{"id":8167,"date":"2020-10-27T15:49:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T22:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/blog\/?p=8167"},"modified":"2020-10-27T15:49:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T22:49:18","slug":"what-counts-as-a-written-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/blog\/what-counts-as-a-written-will\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT COUNTS AS A WRITTEN WILL"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lane V. Erickson<\/a>, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney<\/p>\n

Whenever a client consults with me after a family member or loved one has passed away, one of the first questions I always ask is whether there was a written last will and testament<\/strong><\/a>. The reason for this, is that a written will can control a number of things that happen after a person passes away. For sake of simplicity, we will mention only two in this article.<\/p>\n

The first thing that a will controls is who will be named or listed as the personal representative of the estate. Some people call this person the executor. This individual will be appointed by the court as the personal representative through a probate process. Once this happens, the person who is named as the personal representative has legal authority to take control of all the property of the estate, deal with all the creditors of the decedent, and make all the distributions that need to go to the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney Whenever a client consults with me after a family member or loved one has passed away, one of the first questions I always ask is whether there was a written last will and testament. The reason for this, is that a written will can control a number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning"],"yoast_head":"\nWHAT COUNTS AS A WRITTEN WILL — Idaho Law Blog — October 27, 2020<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney Whenever a client consults with me after a family member or loved one has passed away, one of the — October 27, 2020\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/blog\/what-counts-as-a-written-will\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"WHAT COUNTS AS A WRITTEN WILL — Idaho Law Blog — October 27, 2020\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Lane V. 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