August is National Make a Will Month, which makes it a pretty good time to talk about that thing sitting somewhere between “clean out the garage” and “organize 14 years of photos” on your mental to-do list.
Your will.
If you are somewhere between 35 and 65, there is a good chance you are already managing a ridiculous number of responsibilities. You may be raising children, helping adult children, checking on aging parents, managing a career, maintaining a house, worrying about retirement, and occasionally wondering when exactly you became the person everyone calls when something goes wrong.
Welcome to the sandwich generation.
And while you are busy taking care of everyone else, your own planning can be very easy to push aside.
The problem is that “I’ll get to it eventually” is not actually an estate plan.
A Will Is Not Just for Wealthy People
One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that wills are for people with large estates.
They are not.
A will is about direction.
It lets you put in writing who you want to receive certain probate assets, who you want to handle the administration of your estate, and other wishes that may be appropriate for your situation.
The Florida Bar recommends that people who own property and want control over how that property is distributed after death consider having a will, regardless of the value of the property.
You do not need a vacation home in Aspen and a mysterious family trust to benefit from one.
You might have a house.
A checking account.
A car.
Personal belongings.
Children.
Grandchildren.
A second marriage.
An unmarried partner.
A family member you specifically want to provide for.
Or perhaps someone you specifically do not want making decisions after you are gone.
Those are real-life reasons to plan.
What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Florida?
If you die without a valid will, you have not left Florida with a blank piece of paper.
Florida already has rules.
They are called intestacy laws, and they determine who receives probate assets when someone dies without a valid will.
Who receives what can depend on whether you are married, whether you have descendants, whether those descendants are also descendants of your surviving spouse, and other family circumstances.
In other words, dying without a will does not mean nobody gets anything.
It means you are allowing state law to make certain inheritance decisions instead of leaving your own written instructions.
Maybe Florida’s default plan happens to match what you would want.
Maybe it does not.
Personally, I would rather not leave that particular surprise for everyone to discover after the funeral.
“But My Family Knows What I Want.”
Maybe they do.
Until they don’t.
People remember conversations differently. Grief makes everything harder. Families who normally get along can suddenly disagree about Mom’s jewelry, Dad’s tools, who was “supposed” to get the car, or what somebody allegedly promised somebody else at Thanksgiving in 2017.
Clear written instructions will not solve every possible family disagreement.
But ambiguity certainly does not help.
Planning ahead gives the people you trust something much more useful than, “I think this is what she wanted.”
The Sandwich Generation Has an Extra Reason to Stop Procrastinating
If you are caring for people on both sides of you, planning becomes even more important.
You may be helping an aging parent manage appointments while still financially helping a 24-year-old who has somehow determined that your refrigerator is a community resource.
You may have accumulated a home, retirement accounts, insurance, vehicles and decades of personal property while simultaneously feeling like you are nowhere near “estate planning age.”
Here is the secret.
There is no estate planning age.
There is simply a point at which other people would have to figure things out if you could no longer explain it yourself.
That is why planning matters now.
Start With Five Decisions
You do not need to understand every legal term before you begin.
Start by thinking through five basic questions:
- Who are the people you want to receive your property?
- Who would you trust to handle the responsibilities of administering your estate?
- Are there particular items or gifts you want to leave to specific people?
- If someone you name dies before you, what would you want to happen to that person’s share?
- Is there anything about your family, property or wishes that makes your situation more complicated than a simple estate plan?
That fifth question matters.
Blended families, estranged relatives, business ownership, significant assets, special-needs beneficiaries, complicated real estate ownership, tax concerns, contested family situations and other circumstances may warrant advice from a Florida estate planning attorney.
Knowing when you need an attorney is part of good planning too.
Then Gather the Information
This is the part people make much harder than it needs to be.
You do not need to spend six weekends creating a command center with color-coded tabs unless that brings you joy.
For a basic planning conversation, start gathering:
Your legal name and identifying information.
The names of the people you want included in your plan.
The person you are considering to handle your estate.
