All assets have contingency beneficiaries. We have deed upon death on title to home listing my 2 sons. These are our only assets. We want to...

Question

All assets have contingency beneficiaries. We have deed upon death on title to home listing my 2 sons. These are our only assets. We want to cancel our will so nothing goes into probate. Is this the correct thing to do? Some people say we should keep will. Others say if we keep the will our sons will not be able to put house on market for at least 18 months because of probate. Who is correct and what would you do? We are trying to avoid probate so our sons can put house on market right away.

Answer

It is generally not a good idea to cancel a Will, since there may be property unknown to the testator which may need to pass in some fashion to heirs. A common practice in more sophisticated estate plans is for a Will to "pour over" to a trust established by a testator, so that the probate is simplified and the ultimate distribution is handled outside of probate. Your attorney can explain further.