• Will
• Beneficiary designation
• Transfer-on-death (or pay-on-death) designation
• Specific titling
• Contract
• Living trust
With so many transfer options available, is a will or trust even necessary?
For many people the answer is yes. For example, the death-time transfer of assets cannot always be adequately managed with titling, contract, or transfer-on-death designations. Wishes regarding guardianship of minor children cannot be expressed in title or beneficiary designations. It may also be impossible to achieve sophisticated death-tax planning or multi-generation distribution desires with title or beneficiary planning alone. In those cases, it makes sense for a person to have a testamentary document.
What if there is no testamentary document?
A person who dies without a will is said to be intestate. Those who die intestate have an estate plan imposed on them by the state in which they lived at the time of their death. Any personally owned asset subject to probate will be governed by the rules of intestate succession.
Each state has its own variations on intestate succession. No matter which jurisdiction, the state- imposed rules are just as likely to make the wrong distribution decisions as the right ones.
A state-imposed will—this one based on the Tennessee rules of intestate succession—might look like the one at this website:
http://advancedunderwriting.com/masterblog/?p=97