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This post addresses the difference between a pour over will and a regular last will and testament.
In a "regular will," the person who makes the will provides for all of the bequests, for example, to their spouse, their children, and their other heirs. The person who makes the will typically leaves the title to all of his or her assets in his or her name. When you die with assets in your name, they will be frozen. All of the participants named in the Will must participate in a court proceeding often called, "probate."
When someone has a "pour-over will," it likely means they have a revocable living trust as the vehicle to pass along their estate to their heirs. The strategy is to eliminate the need for the court-supervised probate proceeding by creating a living trust and transferring title to assets to your trust. Assets in a your living trust when you die do not have to go through a court proceeding. You will designate a successor trustee (often a family member), who will have the authority to distribute trust assets after your death without any court or attorney involvement.
The pour over will exists just in case the person who set up the trust did not transfer title of all of his or her assets to his or her trust during their lifetime. When this happens, the survivors must use the pour-over will to probate that assets that are in the name of the deceased on the date of the deceased's death. The pour over will typically provides that any assets titled in the name of the deceased at the death of the deceased are to be transferred to the living trust.
In the ideal "avoid probate" revocable living trust program, that pour-over will never needs to be used, because there are no frozen assets at death in the name of the deceased that would need to go through probate to be transferred to their trust.
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Paul Rabalais
Estate Planning Attorney
www.RabalaisEstatePlanning.com
Phone: (225) 329-2450