trustee becomes your personal representative at death whereas the guardian is the representative of the court. In a case where you use a trustee, you may designate any representative of the court. In a case where you use a trustee, you may designate any terms, conditions or age for the children to receive their share. To protect your beneficiaries, the trust can have a spendthrift trust clause which keeps the property safe from liens or creditors of any beneficiary. In the event of a tax problem where estate taxes are exorbitant, you can allow your spouse to receive one-half of the property outright at the time of your death. With the other half being placed in trust, whereby your spouse will receive income from the trust with limited right of withdrawal and then upon the demise of the surviving spouse, the trust prop erty continues in trust for the children or is distributed as designated in the trust agreement without this value of the estate being taxed in the estate of the second spouse to die. 5. Common Disaster Clause —in the event of a disas ter in which death occurs simultaneously or within a short period of one spouse’s dying after the death of the other spouse, a clause can be included to simplify the estate transfer and save administration and court costs. 6. Coordinate W ill with Life Insurance —due to the nature of life insurance, many estates have as the prime asset one or several life insurance policies. If the insured- owner has designated beneficiaries rather than his estate, life insurance proceeds are paid directly by contract rather than going through the probate estate. Hence, your W ill does not govern the payment of life insurance proceeds. 7. Allocation of Estate and Inheritance Taxes —in absence of a stipulation, your Executor or Executrix must pick and choose where best to raise the money for the payment of your death taxes. You know your estate property best and hence your provision for this payment along with your instruction in your W ill would be most helpful. 8. Provision to prevent contest of W ill —at time of death the “ vultures descend.” In the case where the operation is for the law to decide on distant blood re lations or in the case where one relative has been named and another relative of the same class has been omitted, legal steps are often instituted to claim “rightful” shares. You can preclude this by including a clause to prevent or reduce the possibility of a legal contest. 9. Witnesses —the number of witnesses required for a properly-drawn W ill varies with the different state requirements. Usually three is a good number to use. A rule to follow is to use the legal number required by your state, plus one additional for a safeguard. In closing, we repeat the verse with which we began: “ . . . Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die and not live.” One of the best ways you can prepare for the distribution of your possessions when you take the journey into death is to leave your loved ones a W ill well-drawn by an attorney and be sure this W ill is kept up-to-date. Then surely when you die your financial house will be in good order. All that has been written in regard to the distribution of this estate after one’s death should be studied by the Chris tian as he contemplates leaving any part or all of his property to the work of the Lord. His W ill should be drawn so clearly and correctly that not only will it be understood readily, but also that there will be no way in which it can be broken by non-Christian relatives who make such an attempt. Remember, that no man is prepared to live until he is prepared to die.
awarded to your estate, based upon your human life value, which is the number of years of life expectancy times your annual income discounted for the present value to compensate for the future interest earnings. This very incident may increase your estate by thousands of dollars. In this age of “ do it yourself,” the holographic (hand written) W ill is frequently used. Prior to the Civil War, most people had Wills written in a flyleaf of their Bibles. Today, however, we live in an age of complexities, legal jargon and tax consequences. Simply understanding these is difficult. The right to make a W ill of one’s own choosing is a privilege earned after years of intensive struggle. In centuries past, the “ sovereign right” rule prevailed in that at death all property, especially real property, be longed to the king and that the common man had no right to dispose of his property. Then the church as representatives of the kingdom rulers, assumed the dis tribution of personal property. Abuses from both of these systems led to a revolt of the people which resulted in the popular Wills Act under Henry VIII of England. This Act granted to the people the right at death to make the disposition of their property as they so desired. Practical ly all state laws in America are patterned after this statute. State statutes vary from state to state and a W ill drawn properly in one state is not necessarily proper in another. Hence, the wise course of action is to consult an attorney in the state in which you reside or own real property in order to have your W ill properly drawn. 1. Executor or Executrix —name the surviving spouse, if living; otherwise name an alternate. The suggestion is made that the final alternate to be named should be a Bank or Trust Company—a fiduciary which has the possibility of being in existence for a long period of years. A waiver of bond in the W ill saves your estate the expense of a bond fee. 2. Distribution of Property —a common pattern is to have all the property which passes by probate go to the surviving spouse, if living; otherwise to the surviving children. Here some interesting questions should be re solved. Should the children receive their shares equally? The answer is not always “ yes.” One child may have completed his education and the other may have to pro vide for his education in college after your demise. One child may be in poor health and handicapped, while the other children are healthy and have great opportunities. An equal division may not be the best, due to unequal interests. 3. Guardianship —a legal guardian is the representa tive of the court to keep, safeguard, invest and disperse property left to your minor children and to act in the behalf of the minor until the child reaches the age of maturity which varies with the different states. 4. Trusts —the common statement is that one’s estate is too small for a trust. This may not be true. You may name a person as trustee over any estate of any size. In the case where you use a guardian as to the person of your minor children, you may want to use this same person or another, or a bank as the trustee for the property for your minor children. In most in stances, a bank or trust company is preferred because of their experience and skill in handling trust property. The trustee differs from a legal guardian in that the Mr. Benfer is a Southern California insurance executive. As a born-again Christian he knows the importance of making ade quate provisions. The Biola Stewardship Department is prepared to assist Christian friends in preparing their estates. A ll wills are executed by Christian attorneys.
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