What is a pour-over will?

A pour-over will is an estate planning tool that can ensure that all your assets are accounted for. It avoids the problems that can occur when people are left wondering what to do with assets that you forgot to include in your estate plan.

When you first create your estate plan, you can only name assets that you already own. While you should review your plan annually and add anything new you acquired, it is easy to forget to do so, so there is a good chance that when you die, you may have assets that never made it into an update of your estate plan. That is where a pour-over will can help. Here is what you need to do:

First you need to create a revocable living trust

A revocable trust is one that you can alter while alive, which is great if personal circumstances and changes in relationships cause you to change what you want to happen to your money. You can also withdraw assets from them, which could be crucial if you suddenly need to pay for expensive health care in later life. When you die, the revocable trust automatically becomes irrevocable, meaning no one else can change it.

Once you have the trust in place, you create the pour-over will. This will make clear that anything not mentioned in your estate plan goes into that trust, to be distributed as per the instructions you set for the trust.

This is just one of many estate planning options available. Seek legal help to discover more and understand what could work best for you and your family.