a Will
You may want to re-think having all 4 children own your house. In my experience, that is rarely, if ever, a good idea. It would probably be better to direct a sale of the property with the net proceeds [after paying the mortgage] divided equally.
If you are concerned that the children are not financially responsible, you should consider leaving their shares in trust. You could also direct that the life insurance proceeds be added to the trust for each child.
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