Video Script Below
I’m Steve Kramer. I’m a Florida estate planning and probate attorney. And today’s question is what happens if you die and you don’t have a will? Well, I’m going to tell you. That’s called ‘intestacy.’ And what that means is that when you don’t have a will and you die, your assets still get passed on and they’ll go through what’s called a ‘probate.’ Now if you had a will that will would basically prescribe a set of rules for the probate. It would be kind of like a computer program and a computer, it would tell it how to do things. Well, a will would tell the court how to probate your assets. If you don’t have a will, then the court has to do that and they do that by what’s called operation of law. So if you don’t have a will, what it basically means is that the government will decide how your assets pass on from you to your kids or heirs. Right? And that can be different depending on the year. The legislature may change the law this year or next year. But the legislature will ultimately decide how your assets get passed on. I’m telling you this because this is important because most people when they work their entire lives and they work hard to save money or you know accumulate assets, they want to decide how their assets get passed on. They want to decide you know whether their kids get them, their brother, their neighbors, whoever charity, whatever. They want to decide how their assets get passed on. Most people don’t like the idea that the government gets to decide who gets your money. And if that bothers you, then it’s probably worth sitting down with an estate planning attorney. And if you’re in this situation, it’s real important to sit down with probate attorney. Because you know there might be stones that haven’t been turned over yet. You know, there might be other options. There might be some will that we don’t know about it. And part of what we do as probate attorneys is find those wills. So if you have questions about intestacy, probate estate planning or anything else, call me any time. That’s why we’re one firm for life; we’re ready to help with any legal issue you’ve got. So pick up the phone. Thanks for watching, I’m Steve Kramer.
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