September 9, 2014
Any estate lawyer in Sacramento will tell you that every person needs a will. Sure, the wealthy may have more assets to distribute, but pretty much everyone still needs to have their last wishes laid out in a legal document.
Even if it is just to keep the peace within your family, a will is necessary. If you want a specific item to go to a specific person, you need to have this in your will or else the laws in California may allow someone else, such as a parent or sibling, the right to that item if he or she doesn’t care to respect your wishes. But how long does the will need to be?
Estate lawyers in Sacramento will tell you that the answer is, “however long it takes.” In order to be legally binding, a will needs to have certain attributes. Once all of these are contained in the document, the will is by definition, “long enough.” So, what does your last will and testament need to include?
Of course, that isn’t all that makes a will legally binding. Laws vary from state to state, but pretty much everywhere there are a few givens that you can count on:
To make sure that your will isn’t contested, you should have witnesses sign the document, as this person can state with assurance that you were, in fact, of sound mind when you signed the document.
How long a will needs to be really depends on the amount of property you wish to detail in the will itself. Otherwise, as long as it states that it is a will, and the executor is named, it can be as long or short as you want it to be. Estate lawyers in Sacramento have seen wills that are a single paragraph, even; it’s all about how detailed you wish to make it.