Wills & Powers of Attorney

Local Beaver County attorney to assist with the drafting of a will or power of attorney

Do You Need A Will?

In reality you don’t necessarily need a will, but it is better to have one. Clients in the past have come to me with the misunderstanding that if they don’t have a will, their assets will go to the state. This is not really true. If you don’t have a will, there is a law in place that says where your assets will go. The law is a bit complicated, but it does provide for the passage of your assets in the event that you pass away without a will. Who gets your assets depends on who survives you. The law dictates who gets a share in your estate but the way the law is written may not be the way you would like your estate to be distributed. In many situations someone will have a preference as to who should serve as executor of their estate. Often there is one family member who is considered to be more responsible or organized and this son or daughter will be the preferred person to manage the estate. If you draft a will you can dictate who serves as the executor of your estate.

Parents may want to indicate in their wills who they want to take custody of their children in the event of a family disaster. Although your preference will not be binding on the courts, it is a strong consideration for who would best serve as the guardian for your children.

What happens if you have no will but you have a wife or husband?

The law provides that your assets go to your husband or wife, but the law does not stop there. If you have a wife or husband and you have children and you don’t have a will, your children will also receive some of your estate. Normally, a married couple will want their assets to go to the survivor of them should one of them pass away, then to the kids after the survivor of the couple passes away. If you don’t have a will your intended beneficiary, your wife or husband, will therefore not get your assets as you intended. If you have a wife or husband but you have no kids but are survived by a parent or parents, your spouse will share your estate with your parents. This again may not be what you intended. It is worth noting that if you are living together and not married, your significant other will not receive any of your estate if you do not have a will.

What if you have no wife or husband, no will, but you have kids?

Your kids will then get your assets in equal shares. If this is your family situation, you may figure that this is good enough for you and it may be that you don’t need a will. But consider what happens if you have kids but one of them predeceases you. Where does their share of your estate go? The law requires an heir to survive the deceased for five days in order to obtain a share of the estate. Should a child of yours die in a common accident, they, and their heirs, will not receive a share of the estate.

Often people will draft their wills to address the rare occasion where a child predeceases their mother and father. In some cases their will provides that the share of the deceased child should go to the spouse of the deceased child. In others, their will provides that the share of the predeceased child goes to the children of the child. The reasoning being that the deceased child’s family should also benefit from the estate. Others draft their wills so that the shares of any children who predecease will go to the surviving children. The point here is that if you draft a will, you get to direct in your will what will happen in the event of one of these contingencies.

What if you have no spouse, no children, and no will?

Here the law starts searching for a living relative. If you have parents, they get your assets if you don’t have a will. If not, then they look for brothers and sisters. If no brothers or sisters, then grandparents. If no grandparents, then aunts and uncles and their families. If there are no living relatives and no will, then, and only then will your assets go to the state. This discussion is somewhat oversimplified, it is a little more complicated than this. The point is that the state has a system in place for the passage of your assets if you do not have a will but the state’s system very likely does not follow what you would want to do. A good summary of the Pennsylvania intestacy law (the law dealing with death with no will) can be found here.

Do you need a lawyer to prepare a will?

Maybe you don’t need an attorney to prepare a will. There are computer programs available for you to draft your own will without the assistance of a lawyer. If the proper technical requirements for will drafting are followed, you can even write your own will. So why get an attorney to draft a will? For one thing, doing so pretty much insures that your will is going to be a valid will. The $9.99 program you buy may not do your will quite right. A lawyer may raise issues concerning your will that you did not think of or that your computer program doesn’t address.

It’s also not that expensive to hire an attorney to draft a will if your will is not too complicated. You can write a will yourself, and you may do so in a competent manner, but you must consider whether the drafting of a document as important as a will is too important to rely on a program you bought at a dollar store. Whether you need a will for yourself or your parents, call me to arrange an appointment. I am available to meet with you or with your mother or father to work out a will that distributes assets in the manner you intend.

Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is a grant of authority from one person to another, allowing them to make financial decisions and medical decisions for the other person. Commonly an elderly person will grant power of attorney to their son or daughter. They do so in anticipation of a time when they are unable to take care of their own affairs. The child can then step in for their mother or father in order to assist their parents in their time of need. The forms used tend to be fairly extensive and complicated and people therefore often appreciate the assistance of an attorney in the preparation of a power of attorney form.

The person granting the power of attorney is called the principal and the person to whom the power is granted is called the agent. Both the principal and the agent must sign the form; the principal to indicate their intent to grant the authority and the agent to acknowledge the fact that all actions taken with the use of the power of attorney will be for the benefit of the principal. A power of attorney can only be granted by someone who has the mental capacity to knowingly grant the authority. If a person has advanced Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia, for example, they cannot grant authority to act on their behalf. Under these circumstances it may be necessary to petition the Orphan’s Court for an order granting the authority to act on another’s behalf. This is why the preparation of a power of attorney may be an important act for a senior citizen. I often receive calls from the parent or from their children seeking a power of attorney form. If you are in need of a power of attorney form for yourself or your parents, please feel free to contact me to discuss your needs.

Contact Attorney Matvey today at 724-774-0999 to discuss your will or power of attorney.

From offices in Center Township, Aliquippa, law offices of Palmieri & Matvey, P.C. serves the personal injury and estate administration needs of Western and Southwestern Pennsylvania including the communities of Aliquippa, Center Twp, Beaver, Ambridge, Baden, Beaver Falls, Bridgewater, Chippewa Twp, Conway, Coraopolis, Cranberry Twp, Economy, Ellwood City, Freedom, Harmony, Hopewell, Leetsdale, Midland, Monaca, Moon Twp, New Brighton, New Castle, Patterson Twp, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Shippingport and Vanport; as well as Beaver County, Allegheny County, Washington County, Butler County and Lawrence County and other areas of Western PA.