Over the past few weeks, I've seen a lot of people come to my office seeking advice regarding wills, or asking to probate a loved one's estate. The most difficult, and sometimes frustrating thing, is that in some of the cases, these relatives could have saved thousands of dollars, had the deceased properly executed their will.
Contrary to many assumptions, it's not necessary to hire an attorney to help write your will. Websites, such as LegalZoom.com, show that you can draft a will without paying the expense of an attorney. Of course, it's always better if you use an attorney because the attorney will help you specifically match your needs to the will, or offer you advice regarding legal issue that might arise. Note too, Absolute Legal Services, LLC, ocassionally offers a pretty sweet basic estate planning package for $50 per person (basic will plus attorney), that can give you assistance.
Hopefully, this short series will help you ascertain enough information about Oklahoma statutes to help you draft your own will, and draft it properly. As always, if you're seeking help drafting and executing a will, please contact our office at (405) 748-0318 or at , to discuss your estate planning issue.
Generally, when people think of a "Last Will and Testament," they think of two types of wills. The first is the self-proving will, the second is the holographic will. There are also the nunculpative will, which is a verbal will witnessed by two people, and only deals with the verbal distribution of property.
The self-proving will is named such because the will contains elements that prove or verify its authenticity. This is the strongest type of will because it contains provisions that help to ensure authenticity. The Oklahoma statutes outline the requirements for the self-proving will.
The second type of will is the holographic will. This is a common type of will, which I refer to as the "death bed will." In most situations, individuals who draft these types of will are mindful that they may soon die, and wish to distribute their estate. In Oklahoma, the statutes require that the will is written, signed, and dated by the testator. This means everything.
I've seen a fair amount of "holographic wills" that purport to be valid, which a testator took from a fill-in-the-blank form printed from the internet. In Oklahoma, these are not valid wills. As the statute clearly outlines, the will must be "entirely...by the testator."
I hope you have a quick sense of the two common types of wills. In the next post, I'll be discussing how to draft your holographic will. Until then, I will encourage you to check out these posts (here, here, here, and here) where I've discussed the importance of proper estate planning. Remember, even though you can write your own will, only an estate planning attorney can give you the legal advice necessary to keep your heirs from increased legal hassles.