Page 40 - Book10E

When we are is what we want to be, that’s happiness.
—Malcolm S. Forbes
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Getting too precise in your will
If you state specific dollar amounts in your will, you risk having your estate being distributed in a way that you really didn’t intend. Instead, use percentages wherever possible, particularly for the larger shares of your estate among your beneficiaries.
For example, suppose your estate is valued at $500,000 when you cre- ate your will, and you decide to leave most of it to your only daughter, except for $50,000 that you want to go to your only brother. Your intention is that your daughter will get 90 percent of your estate. But when you draft your will, you don’t state the particular percentage in your will; but instead, you state that $50,000 will go to your brother. (You figure that if the value of your estate rises your daughter will get
even more, but you want to keep your brother’s amount fixed at $50,000.)
But suppose that before you die the value of your estate decreases dramati- cally for some reason, such as a costly medical expense that uses up most of your estate. When you die, your estate is now worth $75,000. By preparing your
will as described above, your brother will still get $50,000, but now your daughter will only get $25,000.
If, however, you specified in your will that your daughter receive 90 percent and your brother 10 percent, then even though both will receive far less than they would have if your estate were still worth $500,000, at least your intentions of leaving most of your estate to your daughter will still be in effect.
Avoiding Common Mistakes and Problems in Your Will