No Living Will Leads to Family Conflict

Elvin Carey Jr., was stunned by the news that his sister Alva had a double hemorrhage that caused her to die on January 5, 2008. While he was not ready for his sister to leave him, he definitely was not prepared for the lack of documentation Alva left for her belongings. No life insurance, no burial insurance, no medical insurance, and several bills showing she was in debt were some of the not-so-happy memories left behind.

Without a will in sight for Alva, a single, unmarried entrepreneurial woman, Carey had to figure out how to make someone in the family his sister's executor since his family, as he stated, "went through the house like thieves. They went in there and took all the jewelry, all the things that were of value-the new computer that she had-everybody was just pulling and snatching things that they wanted, which is something you'd think a family wouldn't do."

In the middle of this chaos, one of Carey's brothers squatted in Alva's house. Carey said the light bill skyrocketed to $1600, the water bill rose to $1900, three months of nonpayment on the mortgage went untouched, in addition to the gas, cable, and telephone bills left behind. Another one of their sisters took Alva's 2005 Envoy and drove it around thinking the car would be paid off since Alva died. However, Alva hadn't gotten the insurance to pay off the car in the instance of unexpected death. So the car was driven to Carey's home in Atlanta, Georgia home to sit with the car note for that too.

"We needed to go ahead and sell the house," said Carey. "We couldn't get any money out of her bank account because...they froze the bank account. Only the executor of the account can get the money out of the bank, talk to the mortgage company, talk to the finance company about the vehicle."

Even after sending out letters to all of the utility companies and bill collectors, no one wanted to speak to Carey without proof that he was the executor. After three or four months of debating and Carey saying he'd agree to let his siblings have whatever it was they took out of the house, although he was not there for the house sweeping event, they agreed to let him be the executor.

And without Alva's income, Carey and his four siblings and their mother had to shell out $7,000 to bury their sister and pay $300 to file a claim at Cook County Courthouse in Chicago. Carey has also taken two plane trips and one driving trip from Atlanta to Chicago to handle Alva's monetary affairs and funeral, adding up to $2500. A tropical storm in August 2008 stopped Carey from arriving for the initial court date to make him the executor.

"All of this could've been avoided by going to Office Depot and getting a $3 piece of paper and making a will," said Carey. "That way, if you die...the courts would look at the will, have the executor of the will...to designate the property...and none of this would've been a problem. Don't give it to the bank, and have [the living will] in a lockbox because if you put it in a bank in a lockbox, nobody can get to it if you're not married and don't have children."

Carey said he paid $3.50 total for his will and got his living will notarized for free at his bank.

Office supply stores like Office Depot and OfficeMax sell Last Will and Testament documents and kits with prices ranging from $7.99 to $33.02. Websites like Free-legal-document.com have free will documents posted for free. Depending on the understanding of the documents though, it may be a better idea to have a lawyer look it over.

Attorney Alfred D. Ivy III of Alfred Ivy Attorney at Law said, "It depends on what it is they want and they need. In most respects, doing a will with an attorney is more for clarity. Going with a form template won't be bad for you...[but] a lot of people don't understand what the terms are for the person who is making out the will, who's going to be the executor of the estate, what it is that they want people to have and how they want them to have it."

There's also a matter of getting two disinterested parties to sign off on the will who will not gain anything from it, be it profit or property. In Illinois, according to Attorney Ivy III, living wills only need two witnesses to sign off on it. The signatures are the easy part, but clarification of the will is the more difficult task.

"I had a woman to come to me, and she had several children," said Attorney Ivy III. "The youngest child was the good child, and she wanted that younger child to have everything and leave the older children only $10,000 a piece, but that's not what her will said. The will actually disinherited the child that she wanted to have everything and gave the estate...to the children that she wanted not to get anything because that's the form that she used."

Attorney Ivy III continued, "People are free to do what it is they want to do, but it creates some problems later on because there's nobody who can go back...at least if I wrote it out with them, I discuss with them whether or not they have enough assets to justify setting up a trust, whether they have minor children and if they want to have a trust for those minor children in case they were to pass before the children reach 25. We discuss organ donations, burial things...some people want to be cremated, but their family may be against cremation...an attorney will say there's a whole lot more than just writing out a will, but if you have a form packet, it won't discuss all the other things that go around that. Writing a will is not that expensive. Most lawyers charge $200 to $300 to write a will."

Although opinions may differ on how to create a will, the importance of having one is encouraged regardless.

"Everybody should have a will just so your loved ones won't get stressed out and bear the financial burden of taking care of your business," said Carey, who has also videotaped himself reading his will in addition to creating two. "Family gets real picky when people die. I really want to go overboard and say this goes to this person and this goes to that person. I really don't care how y'all feel about it. This is what I want. Show the video at my dang repass."

His new court date to be assigned the executor of Alva's estate was October 17, 2008.