Every state has different laws regarding what happens to a person’s estate if they die without a will and about whether or not a lawyer must be involved in creating your will.
No States Require a Lawyer to Create Your Will
Ultimately, those who live in all 50 states along with the District of Columbia will find that it is not necessary to consult an estate planning attorney in order to create a valid will. However, it’s important to keep in mind that there are a number of cases in which consulting an attorney would be extremely advantageous:
- You have been married more than once and want to be sure that the children from each marriage are treated equally.
- You are thinking about disinheriting your spouse from your will.
- You anticipate that your will may be contested because of your desire to donate to a charitable organization or because of changes that you have made.
In other words, if you anticipate that there will be issues with the way that your family responds to your final choices, working with an estate planning attorney to create your will can ensure that your wishes are carried out.
Similarly, it is beneficial to consult an estate planning attorney to create your will if you are unfamiliar with whether or not your will needs to be notarized in order to go into effect, if you are unfamiliar with the requirements about who must sign your will in order to create a legal document.
Most importantly, however, you will find that if you want to do more estate planning than just the creation of a will – if you wish to assign medical power of attorney or to establish a trust, for example – state laws will again vary. In many cases, you will need to consult with an attorney in order to create a legally binding document.
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