Preparing for a deployment: What a will really does for you Published March 19, 2008 By Capt Joshua C. Williams 52nd Fighter Wing Legal Office SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- One of the defining characteristics of being a human being is that we tend to accumulate property throughout our lives. This property, from a legal perspective, is broken down into two categories; personal property and real property. Personal property is by far the most expansive form of property, and is defined as anything that you own that is not land or a building permanently attached to land. This can include cars, bank accounts, wages, securities, a small business, furniture, insurance policies, jewelry, patents, pets and baseball season tickets. Real property, on the other hand, is defined as land or anything permanently attached to land. This can include things such as trees, buildings and stationary mobile homes. "Why is this important" - you may be asking yourself at this point? It is important because when you die, it is necessary to figure out what to do with all the property that you have accumulated. In order to establish this, people create and execute wills. This begs the question, "What happens to my property if I die without a will?" If you die without ever having executed a will, it is called "dying intestate." The word "intestate" comes from a Latin word that literally means "one who dies without a will." Not having a will is not necessarily a bad thing. When you die intestate, the courts of the state where you were a legal resident attempt to determine a reasonable distribution of your property. Generally speaking, if you are married with children, this will mean that your property will go to your spouse and children. If you are single, then your property will more than likely end up going to your parents and/or siblings. "So what is the downside of dying without a will?" Well the first, and perhaps most obvious, downside is that not everyone has a good relationship with their relatives. This creates the possibility that if you die intestate, your property could end up going to a relative and/or dependant that you specifically meant to disinherit. Another downside of dying intestate is that having a judge decide who gets your property can be very time consuming and cost a lot of money: money that could have gone to your loved ones. Furthermore, courts generally put a freeze on your property while they are determining what to do with it. This of course could potentially make things financially difficult on your family. Given this, in order to avoid the complications associated with dying intestate, it is a good idea to have a will executed on your behalf. A will is nothing more than a legal declaration of how you wish your property to be disposed of after your death. Once it has been properly executed, a will lasts forever, or until it is destroyed or revoked. A revocation usually occurs in one of two ways. One way to revoke a will is to write the word "VOID" or "REVOKED" in large letters across the face of the document. Another way to revoke a will is to create a new will that contains language stating that all previous wills are hereby revoked. Just like with a power of attorney, the best way to revoke a will is simply to destroy it. In an extremely simplified form, having a will drafted will require you to make three major decisions: · You must determine the person, or persons, who you want your property to go to. · You must choose a trusted person to act as your executor. · If you have children, then you should establish their guardian. You should think about these decisions and talk them over with the individuals that you choose. Even though it may seem morbid, in the event of your death, things will go much better for your loved ones if they are informed and understand their roles with regard to the execution of your will. This is especially true for the individual, or individuals, who you have chosen to be a guardian and/or personal representative. Once a will is created it must be properly executed. Generally speaking, a will is signed and notarized by an attorney overseeing the ceremony and two witnesses. To someone not familiar with the process, a will execution ceremony might seem like an unnecessarily complicated event. However, from a legal perspective, the execution process is designed to avoid any unnecessary complications in the future. In short, the will is signed, notarized and witnessed in order to fully establish that you intentionally created it, and that you are not being forced in any way to leave your property to a person and/or organization not of your choosing. All in all, the will creation process should be an interesting, and perhaps, somewhat educational experience that usually takes about an hour. That being said, it is a good idea to keep an up-to-date will handy, and not wait until the last minute before a deployment to make an appointment. This article is not intended to be legal advice. If you have questions contact the Spangdahlem Legal Office. (Editor's note: This is part two of a two part series about legal considerations when deploying.)