Should I List Specific Investments in My Will?

When creating your will, it’s natural to be concerned about deciding specific pieces of property or assets that will pass on to the loved one or beneficiary you decide. However, all too many people approach the process of putting together a will in a far too simplistic manner, exposing them to potential challenges or even their loved ones to potential issues in the future.

It’s important to find an attorney that you can trust to work with on your estate plan so that you can avoid many of the most common mistakes that end up following your loved ones into the future. Specific bequests inside a will are managed first in the administration of your estate and the person who passed away may not even own that investment anymore. The estate could be required to purchase an investment at a higher price which could harm beneficiaries if you name the specific investment in your will. Here is a great example of how this could turn into a significant problem. If you leave behind shares of a particular stock, which at the time of creating the will is worth a specific amount of money, such as $5000, the same number of shares could increase in value significantly at the time of your death and those shares might not be owned by you anymore. The estate would then have to purchase those shares and pass them onto a grandchild and this could use essentially all assets inside the estate such that future beneficiaries get little to no assets. Sit down to speak with your estate planning attorney about how to make your estate work for you and how to avoid these kinds of issues.    

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