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Posted by Benjamin Yazersky CPA on November 4, 2007, 7:33 am
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> The lawyer who drew up my will told me that the specific
> guidelines I suggest/desire being followed for the care of
> companion animals be attached in a separate document to the
> will and it should not be typed. I suspect he would
> suggest the same approach for the disposal of a small
> genealocial collection on my family, but am not 100% sure.
>
> I've seen explicit animal care instructions, mostly to do
> with set aside money, which mine don't, written into a
> will. I've always seen explicit bequest instructions laid
> out in the body of wills. So why is he removing these
> "wishes/bequests" from the body of the will, and why should
> it be handwritten?
>
> My best guesses are:
>
> 1) The handwritten nature allows some form of legal
> verification that I was the one writing the material,
> without the need for notarization, whereas a typed statement
> could have been written by anyone (altho couldn't my
> signature after typed material be verified?).
>
> 2) Keeping "protocols" as he referred to them (about the
> animals, in particular) out of the will, would allow me to
> easily change them without having to rewrite the will and
> renotarize it.It was quite clear I wasn't competely sure of
> how I wanted to do things, just a general approach.
>
> At the time of doing the will (essentially a simple one,
> with only a couple of token cash bequests, and the bequest
> of the balance of my estate to my sister), it was very
> important to get it done that day so as to remove an
> inappropriate beneficiary. I had typed up a prototype of
> how i would like the animals taken care of but it wasn't
> written in stone or well worded at that point. Would the
> situational aspects of getting the will done right away have
> caused him to recommend the handwritten attachments (which I
> was told, are NOT codicils, which he hates)? He did keep a
> copy of my rough draft, but there was no reminder then or
> since to rewrite it by hand and send him a copy which he
> would attach to his copy of the will.
>
> Is any/all of this standard operating procedure, given the
> circumstances or is this a questionable approach to these
> issues?
First of all this is a legal, not a tax issue. That being
said, I tend to think that how state law deals with
handwritten items in a will will be treated is of
importance.
___________________________________
<<< Benjamin Yazersky, CPA [NJ & NY] >>>
-----> real address on hobokeni or hobokenx <-----
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