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Bonus Question: Pour Over Will

Dave Frees: You have some questions here?

Ray Deering: The first one is, “I have heard the term, pour-over will, what does that mean?”

Dave Frees: Great question. And I don’t know who is asking it, so I’m not just blowing smoke, it’s a really good question. You have a pour-over will when you’ve created a revocable living trust during your lifetime. What happens is sometimes people create a trust but when they die they still have assets in their own name, maybe their house, or maybe some pension, or maybe some money that they received in a lawsuit or maybe an inheritance they never put into the trust. So even if you have a trust, you want something called a pour-over will that says if I die, and I still have some things in my own name, take them Mr. Executor, Mrs. Executor or Ms. Executor, take them and put them over into the trust and let the trustee administer them and distribute them, or hold them, or do whatever the trustee’s supposed to do. So, when you’re an executor over a pour-over will, you’re job is still the same as every other executor, but instead of giving money to individual beneficiaries in the end, you’re going to give it to a trustee. When you’re the executor in that case, you want the trustee to sign off and maybe even the beneficiaries of that trust, to say that they’re not going to come back and hold you liable or sue you or surcharge you. So same kind of process that you go through, that’s a very good question.

For more info from David M. Frees, III

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