April 2, 2025 • 8 mins
How Specific Should Your Will Be?
I. Most Wills are general in nature. The same is true of Trusts. Many clients are surprised by this. They expect a Will to list certain assets to go to certain people – at least the big things.
II. There are two kinds of gifts:
a. Specific bequests
b. Residual bequests.
III. Specific bequests come in two types:
a. The bequest of specific assets such as a house, stock, jewelry, car, household goods, etc. For example, “I give all my jewelry to my daughter, Kay Smith.”
b. The bequest of a specific amount of money such as giving $50,000 to my son or giving $10,000 each to my grandchildren.
IV. Residual bequests address what is left after the cost of administration and after specific bequests.
For example, “I give the rest and residue of my estate in equal shares to my children,”
or “I give 20% of my residual estate to the University of Cincinnati, 40% to my son Brent, and 40% to my son Eric.” Of course, it must add up to 100%
V. Most Wills have both specific bequests and residual bequests. Most Wills say:
a. Pay the administrative expenses.
b. Pay my bills.
c. Pay my taxes.
d. Give my household goods and personal effects to my children to be determined by my executor.
e. Give what is left equally to my children in equal shares.
VI. It is not uncommon to add one or two specific bequests:
a. I give $5,000 to each of my grandchildren.
b. I give my jewelry to my two daughters.
c. I give $100,000 to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
It is important to specify what happens if a beneficiary dies before you do. What happens to that gift – does it go to their spouse or children, or does it lapse (get cancelled)? Also, remember is that specific bequests come before residual bequests. So, if the specific bequests use up all the assets in the estate, nothing goes to the residual beneficiaries.
VII. Many clients think we should list assets in the Will or Trust. But, there are a few reasons that we do not:
a. If my Will gives 100 shares of P&G to my son and I don’t own that stock when I die, what happens? In Ohio, that gift is cancelled.
b. It is a mistake to assume that an asset means the same to a beneficiary as it does to us. If a beneficiary really wants something specific from the estate, he/she can buy it from the executor. Don’t “saddle” your values or your sentiments on your beneficiaries.
c. Itemizing assets may trigger an appraisal and effect estate taxes.
d. We don’t want to amend your Will every time your assets change.
VII. Some experts suggest that itemizing assets in your Will reduces family conflict. I don’t agree. If families want to fight, they are going to fight. The terms of the Will can affect this, but not by itemizing assets. Alternative: Make a “private” list to give to the Executor. This is easy to change. The Will should give the Executor broad power and discretion. Pick the right Executor and trust them to work it out. Don’t tie the hands of your Executor or beneficiary.
I. Most Wills are general in nature. The same is true of Trusts. Many clients are surprised by this. They expect a Will to list certain assets to go to certain people – at least the big things.
II. There are two kinds of gifts:
a. Specific bequests
b. Residual bequests.
III. Specific bequests come in two types:
a. The bequest of specific assets such as a house, stock, jewelry, car, household goods, etc. For example, “I give all my jewelry to my daughter, Kay Smith.”
b. The bequest of a specific amount of money such as giving $50,000 to my son or giving $10,000 each to my grandchildren.
IV. Residual bequests address what is left after the cost of administration and after specific bequests.
For example, “I give the rest and residue of my estate in equal shares to my children,”
or “I give 20% of my residual estate to the University of Cincinnati, 40% to my son Brent, and 40% to my son Eric.” Of course, it must add up to 100%
V. Most Wills have both specific bequests and residual bequests. Most Wills say:
a. Pay the administrative expenses.
b. Pay my bills.
c. Pay my taxes.
d. Give my household goods and personal effects to my children to be determined by my executor.
e. Give what is left equally to my children in equal shares.
VI. It is not uncommon to add one or two specific bequests:
a. I give $5,000 to each of my grandchildren.
b. I give my jewelry to my two daughters.
c. I give $100,000 to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
It is important to specify what happens if a beneficiary dies before you do. What happens to that gift – does it go to their spouse or children, or does it lapse (get cancelled)? Also, remember is that specific bequests come before residual bequests. So, if the specific bequests use up all the assets in the estate, nothing goes to the residual beneficiaries.
VII. Many clients think we should list assets in the Will or Trust. But, there are a few reasons that we do not:
a. If my Will gives 100 shares of P&G to my son and I don’t own that stock when I die, what happens? In Ohio, that gift is cancelled.
b. It is a mistake to assume that an asset means the same to a beneficiary as it does to us. If a beneficiary really wants something specific from the estate, he/she can buy it from the executor. Don’t “saddle” your values or your sentiments on your beneficiaries.
c. Itemizing assets may trigger an appraisal and effect estate taxes.
d. We don’t want to amend your Will every time your assets change.
