IMPORTANCE OF A WILL

What Are the Implications of Dying Without a Will?

People who die without a valid will, die intestate. In this event, the state in which they resided effectively provides a will through the state's intestacy law. This means that the state dictates who will receive the estate owner's property and in what proportion.

While state intestacy laws do attempt to provide for a "fair" distribution of property, the state's "one-size-fits-all" will simply cannot reflect the specific wishes of the estate owner in regard to either property distribution or the unique needs of the estate owner's heirs.

In addition, state intestacy laws require that the probate court appoint a guardian for any minor children. The court-appointed guardian, who may not even be a relative, may be required to post bond and the guardianship will be supervised by the probate court.

Finally, when a person dies intestate, the probate court appoints an administrator of the estate. This administrator can be anyone of the court's choosing and is required to post bond, an additional expense that must be paid by the estate.

The Advantages of Having a Will Include:

• A will allows property to be transferred according to the estate owner's wishes, avoiding state intestacy laws.
• A will permits a parent, instead of the state, to name the guardian for any minor children or other dependents, such as a handicapped adult child.
• A will enables the estate owner to name an executor to administer the estate which, in some states, minimizes probate and its related expense.
• A will can lower estate settlement costs by minimizing estate taxes, waiving probate fees and bonds and streamlining the disposition of estate assets.
• Provisions in a will can defer distribution of a minor child's remaining share of the estate to a more mature age than 18 or 21.
• With a will, an estate owner can be certain that bequests of money or personal property to specific individuals or charitable organizations will be carried out.
• If the estate includes a business, a will can authorize the executor to operate the business until the estate is settled, with no exposure to personal liability on the executor's part.

MESSAGES
from the Masters...

DECISION IS DESTINY

by Steve Goodier

"Mommy, what happens when a car gets too old and banged up to run?" a little girl asked.

"Well," her mother said, "someone sells it to your father."

I think I have bought a couple of cars like that! Like most people, my life is punctuated by decisions that did not turn out the way I'd hoped. But we cannot always be expected to make the best decisions. Sometimes we simply don't have enough information. And other times, there just isn't a good decision anywhere to be found! All we can really do is make decisions the best way we know how and act on them. Things change only when decisions change.

Before his rise to political fame, Maryland Congressman Kweisi Mfume walked a path of self-destruction. He dropped out of high school. A few years later, he robbed a pedestrian in order to join a street gang. Mfume spent the following years drinking and troublemaking with the gang.

A turning point came one summer night when he abruptly decided he could no longer continue on his present course. He decided to earn his high school equivalency certificate and later graduated magna cum laude from Morgan State University in Baltimore. He then went on to earn a graduate degree at Johns Hopkins University.

When Mfume ran for Congress in 1986, his opponents tried to use his old mistakes against him. But his achievements since he left a troubled past behind captivated an electorate who voted him into office by an overwhelming 87 percent. He was on a collision course with total failure until he made a decision.

What changes your life is not learning more, though education is important. What changes your life is making decisions - the best decisions you can make - and acting on them. It's been accurately said: "Your decisions determine your direction, and your direction determines your destiny." Or put another way, "The decisions you make, make you."

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QUOTES
from the Masters...

On Strategic Planning

"Always work from a list. Write it out, organize it, and work on your most important task."

-– Brian Tracy

"Walt Disney and Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller had 50 year plans – do you?"

-– Mark Victor Hansen

"When schemes are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances will fit in with them."

-– Sir William Osler

On Influence/ Association

"The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don't like their rules, whose would you use?"

-- Dale Carnegie

"We need a variety of input and influence and voices. You cannot get all the answers to life and business from one person or from one source."

-– Jim Rohn

"The world improves people according to the dispositions they bring into it."

-- Renier Guistina Michiel