Chapter 6: Wills 101
The Basics

Homer’s a laid-back sort of guy. His heart’s in the right place, but he doesn’t want to go through all those formalities. He tells his wife, Marge, that he wants to leave everything to her, and he even scrawls that message on the back of a bar napkin. Any chance that these informal “wills” are going to do the trick?

A will is a revocable transfer to take effect on death. Wills have been with us since the first days of recorded history. Archaeologists have found 4500-year-old hieroglyphics leaving property to others in Egyptian tombs. Bible readers recall that Jacob left Joseph a larger inheritance than his brothers received, and the trouble that caused.

Whether in ancient Egypt or modern America, all wills are different. What you put in yours depends on what property you have, whom you want it to go to, the dynamics of your family, and so on. You’ve already taken a big step toward preparing to write your will by preparing the list of objectives and inventory of assets and debts described in Chapter 2. This chapter answers some of the basic questions many people ask before they start to create a will, and sets out the basic principles the law requires of them.