What is a Pourover Will?
In general, eveything that has a title (such as real estate or a car) or a name attached to it (such as a bank account or brokerage account) must be titled in the name of a trust to be included in a trust. For this reason, it is the customary practice for an attorney who drafts a trust to also write a Pourover Will. Basically, the Pourover Will says that anything I have which is not in my trust should be given over to my trust for distribution under the terms of my trust when I die.
The downside of a Pourover Will is that in general property which has a title or name associated with it and which is not in the name of the trust will have to be probated (go through the Probate Court) under the Pourover Will. For example, Granddad has a trust that leaves everything to his children and grandchildren. His house and his stock brokerage accounts are titled in the name of his trust. When he dies those assets pass under his trust without Probate. However, suppose Granddad also owns a big plot of land in the country that he never put in the trust. That real estate would have to be probated under the Pourover Will and then turned over to his Trust. Then his successor trustee would sell the land and distribute the assets according to the Trust.
In a sense the Pourover Will is a less than 100% satisfactory plan to take care of the failure to title all things with a title in the name of the Trust. The Pourover Will ensures that items left out of a Trust will be distributed according to its terms, but at the expense of hiring a lawyer for a Nevada Probate proceeding.
A pourover will can also be necessary even when everything was done right. For example, suppose a person with a trust is killed in a car wreck and there is a legitimate wrongful death claim (we handle these, see our website: www.accidentawardslasvegas.com ). Part of the wrongful death claim would be owned by the dead person's estate. In this case the pourover will would transfer that claim to the trust thru the probate process.
When our firm writes a trust we include a Pourover Will without additional charge.
Contact Information:
Reed & Mansfield
6655 W. Sahara Ave., Suite B-200
Las Vegas, NV 89146
phone: 702-343-0494
regular business hours: 9am-5pm (Pacific Coast time) M-F
most days: We will also take your call between
7am-9pm including weekends and holidays
(c) Jonathan Reed 2010