Now Is the Time to Create a Will

However, the consequences of failing to write a will are significant enough to make now the right time to consult an estate planning lawyer. If you die without a will, the State of Louisiana will decide who gets your property. Therefore, if you don’t have a will or have experienced a life change since you last wrote your will, it’s important that you to consider writing or updating it as soon as possible.

When It’s Time to Write a Will

While any time after your 18^th birthday is a good time to write a will, you might make creating or amending a will a priority if:

• You don’t already have a will. People who are young and healthy don’t often think about creating a will. However, a life-changing event or an accident can occur at any time. Therefore, it’s essential to create a legally valid will to have in place for your peace of mind and your loved ones’ future.
• Your financial situation has changed. You may have bought property, invested in stock, or received an inheritance since you created your will. Now, you may want certain heirs to inherit specific property; you may want to add additional heirs; you may want to create trusts; or you may decide to leave some of your assets to a favorite charity.
• You’ve been married or divorced. A change in your marital status should prompt a call to your lawyer to discuss your estate plan. Otherwise, your family may be surprised when you die, and your spouse doesn’t get everything you intended them to inherit, or your former spouse gets more than you intended.
• You’ve become a parent. A will not only allows you to provide for your children financially, but it allows you to name a tutor (also known as a guardian) in case you and your child’s other parent both die before your child reaches adulthood.
• Your children are now adults. Your children have different needs now that they are adults. They no longer need tutors, and they no longer need other adults to manage their money. You may have different relationships with your children now than you did during their childhood. Accordingly, you may want to write a new will or revise your will to provide for your adult children.
• You started a business. Your business succession plan may be part of your comprehensive estate plan.

Ultimately, writing a well-drafted will that accomplishes your goals is never a mistake. However, waiting too long to write one may have significant and irreparable consequences for your family and loved ones after you’re gone.

Contact an Estate Planning Lawyer to Discuss Your Options

Our Louisiana estate planning attorneys understand that creating a will isn’t always comfortable. It’s hard to talk about what will happen after you die. However, our lawyers will put you at ease and present all of your options, so you can make informed decisions and create the will and estate plan that meets your needs. Fill-in-the-blank forms and generic templates can’t provide you with the same peace of mind that an individualized consultation with an experienced estate planning lawyer can provide you.

We encourage you to take the first step, and contact us at any time. We invite you to call us or complete our online contact form to have us contact you. We will give you our professional opinion about whether now is the right time to create a will, and if it is, we will draft a unique plan that is right for you.

What Louisiana Law Does to Your Estate If You Die Without a Will

Dying without a will in Louisiana does not mean the state takes your property — but it does mean the state decides who gets it, in what proportions, and under what conditions. Louisiana’s intestate succession rules apply a statutory formula that reflects the legislature’s best guess about what most people would want, but that formula often produces results that surprise the families left behind. A surviving spouse does not automatically inherit everything from a deceased spouse — the spouse’s share depends on whether the property is community property or separate property, whether there are children, and whether those children are from the current marriage or a prior relationship. Children from a prior relationship may have rights that conflict with the surviving spouse’s expectations. Parents of the decedent may inherit in certain circumstances even when a surviving spouse is present.

The intestate formula also cannot accommodate the personal relationships and practical realities that most people want their estate plan to reflect. A close friend who has been a caregiver inherits nothing under intestate succession — only legal relatives inherit. A stepchild who was raised as a member of the family but never formally adopted has no inheritance rights under Louisiana law. A sibling who has been financially dependent on the decedent receives exactly the same share as a sibling who is financially independent and did not need help. The will is the legal tool that lets a person override the statutory formula and direct property to the people who actually matter to them, in the amounts and conditions that reflect their real intentions.

Louisiana’s forced heirship rules add another layer of complexity. Children who qualify as forced heirs — generally those under 24 years old or those with certain permanent disabilities — have a protected minimum share of the estate that cannot be taken away by will. But for the portion of the estate that is not protected by forced heirship — the disposable portion — the testator is entirely free to direct the property as they choose. Without a will, that disposable portion flows to heirs under the intestate formula rather than the testator’s chosen beneficiaries. A will is the only way to exercise that freedom of disposition. The cost of not having one is permanent: no retroactive correction is possible after death.

Why People Delay — and Why Those Reasons Fall Apart

“I don’t have enough assets to need a will” is among the most common reasons people give for not having one — and one of the least accurate. In Louisiana, the most valuable asset many families own is their home, which may have significant equity. Even a modest estate that includes real estate requires a succession proceeding to transfer title after death. A will that names who should receive that real estate, specifies whether a surviving spouse should have usufruct or ownership, and identifies an executor to manage the process makes the succession far simpler and far less expensive for the heirs. Without a will, the same succession still happens — it just happens according to rules the decedent never chose and may never have understood.

“I’m too young to worry about a will” ignores the reality that the events that make a will necessary are not limited to old age. Serious illness, accidents, and unexpected death affect people of all ages. A young parent who dies without a will leaves a court to apply the intestate formula to an estate that may include a home, life insurance, and retirement accounts — and leaves questions about guardianship for minor children to be resolved without any written guidance from the parent. A will for a young parent serves multiple functions: it directs property distribution, it nominates a guardian for minor children, and it names an executor to manage the estate without court-supervised administration. The alternative — intestate succession — requires more court involvement, more expense, and more time than a will-based succession would have.

“I’ll do it later” is the most dangerous reason of all, because it assumes that the circumstances that currently make a will seem optional will continue indefinitely — and that a future opportunity to execute a will will definitely be available. Estate planning attorneys regularly see families dealing with successions that could have been much simpler if a will had been signed a year earlier, or two years earlier, or a decade earlier, when the person was healthy and had capacity and the time to think carefully about what they wanted. The will that is not yet written provides no protection. The succession that is happening right now would have been much easier if a will had been in place. The right time to create a will is always the present, because the future is not available in advance.

What a Well-Drafted Louisiana Will Should Address

A comprehensive Louisiana will does more than name who gets what. It names an executor — the person or institution responsible for gathering the estate’s assets, paying its debts, and distributing the remainder to the beneficiaries. The choice of executor matters enormously: the executor must be trustworthy, organized, willing to devote the time the role requires, and ideally familiar with the basic financial and legal tasks that estate administration involves. The will can also waive the executor’s obligation to post a bond, which reduces administrative costs, and can grant the executor broad powers to manage estate assets — sell real estate, continue a business, make investment decisions — without requiring court approval for every action.

For parents of minor children, the will’s guardianship nomination is often the most important provision it contains. A guardian nomination in the will is not automatically binding on the court — the court appoints the guardian it determines is in the child’s best interest — but the nomination creates a strong presumption in favor of the named guardian, and courts give significant weight to the deceased parent’s expressed choice. A will with no guardianship nomination leaves the court to make the decision entirely on its own, without the benefit of the parent’s judgment about who knows the child, shares the family’s values, and is prepared to take on the responsibility of raising the child if both parents are gone.

Special circumstances require special provisions. A beneficiary with a disability who receives government benefits may have those benefits disrupted if they inherit outright — a special needs trust provision in the will can receive the inheritance and manage it in a way that supplements rather than replaces government benefits. A beneficiary with a substance abuse problem or a history of financial irresponsibility may benefit from a testamentary trust that controls distributions over time rather than delivering the inheritance in a lump sum. A blended family situation — where the testator has children from a prior relationship and a current spouse — may call for careful drafting that protects the spouse’s needs while ensuring the prior children receive their intended inheritance. These nuances are exactly what estate planning attorneys address when preparing a will that actually reflects the testator’s intentions.