Do not, do not, make a lawyer your executor.
It's a horrible idea. A lawyer won't necessarily gouge the estate - though they might. But they'll take their time. When lawyers take time, bills rise several thousand dollars.
More important, that extra year of probate may tie up the assets needed by your beneficiaries.
Some people have an odd notion that "their" lawyer is personally loyal to them. In the unlikely event this is true, what makes "your" lawyer loyal to your beneficiaries? Not much. They probably have their own lawyers, which means this is "your" lawyer's last chance to make money off you.
While we're at it, don't make a bank your executor either.
A bank solves one problem; you don't have to worry about a mad-dog lawyer stripping the estate and running for Mexico. But banks have their ways. They tend to grind away at any sum of money that is left under their control. If there is cash to manage, they may make foolish investments. They will certainly nickel-and-dime you as long as they can.
To sum up, an executor should be someone personally loyal to you, has common sense, and is tough enough to tell greedy beneficiaries "Down, boy!"
Write a good fee into the will for your personal executor.
If the personal executor is your spouse, it's not usually necessary, because they probably inherit most or all of the estate.
But the executor may be a friend. And you and Sam may have been friends for 50 years, but when Sam is left with the job of dealing with courts, relatives, and lawyers, he is going to be ticked about doing it for free, especially when you left nothing to him but gave your deadbeat nephew $10,000. Don't be cheap here!
Start dumping it now.
Bequests may be argued at probate. Gifts made now are generally unchallengeble.
Equally important, gifts can offer better tax reductions.
Take a look at trusts.
If you put money in a properly set up trust, you control your money, you can spend your money - but you do not "own" the money. Legally, you are the trustee, and the trust or your beneficiaries are the owners. At death the control of the money (trusteeship) passes over to whoever you have named in the trust, either a guardian or the beneficiaries themselves.
This is not quite as final as making gifts, but it is more secure than a will for "locking in" your bequests.
Trusts are no longer just for the rich. Check the legal sections of a large bookstore and you'll find several books on setting up trusts. In the U.S. there are also do-it-yourself kits.
Make cash and personal property accessible to your beneficiaries.
Don't leave your spouse with $1,000 in the joint bank account, and $50,000 in a CD that can only be reached at the end of probate.
The people you want to take care of need to know where the checkbooks are, to have their names on the accounts (or at least have some pre-signed blank checks), and to have access to your safe deposit box.
In short, don't be one of the secretive types who leaves their spouse and children dead broke for two years.
Consider going over the will with a tax lawyer, not a "wills and trusts" lawyer.
If your beneficiaries are all rational, and no long-lost relatives turn up to sue the estate, and you've kept the lawyers and banks out of the driver's seat, there is still one money-grubber to deal with: the government.
People moving into the $600,000+ range of estate value should consider talking to a tax lawyer. Tax lawyers are more knowledgeable about reducing taxes than wills & trusts lawyers, and they are much tougher than accountants.
You need the right tax lawyer, though. Corporate-style tax lawyers who work for oil companies can be useless; they may have the know-how, but they can't get past the big-corporation mentality. They try to develop an expensive relationship when all you want is an affordable plan.
So take a look at sole practitioner tax lawyers. They probably have corporate clients, but they are more likely to deal with regular humans as well.
Note: tax lawyers tend to have even higher hourly rates than regular lawyers. But they are the one kind of lawyer who can routinely save you more money than they charge you.
Consider doing it yourself with a kit or book.
There are many do-it-yourself law books and software kits for writing your own will. But do you dare? Each new push into DIY law is greeted with a somber newspaper article by a somber lawyer, telling how in 1987, somewhere in the mid-West, John Q. Public bought a book and wrote his own will.
Shortly afterwards his head exploded. Don't try it...
Sure, take a look. There is a lot to be said for DIY. It's cheaper. The books are usually written by highly experienced wills and trusts lawyers, with more know-how than you would find around the corner.
Of course, they are not "tailored to your situation." But lawyers often neglect the tailoring where it really counts, with the human element. Whom can you rely on? Who will go crazy and start carting your furniture out of the house? These are questions only you can answer.
Even if (after reading a self-help book) you don't feel confident about doing it alone, you will have made rough outline of what the will should do. This will save you money at the lawyer's office, because you can cut down on the lengthy question-and-answer session.
You may have to hurt someone's feelings.
Again and again people make their oldest child the executor, even though Number 3 daughter has the common sense.
If you feel obliged to make a poor choice for your executor, give the estate a fighting chance. Make someone with common sense a full co-executor.
Be careful with charities.
Let's go right to the point: charities can be utterly ruthless when they're grabbing for money. Ruthless? Not your favorite charity, surely? Maybe not yours – but about 95% of them are merciless when it comes to getting money out of an estate.
For example:
You have have $100,000. You have willed $50,000 to Charity A and $50,000 to Charity B. You make a really crazy move and let both of them know about it right now. You will immediately be invited to lunch. You will be wined and dined. And both charities will hammer you until you drop, trying to get the whole $100,000.
Or take another example: You had lunch with your favorite charity and told the Director and their assistant that you intend to leave your whole estate of $300,000 to their charity. You put it in the will. A year later you decide to leave your favorite niece $150,000, and you revise the will. Prediction: when you die the charity is going to sue the dickens out of your estate trying to get the other $150,000. They will claim you were senile when you re-wrote the will. They will say your niece bamboozled you. They will have witnesses.
Conclusion: if you want to give money to charities, don't tell them about it up front.
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