At it's most basic level the purpose of a will is state how you want your funeral arrangements handled and how you want to distribute your property and money. Although a will can be a very simple written statement, there are many complex legal and financial issues that can result after your death so it is wise to fully understand the ramifications of your requests. If you die without this document in place then you are deemed to have died "intestate" and your estate will be handled according to the laws of the state in which your death occurred. You should be aware that these laws are rather inflexible and the final distribution of your estate may not come anywhere near matching what you would have wanted to occur.
A properly written and witnessed will stands as a legal document and will normally be accepted by the probate court, a special court that deals with "probating" or examining a person's will and making sure that the wishes of the deceased are handled according to the will's instruction. It is very rare for a court to overrule your wishes and, in fact, it will not do so unless a particular clause is illegal or it can be proven that the will was a forgery, or was written under duress, or that you were not mentally competent when you signed it.
Because your will may very well affect the lives of your spouse and other loved ones, it is absolutely essential that it be 100% legal, that it reflects your true wishes and that it is kept current as your life situations change. Many people fail to keep their will current by forgetting to add or remove beneficiaries as children are born, deaths occur and family arrangements change due to weddings and divorces.
You should always have your will reviewed if it was made in one state and you ultimately move to another. Although most states will accept a will which was legal in the state that it was signed in, the risks of having your will overturned are too great to not double check. Often times you will not need to rewrite the entire document to effect minor changes. You can create an attachment, known as a codicil, to handle relatively minor amendments.
There are several key elements which you must pay attention to when drafting a will. The first is your need to appoint an Executor which is a trusted person who will be responsible for handling your final affairs, paying your funeral expenses out of your estate, dealing with your creditors and your final income tax returns, and generally making sure that all of your final wishes are handled according to your requests. You can choose a trusted family member, your attorney, or even your bank. You can state whether or not your executor has to put up a performance bond to ensure that they will faithfully and honestly handle your estate or you can elect to have them serve without bond.
The section of your will that handles your "bequeaths", or the distribution of your property and money (called your estate) bears particular attention. If you do not specify exactly who gets what you could end up having your will tied up in court for years while no one gets anything until a judge decides upon distribution. This is not only a great expense to your estate but it denies loved ones access to money and property that they very well may need to support themselves after your death.
If you are married, and have minor children, you can simply bequeath all of your estate to your spouse. If you have good, solid, and loving marriage then you can be reasonably sure that your spouse will continue to care for the children in the same manner as if you were alive. If you have adult children then you may choose to leave some of your estate directly to them or you can still opt for your spouse to handle the distribution.
One of the issues that is very important, and often overlooked, is the act of specifically disinheriting someone from your will. This is the act of very specifically naming someone who you do not want to participate in the distribution of your estate even though they may be otherwise legally entitled to. This is a very serious step to take and you should discuss the ramifications with a qualified estate planning attorney. Many states have specific laws about how to disinherit someone and you want to be sure that your wishes are not later overturned in court.
As an example, Arizona law states that you may not completely disinherit your current spouse if you are still married at the time of your death. You have to leave your spouse the first $37,000 from your estate no matter what. Some states are "community property" states which means that you spouse owns one-half of your property and money no matter what you will says. Issues like this can only be waived by pre-nuptial agreements.
It is not sufficient to simply leave someone out of your will if you choose to disinherit them. That person could challenge the omission in court and claim that it was an oversight or that one of their siblings "forced" you into leaving the other one out of the will. You should include a statement such as "I specifically leave nothing to my daughter Sarah for reasons that are known to her and me". It isn't neccessary to air a lifetime of dirty laundry in your will.
If you have normally gone through life happily disorganized and letting things happen as they may, you might be tempted to put off making a will because you don't plan to die anytime soon. How lucky (or not) that you have the ability to predict the exact moment of your death. For the rest of us mortals, however, the best time to take care of this very important document is right now.