Can I Sign Missouri Banking Last Will And Testament

E signature last will and testament

Hey I'm Paul Rabalais and in this video we're gonna talk about whether your estate planning attorney should be the one who keeps or stores your original last will and testament okay this is a it's a hot topic on a cold day but once you assign your will it needs to be kept in a safe place your executor your heirs will need access to that original will when you die so you got several options on where should your will be kept and I'm talking about the original original I don't necessarily mean first I mean the the will that you know perhaps it was signed in blue week as opposed to a photocopy so you can tell us the original perhaps it has some notary stamp or seal so you can tell it's it's the original because when you die a judge wants to see the original will they don't want to see a photo copy the original gets filed at the courthouse so you've got some options on where to keep your will some people keep it in their home in a fireproof safe or on the cabinet in their bedroom some people keep their original will in the safe deposit box and when they do perhaps they should have other family members you know as a signer having access to the Box perhaps I know that some people give their will to their executor or maybe it's an adult child of theirs so that the executor will have immediate access to it when the person dies and then some people leave their will with their estate planning attorney and that's what I want to I want to dive and and we'll dig a little deeper on that issue and I know I'm right here but when the attorney keeps your will they they really keep it for for one purpose only and that is to force your survivors to feel obligated to go through that lawyer or that law firm to complete all of the probate legal services that need to be handled when you pass away those wills that are in that firm or that lawyers you know safe or safe keeping those wills really guarantee the the future prosperity of that lawyer or that law firm so let me give an example let's say let's call him will will maker he's my age he's 54 years old and he gets his will done and he goes to lawyer Joe will keeper at the will keeper Law Firm to get his will done now will will maker may not die he's 54 he may not die for for 40 more years and during that time the lawyer Joe will keeper may have retired or died or changed professions or got sick or went bankrupt or got addicted to drugs or alcohol or quite frankly maybe he moved out of state or maybe the the will keeper law firm went out of business or it merged into another firm or it has new leadership new leadership forty years later when we'll we'll make her dies and that causes all kinds of problems I'll give you an example that I experienced when I was a young lawyer I was probably 26 years old I work for a a sole practitioner who did estate planning and so every couple of weeks my job was to collect all of the Wills that we had prepared and our clients had come in and signed my job was to take all those wills every couple of weeks go down the road to the local bank where this lawyer or this law firm had a safe deposit box and and I would just shove those new wills into that box I'd cram them in because it was a crowded box and so you know dozens maybe hundreds of wills were in that safe-deposit box and that was 28 years ago well I only worked at that law firm for about a year and I know that about five years after I left that lawyer who I worked for no longer as a sole practitioner he went to work for one of the big law firms and that big law firm didn't have a policy where they kept their clients wills in a safe deposit box and then even since then I know to this day that lawyer has you know long gone since retired and I guess he's still alive but he retired so I have no idea what has happened to those wills that I crammed into that safe-deposit box twenty-eight years ago I know some of those people have passed away I know some of them are still alive but I have no idea where those wills are okay so and even if the lawyer you know as lawyers we don't keep track of where all of our clients are and whether they've they've moved you know some as an estate planning lawyer we'll deal with someone and we won't hear from them for for sometimes decades and so we can't keep track of where all of our clients are in case we need to you know notify them that they need to come get their will or something like that it just doesn't happen in US and in the state planning practice we don't keep up with the whereabouts of all of our clients so that's an issue and there's other issues on the attorney keeping the will let's say Joe will writer who was 54 when he did that will with will will keeper let's say when when Joe was 70 he he worked with another lawyer and and either updated or did a new will which automatically revoked the old will so now Joe will keeper has the will that he prepared at 54 and he put in his law firm safe deposit box but that lawyer has no idea that the client at age 70 went to another law firm and signed a new will which automatically revoked the will that will will keeper had prepared so so now how long are these lawyers supposed to keep these wills that are in the law firms you know safe or safe deposit box do they keep them for 50 years should they keep them for a hundred years so the lawyers again they have no idea whether the client updated the will revoked to the will they'd have no idea whether the the client died or the client moved to another state so how long are these lawyers supposed to keep these wills when can they throw them away so a lot of never you know a lot of issues there to deal with and and my thing is when somebody who writes a will dies the executor of that will should really feel free to be able to use the legal services of whichever lawyer or law firm they feel you know most comfortable with going through that probate is difficult you need the executor --zz need to be able to work with with lawyers that again that they're comfortable with now maybe maybe you get your estate planning and you get your will done and you feel like you really have a good connection with a lawyer and you want that lawyer or that law firm to be involved in your estate settlement when you die great keep your will but tell your executor in your heirs that you'd like them to use the services of the same lawyer that that prepared your estate planning program for you that you know that's that makes sense all right so just know that that in but when I give you this summary while I'm thinking about it let me just get you to make sure you hit the subscribe button in the notification bill that way you won't miss anything I try to educate people every day on these important estate planning topics that they really can't get anywhere else a thumbs up smashing that button would be great if you could hit the share arrow and share this with your texting friends and email friends that would be phenomenal all right so just know that that when lawyers make themselves available to store your original last will and testament and they're probably going to make themselves available to do that for you for free you know you might say great that way I don't have to worry you know about keeping my original will in the safe place the lawyers going to do it for me know that when they offer that service to you most of them do it for free and if they charge you for it even even more then know that there they're not doing it as a service to you they're doing it as a way to better guarantee their future prosperity because they know that when you die you're survivors have to track down that original will and if they look in your papers that you have at home and in the your papers say go get the will from such-and-such lawyer or such-and-such law firm now that lawyer knows that they got the first shot at being the probate lawyer to handle all of the probate legal services to get your estate settled and it really shouldn't be that way because that's when survivors executor Zaire's who don't go through this process very much and it may be the first time they go through it they're kind of unsophisticated and so the lawyers who are kind of in the know they they take advantage of that unsophisticated nosov your survivors to kind of truck them and make them feel like they have to use that lawyer or that law firms services okay so that's that's just my thoughts and just from experience of thirty years I really don't feel right about people leaving their will with their lawyer this there's a whole you know another issue here is that perhaps if you go to a lawyer who encourages you to use a will as the mechanism for leaving your estate to your heirs combined with them keeping the will which requires that they go you're survivors go back to them to do the probate maybe there should be a whole another discussion about how whether your estate planning lawyers should help you arrange an estate legal program that could help your survivors avoid the whole probate process completely and that's a whole another discussion on you know people using living trusts or some other mechanism to eliminate the need for a lawyer in court and involvement when you pass away okay so enough there stay tuned 1080 Central time every morning new video more education again hit the subscribe button I would very much thank you for it if you got some comments to contribute you know especially if they're positive and they're well-written and well thought out bring them on love to see them we'll see you next time