People often put off having a will, either because they believe they have more time or because they assume the state will divide the property evenly. In order to explain why it is so important to have a will, we thought we could explain it using a fairy tale: Cinderella. By now we’ve all become familiar with this tale. We’ve watched the cartoon as a child, read the story to our own children, and maybe even saw a few movie adaptations. Right now I want to apply her story to the state of Maryland and its laws.
Cinderella’s father loved his family, but unwisely assumed that he didn’t need a will. He believed that things would sort itself out for the best—after all, everyone is a good person. Right? As the story goes, for some time the blended family lives together happily. The father, stepmother, her two daughters, and Cinderella share a large residence on the Potomac, and even had a vacation home in Maine that the family took trips to in the summer. One day, the father goes off on a business trip and unfortunately meets an early demise. The family is devastated by this news, especially Cinderella who is now dependent upon her stepmother’s kindness (or lack thereof). Why?
Here’s why: Cinderella’s stepmother was pretty smart when she married Cinderella’s father. She put her name on everything, the home, the bank accounts; she even changed the beneficiary designation on his life insurance policy. Since an attorney was not involved in the stepmom’s plan, no one told Cinderella’s dad what would actually happen if he died first. He had no idea that everything he owned would go to the stepmother, or that his daughter Cinderella could be disinherited from her father’s entire estate!
Certainly, Cinderella’s father did not want this outcome, but he didn’t think ahead. His daughter was left in the care of a woman who had no intention of providing for her beyond what the state expects. Everything that he and her mother intended for her was ruined. Now, in Maryland fairy godmothers are scarce and run at high premiums. If they had only employed a lawyer to set the estate to rights, one wouldn’t even be needed to fix things.
We all want to live in a world where everyone is a good person with good intentions, but sometimes that’s not true. Money and death change people. It’s best to plan early on and have an estate attorney involved so that your loved ones don’t have to rely on wands and pumpkins. They have an estate plan to protect them.
