Planning your will is not a morbid undertaking

My Turn

By Hank Reeves
   Twelve million dollars left to a pet dog. Zero dollars left to a grandson and granddaughter. This was part of Queen of Mean Leona Helmsley’s billion-dollar estate as stated in her last will and testament.
   The purpose of a will is to make sure that whatever a person has when they die will be passed on to the persons they want to have it. Be it a $4 million dollar estate or only a few valuables, a small bank account and a used car, a will specifies who gets what.
   Information concerning wills was something the company I spent 25 years working for offered. I was a life underwriter and soon learned not to mention wills while in the course of selling life insurance. The client would get so involved about wills that the sales presentation of life insurance would get sidetracked, sometimes resulting in the sale of the insurance being lost.
   Like life insurance contracts, wills should be reviewed periodically as things and feelings change. I sold a life insurance policy to a girl after graduating from high school. Three years later she got married, at which time I sold her husband a policy and changed the beneficiary on her policy from her mother to her husband.
   Three years later they were divorced. She was always too busy for an appointment to discuss her policy. She died unexpectedly with her ex-husband still being the beneficiary of her policy. As a result, there was no money for the funeral which the family had to scrape together to pay for.
   Had she taken the time to sign a beneficiary change form even though the policy had lapsed and was on the non-forfeiture provision, things would have been a lot different in paying for the funeral. Her ex-husband said thanks a lot and kept all the money after he cashed the death claim check.
   People have wide and varied ideas about wills. Some think if they make a will it means they are getting close to dying. One man who had several children did not believe in life insurance. I guess he thought it was like Santa Claus. No way would he have a will; “let the kids fight over it” was his answer.
   Another woman had labels with the names of people stuck on everything in the house. It was her way of showing who was to get what after she departed this life. I suggested that she give away all these things while she was alive.
   Then there was the older sister who provided a home for her widowed mother for several years. A Sears sewing machine was a gift from the younger sister to the mother. After mother died, she wanted it back. The older sister said the machine had become part of her home and she wanted to remember mom sitting in front of it. The sisters had a falling out and do not speak over a machine that wouldn’t sell in a yard sale. Mother should have had a will.
   Being the sibling who does the most for parents is no guarantee they will receive any more than any other child after the parents die. A woman who never married devoted her life to taking care of her parents. Her brother, who lived in California, would visit every three years or so. The father, who was the last to die, left the farm and a large amount of finances to the son. The daughter was very upset and was asked by the law office what action she took with the father’s cremated remains; she said she spread them in the barnyard saying he had spent his whole life in cow dung, so he may as well continue to do so throughout eternity.
   There are volumes of information, which is “free,” about wills and the advantages of preparing wills that can explain it much better than I. All I can say is if there is something you wish to leave to someone after you die, then you should have a will. Call a good lawyer today.
Hank Reeves is a retired district insurance agent and registered representative who grew up in Chesterfield and resides in Columbus.