Will You Die Without a Will?

Published September 30, 2014

Intestate has more than four letters, but it’s a bad word nonetheless. It means having no will. This is bad news for your potential heirs if you die, and it’s certainly bad news for the future of your law practice.

Nobody wants to perceive himself as mortal, so thinking in terms of estate planning is something that people really don’t want to do. How many lawyers die intestate? I’m not sure, but I would guess a fairly large number, especially if the lawyer population reflects the general population.

An article by Lisa Scherzer on finance.yahoo.com notes that according to a 2012 RocketLawyer.com survey, half of Americans with children don’t have a will, and over 40 percent of people ages fifty-five to sixty-four have not bothered to have one drafted, either.

Fame does not necessarily make a person smarter in this regard. According to an article on legalzoom.com by Heleigh Bostwick, the following famous people died without a valid will: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Sonny Bono, Stieg Larson, Pablo Picasso, DJ AM, Steve McNair, Howard Hughes, and Abraham Lincoln.

I have personally experienced this can’t-bear-to-think-of-being-mortal phenomenon in my practice. I represented a person who was very well known-an entertainer-and he also happened to be a lawyer. Even though he’d been legally trained, he died without a will.

Even managing partners and partners in larger firms somehow think that everything is always going to be OK. Somehow, all of us tend to think that we’re always going to get along-until we don’t.

With will-drafting software readily available, this situation is undoubtedly changing for the better-but not fast enough. And so the better part of wisdom is to look ahead and plan ahead; your business will then live on as your legacy.

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Audience type: Associates, Large Law Firms, Small Law Firms, Sole Practitioners