Basic information about your home and other significant property.
Existing beneficiary designations.
Information about children or other important beneficiaries.
Any specific gifts you want documented.
And any existing estate planning documents you already have.
You are trying to create clarity, not submit evidence to Congress.
Start with what you know.
A Will Does Not Control Everything You Own
This is an important distinction.
A will generally directs the distribution of probate assets. Some assets may transfer outside a will because of the way they are titled or because they have beneficiary designations.
That is why a will should not exist completely by itself in a drawer while the rest of your financial life goes in twelve different directions.
Beneficiary designations, account ownership, property ownership and your estate planning documents should all be reviewed as part of your overall organization.
This is also one of the reasons I am such a believer in having a Legacy Binder.
The will is important.
But the person trying to settle your affairs may also need to know where you bank, what bills need attention, what insurance you have, how to access important records, who your professionals are, what subscriptions should be canceled, where the deed is, and approximately 900 other things nobody thinks about until they need them.
The paperwork and the practical information need to be able to find each other.
A Florida Will Has to Be Properly Executed
Printing a document and putting it in your desk drawer does not automatically mean you have properly executed a Florida will.
Florida law has specific execution requirements. For a traditional written will, the testator must sign as required by law, and the signing or acknowledgment must occur in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses. The witnesses must also sign in the presence of the testator and each other.
Florida law also provides a procedure for making a properly executed will self-proving, which can simplify proof of the will during probate.
This is one of those places where “close enough” is not the goal.
You want documents prepared and executed correctly.
What Life: Sorted Can Help With
For people with straightforward wishes who already know the decisions they want reflected in their documents, Life: Sorted offers Florida document preparation services designed to make the process less overwhelming.
You provide the information and the decisions.
I help organize that information and prepare the documents based on what you provide.
I can also help you organize the bigger picture through the Life: Sorted Legacy Binder so important information is not scattered between a filing cabinet, an old laptop, three drawers and whatever that pile is on the kitchen counter.
Life: Sorted is a nonlawyer document preparation and organization service. I do not provide legal advice, tell you what legal choices you should make, or represent you as an attorney.
If your circumstances require legal advice, I will encourage you to speak with a qualified Florida attorney.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with needing an attorney.
The goal is not to avoid attorneys.
The goal is to get you to the right level of help for your situation.
Do Not Let “I Need to Think About It” Become Another Five Years
This may be the most important part of this entire article.
You do not have to finish everything today.
But do something today.
Write down the people you would want involved.
Locate your existing will.
Check whether the beneficiaries on your accounts are still the people you intend.
Make a list of your major assets.
Talk with your spouse or partner.
Schedule an appointment.
Start your Legacy Binder.
Pick one thing and move it forward.
Because there will never be a magical Saturday morning when the laundry is finished, your parents need nothing, your children need nothing, the house needs nothing, work is completely caught up, and you suddenly think:
“You know what sounds fun today? Estate planning.”
That day is not coming.
Put it on the calendar anyway.
Your Family Should Not Need a Detective License
One of the greatest gifts you can give the people who will someday have to handle your affairs is clarity.
Not perfection.
Not enormous wealth.
Not a 75-page estate plan nobody understands.
Clarity.
What did you want?
Who did you trust?
Where is everything?
What needs to happen next?
Those answers matter.
August may be Make a Will Month, but the real goal is not simply to make a will.
It is to stop leaving important decisions for “someday.”
If a simple Florida will and better organization are what have been keeping you stuck, Life: Sorted can help you take the information and decisions you already have and turn them into an organized plan.
Learn more at lifesorted.llc or call 321-244-8885.
Your future self cannot thank you for getting this done.
But the people you trust probably will.
Disclaimer
Life: Sorted, LLC is a nonlawyer document preparation and organization service and does not provide legal advice or legal representation. Information in this article is for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed Florida attorney. Legal requirements and individual circumstances vary. If you have questions about your legal rights, the legal effect of a document, or which estate planning options are appropriate for you, consult a qualified attorney.
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