Indeed, I think a greater disaster would be to die without a will, leaving the disposition of your estate solely to the discretion of the courts.
Or maybe worse than that...to the discretion of the family, if there's basically nothing but personal affects.
My aunt passed away about 2 years ago, without a will. She add very little cash saved or tucked away....basically just enough (almost) to pay for her funeral costs. Her only other assets consisted of personal belongings (knic-knacs, some old furniture, kitchen stuff like pots & pans & that sort of stuff, some
small appliances, and clothing).
After the funeral, all of her relatives went to her apartment to begin the process of sorting through everything, and cleaning out the apartment. It was like a pack of blood-thirsty, ravenous wolves attacking a herd of one-legged defenseless sheep.
My Mom and I stayed just long enough to pick out a couple of pictures of my Mom and aunt together, and a couple of small knic-knacs. The 'feeding frenzy' was just to gruesome to bear, so we left rather quickly. When we went down to our car, my cousins were on the sidewalk fighting over my aunt's stuff...yelling and grabbing stuff from each other (a real pretty sight).....as they stuffed their cars full to overflowing with anything and everything they could get there grubby mitts on.
If there had at least been a simple will, then everyone would have received exactly what she wanted each one to get. As it was, the relatives grabbed up whatever they wanted, regardless of whether my aunt wanted someone else to have it....as she had stated while still alive. Fortunately for Mom and I, we didn't want or need any of her belongings....other than the couple of pictures and a couple of little cheapo knic-knacs that my Mom wanted as keepsakes.
I hope to never see that situation again!!! EVER!!!
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And this wasn't even on the redneck/hillbilly side of my family! These were the supposedly 'civilized' and edjukated relatives!