Estate Planning as a Career

If a person passes on without estate planning of any kind, whether that planning is some kind of will or trust, they are said to have died intestate. Intestate law is the law that decides how assets are transferred and creditors satisfied if a person passes on without saying who gets the house, the car or the guarded family apple pie recipe. Intestacy law is a set of fall back provisions or rules that govern where the assets go, so that the state does not have to decide in each individual case what happens. Intestacy laws are like the default settings on computer program; they are there unless you intentionally alter them. Since most people die intestate, state intestacy laws govern how most people’s assets are distributed after their’ passing. Sometimes, even when a person has a valid will, if that will does not cover some portion of their property, then state intestacy laws will be used as gap-fillers or fallback measures so that all assets are covered.

Although state intestacy laws are best seen as a set of state laws that govern what happens to property left by those who did not make a will or trust, they also reflect some of the other needs a state has. First, states seem to make an attempt to ask what the normal person in the deceased place would want done with their assets. This is an important question because the answers given will reflect what state legislators think a “normal” person is and would want. It is easy for the legislature to over look non-traditional relationships, such as non-marital co-inhabitants, lesbian and gay life partners and children born out of wedlock or even stepchildren. This can bring about tremendous animosity among the people you care most about; so the best plan is to get a will or trust to protect those you love if nothing else.

However, your wishes are not the only goal that states keep in mind in (more…)