I know it’s no fun to think about this topic, but you are going to leave a legacy when you leave here. For better or worse, you will leave a legacy. I am going to use the next few blogs to cover topics you need to address as a part of your estate plan. If you have a Last Will & Testament in place, that’s great. Look at this blog and the next few as reminders of other steps you need to take.

This may sound elementary, but not being able to locate your Last Will & Testament is tantamount to you never having written a Last Will & Testament. There is a presumption in the law of testamentary documents: the last thing that you did (ie, the action that you took closest to the date of your death) is what you wanted to have happen. If you wrote three Wills, the one that was the most recent, ie, closest to your date of death, is the one that will be accepted for probate.

If we cannot find your Last Will & Testament after a thorough search, the presumption is that you destroyed it (I’ve found them stuck in the freezer. . .people do the strangest things!). So you not sharing with one or two people that your Last Will & Testament is in the freezer behind the ice cream is the same as you never having written a Will.

Be sure someone knows where you put it, even if it is in the freezer!