How to Make Your Will

An excerpt from the beginning of the book: Every rich man, every poor man, ought to make his will. This assertion will seem strange and unwarranted to a good many people, particularly to those to whom the word "estate" means a large property. The making of a will is assumed to be the business of those who, when they die, expect to leave a good deal of wealth behind them. It seems a superfluity in the case of the man who has only a pittance to dispose of. As a matter of...
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An excerpt from the beginning of the book:

Every rich man, every poor man, ought to make his will. This assertion will seem strange and unwarranted to a good many people, particularly to those to whom the word "estate" means a large property. The making of a will is assumed to be the business of those who, when they die, expect to leave a good deal of wealth behind them. It seems a superfluity in the case of the man who has only a pittance to dispose of. As a matter of fact, to a rich man a will is merely a luxury, a convenience; his estate can get along without it. To the man of moderate means it is an absolute necessity. Let us look at it.

John Doe is a struggling individual, too poor by far to have his will drawn: at least that's what he thinks. He dies unexpectedly. He dies without a will. He leaves, we'll say, a wife, and a child under age. He owns at the time of his death, say, five hundred dollars in a savings bank, and a lot on which some day he hoped to build, - a lot worth perhaps another five hundred. So we'll put John Doe's estate down at one thousand dollars, half realty, half personality.

Don't forget that he dies without a will. His wife finds herself in a position where she needs to draw on the savings bank account: perhaps she'll need it all. She finds herself in a position where it is advisable to sell the vacant lot.

When John Doe dies her first legal step is to take out letters of administration. To do this she must give a bond in double the amount of the personal estate; that is, she must furnish a one-thousand dollar bond. This bond must be filed with the probate office. It must be signed by two individuals, each of whom owns real estate equal in value to at least double the amount of the bond.

So her first actual step is to go to some of John's friends and ask them to go on her bond. Does she want to ask any of his friends to go on her bond? She does not. (Perhaps, too, he had no friends; perhaps she and John were strangers in a strange land.) However, suppose she screws her courage up and asks them, will they consent? To sign a bond means to assume liability. To go on her bond means that they severally guarantee that she will dispose of the estate according to law. To dispose of it legally means that she must first pay debts, and that the balance belongs one-third to herself and two-thirds to her child.