Taxation & Estate Planning

Intestacy Reform

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

Evidently Massachusetts recently made some extensive changes to its Probate Code -- the story is here. I don't know much about the other provisions, but the provision that says "[i]n the case of no will, the spouse gets the entire estate if the children are all of the marriage" is a good one.

As I tell people when I give my Estate Planning 101 speech, if you die without a Will, the Illinois state legislature will gladly make one for you. And they'll probably mess it up. Currently, if you die intestate (without a Will) survived by a spouse and children in Illinois, your estate goes 1/2 to your spouse and 1/2 to your children. I have yet to meet a person who likes this arrangement, at least in the case where the children are the children of both parents. Mostly people state their wishes like this: "If I die, give everything to my spouse. If both of us die, give everything to our kids." Yet that's not what Illinois law says.

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).