A Will is a written statement signed by you that tells everyone how you want your ‘probate estate’ to be distributed after you die. It doesn’t mean anything until after you die and you can change the terms of the Will, or even revoke your Will, up until the instant of your death.
If you have no probate estate when you die, then you really don’t need a Will because you have nothing to distribute.
If you die with things in your probate estate and without a will, the law of the state where you die will make the determination of what happens to your things. In Virginia, the laws distribute the contents of your probate estate to your family members in a manner that the lawmakers decided was most likely to be what the majority of people would want. This is sort of a ‘default Will’ and you don’t need to do anything to use this process.
However, if you want to make sure that your estate is distributed the way you had planned, then you need to draft a Will.
Contact an estate planning attorney for more information.
Tags: Estate Plan, Estate Planning, Virginia, Will