What an Estate Planning Attorney Can Do to Assist You in Writing Your Will

Many people find it quite difficult to make decisions about what will happen to their property and possessions when they pass away. This is understandable because contemplating one's own death might be a difficult thing to comprehend. In order to be fully prepared for death, it is necessary to make a will and to take additional precautions in advance. A person's property can be used to deter or even eliminate the need for litigation over that person's property. Because this is such a involved topic, and because there are numerous possibilities for disposing of one's property, an Los Angeles estate planning lawyer can be quite beneficial in guiding a person of any age decide how their property should be divided and distributed. An estate planning attorney can assist with a variety of tasks, including but not limited to the drafting of a will.

A will is a legal document in which the writer, or testator, names a person to administer his or her estate after his or her death and specifies how his or her property will be split after his or her death. It is necessary to meet certain conditions while writing a will and ensuring that it is genuine. Due to the fact that only valid wills have legal effect, failing to observe a required formality or meet a requirement will result in the will having no legal effect and the property being distributed in accordance with the norms of distribution for persons who have died without leaving a will. This can frequently produce effects that are diametrically opposed to what the testator intended.

Everyone who wishes to make a will in any state must have the necessary mental capacity to do so. The need for this is that you be of the age of majority and have the necessary mental capacity to comprehend the implications of making a will. Although there will be enough of evidence available confirming a testator's age, establishing a testator's mental capacity is more difficult to establish. In some cases, talking about the writing of one's will and the disposal of one's property with an Los Angeles estate planning lawyer may reveal significant details of a testator's mental state and his or her understanding of what he or she was doing at the time of the writing of the will.

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Other requirements differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and an Los Angeles estate planning lawyer can assist in determining which requirements a testator must follow in order to draft a legal will in the state in which they currently reside. For example, some states require a declaration that the document is the testator's last will and testament, while others require a declaration that the testament revokes all previous wills. Other states require specific language regarding how clearly the property and beneficiaries must be identified.

Additionally, there are certain formal requirements that must be met in order for the will to be legally binding, such as the testator's signature and the date on which the will is made. Additionally, each jurisdiction has its own regulations regarding who can and cannot be a witness to a will in addition to the formal criteria. This may include standards for legal age and mental capacity, as well as laws governing whether or not property can be bequeathed to a person who saw the will's execution. The location of where the witnesses must sign the will and whether or not they must sign the will in the presence of the testator are also governed by the law. They may even sign the will at a later period.