VII. Some experts suggest that itemizing assets in your Will reduces family conflict. I don’t agree. If families want to fight, they are going to fight. The terms of the Will can affect this, but not by itemizing assets. Alternative: Make a “private” list to give to the Executor. This is easy to change. The Will should give the Executor broad power and discretion. Pick the right Executor and trust them to work it out. Don’t tie the hands of your Executor or beneficiary.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You know you should have a will. I know a
lot of us tend to put these estate planning things off.
But not only should you have a will, but what's
supposed to be in it? How specific should your will
actually be? Could you be missing something? Joining us? Is
our estate planning expert from the law firm of Wood
and Lamping, Mark Grekman Mark. I think most people have
(00:21):
gotten the message by now you need to have a will.
But beyond that, what are the specifics we need to
make sure we're covering in there?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, you know, we are all very aware of the
things we've collected, very proud perhaps of several items in
our healthholm in our possession. And the truth is that
the law is really less concerned about those details. And
placing details, detailed lists of items in your will various consequences.
(00:51):
And sometimes that's worth the effort or worth the extra trouble,
but usually it's not, and so people are often surprised.
Clients of mind are often surprised that I don't ask
them for a list of all their valuable jewelry, for example,
or some you know, give me the name that give
me the type of car you drive, you know, the
(01:12):
model in make of your car. But the truth is,
we don't put that kind of detailed into a will.
And then there's some very good reasons for it.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Mark, I can remember one example in my own family
where a grandparent passed away and we had come back
to the house from the funeral. And I'm talking about
within an hour of the funeral, I'm watching in laws
walk around the house putting sticky notes on pieces of
furniture and china and other articles within the home. And
(01:45):
these folks had just been buried an hour ago. It
was shocking to me and somewhat of a mess, and
it created a little bit of discord within the family.
Talk about how we avoid situations like.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That, Well, unfortunately, Bob, it's hard to avoid situations if
there is already underlying tension of the family. And certainly
I have seen this, and I've heard many stories like
the ones you tell, uh, And there are certainly ways
that an executor that's the person in charge of administering
the estate, or the administrator we call that if you
(02:21):
if you die without a will, then your agent is
called an administrator. But in this in this topic, we're
talking about people who have a will. That means the
executor runs the show, and the executor generally, well, the
executor is in charge of dividing up household goods and
personal effects, and there's a lot of different strategies. We've
talked about that on another show, and perhaps that's a
(02:42):
topic for another day. But the point is the executor
makes the decision, and how tasteful they choose to be
depends on the individual family. But certainly you can you
can be specific in your will, but it really is
a trap and it creates a lot more problems than
it's worth. Bob. What I have seen done which takes
(03:04):
a little bit of planning, and that is I've seen
the family that people who are older, when they do
their will, they make a list of their big stuff.
That's not an official list. It's not in the will,
and it's not in the lawyer's file. Perhaps it's just
a list on their computer or perhaps just in a
notebook that lays out who they think should get each item,
(03:27):
and that list goes into the hands of the executor,
and the executor uses the executor's own discretion about distributing
the things that way. But of course you pick an
executor who's going to do what the list says if
the executor. If you can't trust your executor to do
what your list says, you got the wrong executor. And
this is commonly done to avoid the dynamics you just described.
(03:50):
So if you've got a family where that feels like
it could happen, I'm a big fan of making a
list of the big stuff. Now, when I talk about
big stuff, Bob on talking about major items or furniture,
family heirlooms, automobiles, things of that kind. Nobody really cares
about nice forks and spoons, and if they do, they
don't really care about those things. They're looking to pick
(04:12):
a fight for completely unrelated reasons.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So from your experience, mark by having mom and dad
or grandma and grandpa actually write out a list and
say here's who i'd like to get, you know, received
this particular article and maybe why do you find that
that diffuses a lot of this potential family discord?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You know, because I think not, Yeah, I think it does.
But you know the truth is, Bob, if families are
going to fight, they're gonna fight, and the dynamics in
their family are really set outside of this whole process.
