- Tax Planning
- Investments 1: Before you Invest
- Investments 2: Your Investment Plan
- Investments 3: Securities Market Basics
- Investments 4: Bond Basics
- Investments 5: Stock Basics
- Investments 6: Mutual Fund Basics
- Investments 7: Building Your Portfolio
- Investments 8: Picking Financial Assets
- Investments 9: Portfolio Rebalancing and Reporting
- Retirement 1: Basics
- Retirement 2: Social Security
- Retirement 3: Employer Qualified Plans
- Retirement 4: Individual and Small Business Plans
- Estate Planning Basics
- Introduction
- Understand the Principles of Estate-Planning
- Understand the Importance of Estate Planning and the Goals of Estate Planning
- Understand the Estate-Planning Process
- Know How Trusts Can Be Used to Your Advantage in Estate Planning
- Understand the Importance of Wills and Probate Planning
- Summary
- Assignments
Pass on property at death by law
If you fail to write a will, the state will write your will for you upon your death. Through this process, known as intestacy, the state tries to determine what your will would have been had you written a will for yourself.
For example, in Utah, if a deceased person with no will has no children, the surviving spouse is given 100 percent of the deceased’s assets. If the deceased has children by a prior relationship, the surviving spouse gets the first $50,000 and half of the remaining assets. If there is no surviving spouse, then the assets go to each of the children on a per capita basis at each generation. If there are no children, then the assets go to parents, then to parents’ descendents, and so on.
