Do you know what is being done in your community to protect the citizens from crime? Do you have a crime-watch program? Is there a community website that lists the current investigations and events that may have recently occurred? Law enforcement officials can only do so much when it comes to protecting a community. If your community is not active in protecting itself, crime rates could rise and many residents could find themselves the target or victim of crimes. Visit my blog to find out what you can do as a community to lower crime rates and help the law enforcement officials do their jobs.
The need for everyone to make out a will is so well-known that few people have not heard about it, and perhaps even taken steps to do so. Unfortunately, a will is not a "one and done" type of thing. As your life undergoes changes, so should your will, and one problematic result of leaving your will languishing and stale is a thing called ademption. To learn about this issue, what it means and how to avoid it, read on.
When assets go awry
When you created your will, you probably went about it in a couple of different ways. Some people prefer to keep it purposefully vague by leaving their entire estate to their children or spouse, to be divided equally. It is left up to those survivors as to exactly how to divide things like cars, furniture, jewelry and, most puzzling, a house. Others leave clear instructions on who they want to inherit certain items. For example, you may want your oldest daughter to get your silver tea service and you specify that in your will. What happens, however, if the item you have left to someone is no longer available? Suppose you decided to sell that tea service when you needed money, or that someone broke into your home and made away with it?
Ademption
When property that was specifically mentioned and bequeathed to someone is no longer available, regardless of the reason, it is dealt with in one of two ways, depending on whether it's cash or property.
1. Cash is considered part of the estate, but the way it's handled when missing differs from other types of property. Cash can be actual paper money, gold, coins, funds in checking and savings accounts, and more. If you leave a certain amount of cash to someone, it cannot be adeemed. That means that it cannot simply be forgotten, the bequest must still be honored. For example, if you leave the funds in your savings account to your nephew and that account gets emptied and closed, the funds cannot be adeemed. Your nephew still deserves his inheritance, so the amount of money in the account at the time it was closed is still owned to him. That money must come from the estate, somehow, even if an asset must be sold.
2. Property is also considered part of the estate, but when it goes missing it is considered to be adeemed. Unfortunately for your beneficiaries, property that is not considered cash cannot be replaced. You must address any issues of missing property before your death, since the executor of the will has no power to give one of your beneficiaries a substitution when property is missing.
Check out sites like http://wrightlawidaho.com/ and speak to a estate attorney about this issue and keep your wills and other estate plans active and current to avoid ademption.
Share18 January 2018