And so what I tell people is don't expect words
on a page to change family dynamics. If you've got
(04:52):
a family that works together and it gets along well,
then you're not going to have a problem. And if
you've got a family with tension in it, there really
is not a very good solution. Now that's not to
say that you should not take steps to minimize that,
but I don't want to give people the impression that
somehow there's a magic bullet to stop family members from fighting.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
When you mark, when you talk about the fact, hey,
the specifics like there can be a place for that
and it can actually help maybe some drama when you're
no longer here. If those specifics do not belong in
your will, what does What do we need to make
sure is definitely included?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, we generally will a will has two kinds of
gifts in it, what we call specific bequests and then
residual bequests. A specific bequest is what we're talking about
right now, guys. Those are items that are listed that
says I leave my car my automobiles to my oldest grandchild,
(05:49):
or I leave my household, goods and personal effects to
my cousin. Or A specific bequest can be an amount
of money. I leave one thousand dollars to each of
my grandchildren, for example. That is a specific bequest. So
a specific bequest can be things in other words, items,
or it can be cash. Once all the specific bequests
(06:13):
and will have been met, then there's generally what we
call a residual bequest. And this is the clause that
says everything else that I haven't just listed above. Everything
else goes to When you fill in the blank, you
can say I leave the rest and residue of my
estate and equal shares to my children. Or you might
say I give twenty percent of my residual estate to
(06:34):
the University of Cincinnati or the University of Kentucky. I
give forty percent to my son Brent, and forty percent
to my son Eric. In other words, you can allocate
percentages like that, but of course you better be sure
those percentages add up to one hundred percent. I have
seen a few examples in my career where they didn't,
(06:55):
and it was really a mess.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Mark I'm I'm in the middle of a situation like
the one you just described right now. So there are
specific dollar amount bequest to family members and then everything else.
A lot of it goes to charities, you know, in
a percentage basis, and we don't know what those dollar
amounts are going to be because we don't know what
the value of the estate's going to be at the
end when this individual passes on. But I've got a
(07:19):
situation now where you know, one of the charities does
happen to be a university and they are contacting the
client wanting to finalize or put something in writing about
a specific bequest, and we don't know what that dollar
amount's going to, you know, end up being. So when
we're in a situation where we're on this residual percentage
basis approach, do you ever recommendation on how to deal
(07:43):
with the local you know, plan giving officers at various charities.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, these plan giving officers are they understand this dynamic
and they're used to dealing with these things, and you
just got to tell them what you're going to do
that they are they are many of these people. Their
success and their job, in other words, how well how
good a job they're doing is measured by how many
specific bequests they can generate. And so when they go
(08:10):
in for their annual review, they're going to say to
their boss. You know, I was able to get us
listed in you know these twenty three wills. Now, there's
no guarantee those wills won't be changed later on. But
the point is that they're driven to try to get
details from you because that's their job, and that does
not compel you and I to have to meet their goals.
(08:30):
You know I can. I've been in the situation a
few times and where you politely say, you know, we're
just not there yet. We'll get back to you when
we are.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Great perspective, as always from our state planning expert from
the law firm of Wood and Lamping, Mark Regman. What
does belong in your will? What doesn't? And on top
of that, I would say, whatever you decide, please communicate
that to your loved ones. You're listening to simply money
presented by all Worth Financial here in fifty five KRC
the talk station
You know you should have a will. I know a
lot of us tend to put these estate planning things off.
But not only should you have a will, but what's
supposed to be in it? How specific should your will
actually be? Could you be missing something? Joining us? Is
our estate planning expert from the law firm of Wood
and Lamping, Mark Grekman Mark. I think most people have
(00:21):
gotten the message by now you need to have a will.
But beyond that, what are the specifics we need to
make sure we're covering in there?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, you know, we are all very aware of the
things we've collected, very proud perhaps of several items in
our healthholm in our possession. And the truth is that
the law is really less concerned about those details. And
placing details, detailed lists of items in your will various consequences.
(00:51):
And sometimes that's worth the effort or worth the extra trouble,
but usually it's not, and so people are often surprised.
Clients of mind are often surprised that I don't ask
them for a list of all their valuable jewelry, for example,
or some you know, give me the name that give
me the type of car you drive, you know, the
(01:12):
model in make of your car. But the truth is,
we don't put that kind of detailed into a will.
And then there's some very good reasons for it.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Mark, I can remember one example in my own family
where a grandparent passed away and we had come back
to the house from the funeral. And I'm talking about
within an hour of the funeral, I'm watching in laws
walk around the house putting sticky notes on pieces of
furniture and china and other articles within the home. And
(01:45):
these folks had just been buried an hour ago. It
was shocking to me and somewhat of a mess, and
it created a little bit of discord within the family.
Talk about how we avoid situations like.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That, Well, unfortunately, Bob, it's hard to avoid situations if
there is already underlying tension of the family. And certainly
I have seen this, and I've heard many stories like
the ones you tell, uh, And there are certainly ways
that an executor that's the person in charge of administering
the estate, or the administrator we call that if you
(02:21):
if you die without a will, then your agent is
called an administrator. But in this in this topic, we're
talking about people who have a will. That means the
executor runs the show, and the executor generally, well, the
executor is in charge of dividing up household goods and
personal effects, and there's a lot of different strategies. We've
talked about that on another show, and perhaps that's a
(02:42):
topic for another day. But the point is the executor
makes the decision, and how tasteful they choose to be
depends on the individual family. But certainly you can you
can be specific in your will, but it really is
a trap and it creates a lot more problems than
it's worth. Bob. What I have seen done which takes
(03:04):
a little bit of planning, and that is I've seen
the family that people who are older, when they do
their will, they make a list of their big stuff.
