What’s Wrong with a One Page Will? (Video)

What happens when you have a one page will?

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What’s left out can really hurt with a Will.

Recently I had a client come in with his dad’s will. It was one page of text and one page for signatures. Literally a one page will.

In the will dad had left everything to my client. However, he didn’t mention his other 3 children in the will that he wanted left out. Under Arkansas law, those children are entitled to a share of the estate. Worse yet, those children were estranged and we are having to hunt down their addresses, if they are even still around. I’ll have to send notice to their found address and hope they respond. If not, then the Judge will decide if the estate is in limbo or if my client takes all…

Another downfall of this one page will is it didn’t give the executor any authority to do anything. Again, under Arkansas law, you can either use the authority given in the will to do things, or state law. Because the will didn’t explicitly grant any authority, we’ll have to ask the judge for permission to do each and every little step.

The third mistake is that there is no self proving affidavit of the witnesses signatures. I may have to find the witnesses and have them sign affidavits that it is their signature. If I can find them.

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