That's not an official list. It's not in the will,
and it's not in the lawyer's file. Perhaps it's just
a list on their computer or perhaps just in a
notebook that lays out who they think should get each item,
(03:27):
and that list goes into the hands of the executor,
and the executor uses the executor's own discretion about distributing
the things that way. But of course you pick an
executor who's going to do what the list says if
the executor. If you can't trust your executor to do
what your list says, you got the wrong executor. And
this is commonly done to avoid the dynamics you just described.
(03:50):
So if you've got a family where that feels like
it could happen, I'm a big fan of making a
list of the big stuff. Now, when I talk about
big stuff, Bob on talking about major items or furniture,
family heirlooms, automobiles, things of that kind. Nobody really cares
about nice forks and spoons, and if they do, they
don't really care about those things. They're looking to pick
(04:12):
a fight for completely unrelated reasons.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So from your experience, mark by having mom and dad
or grandma and grandpa actually write out a list and
say here's who i'd like to get, you know, received
this particular article and maybe why do you find that
that diffuses a lot of this potential family discord?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You know, because I think not, Yeah, I think it does.
But you know the truth is, Bob, if families are
going to fight, they're gonna fight, and the dynamics in
their family are really set outside of this whole process.
And so what I tell people is don't expect words
on a page to change family dynamics. If you've got
(04:52):
a family that works together and it gets along well,
then you're not going to have a problem. And if
you've got a family with tension in it, there really
is not a very good solution. Now that's not to
say that you should not take steps to minimize that,
but I don't want to give people the impression that
somehow there's a magic bullet to stop family members from fighting.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
When you mark, when you talk about the fact, hey,
the specifics like there can be a place for that
and it can actually help maybe some drama when you're
no longer here. If those specifics do not belong in
your will, what does What do we need to make
sure is definitely included?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, we generally will a will has two kinds of
gifts in it, what we call specific bequests and then
residual bequests. A specific bequest is what we're talking about
right now, guys. Those are items that are listed that
says I leave my car my automobiles to my oldest grandchild,
(05:49):
or I leave my household, goods and personal effects to
my cousin. Or A specific bequest can be an amount
of money. I leave one thousand dollars to each of
my grandchildren, for example. That is a specific bequest. So
a specific bequest can be things in other words, items,
or it can be cash. Once all the specific bequests
(06:13):
and will have been met, then there's generally what we
call a residual bequest. And this is the clause that
says everything else that I haven't just listed above. Everything
else goes to When you fill in the blank, you
can say I leave the rest and residue of my
estate and equal shares to my children. Or you might
say I give twenty percent of my residual estate to
(06:34):
the University of Cincinnati or the University of Kentucky. I
give forty percent to my son Brent, and forty percent
to my son Eric. In other words, you can allocate
percentages like that, but of course you better be sure
those percentages add up to one hundred percent. I have
seen a few examples in my career where they didn't,
(06:55):
and it was really a mess.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Mark I'm I'm in the middle of a situation like
the one you just described right now. So there are
specific dollar amount bequest to family members and then everything else.
A lot of it goes to charities, you know, in
a percentage basis, and we don't know what those dollar
amounts are going to be because we don't know what
the value of the estate's going to be at the
end when this individual passes on. But I've got a
(07:19):
situation now where you know, one of the charities does
happen to be a university and they are contacting the
client wanting to finalize or put something in writing about
a specific bequest, and we don't know what that dollar
amount's going to, you know, end up being. So when
we're in a situation where we're on this residual percentage
basis approach, do you ever recommendation on how to deal
(07:43):
with the local you know, plan giving officers at various charities.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, these plan giving officers are they understand this dynamic
and they're used to dealing with these things, and you
just got to tell them what you're going to do
that they are they are many of these people. Their
success and their job, in other words, how well how
good a job they're doing is measured by how many
specific bequests they can generate. And so when they go
(08:10):
in for their annual review, they're going to say to
their boss. You know, I was able to get us
listed in you know these twenty three wills. Now, there's
no guarantee those wills won't be changed later on. But
the point is that they're driven to try to get
details from you because that's their job, and that does
not compel you and I to have to meet their goals.
(08:30):
You know I can. I've been in the situation a
few times and where you politely say, you know, we're
just not there yet. We'll get back to you when
we are.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Great perspective, as always from our state planning expert from
the law firm of Wood and Lamping, Mark Regman. What
does belong in your will? What doesn't? And on top
of that, I would say, whatever you decide, please communicate
that to your loved ones. You're listening to simply money
presented by all Worth Financial here in fifty five KRC
the talk station
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