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Show By Thomas Collins PITY YOUR POOR HEIRS WHEN WILL IS READ IF YOU are retired, have a little property and expect to be-I be-I queath it quietly to your hein some day, you had better be prepared pre-pared to do some twirling In your grave. Because the lawyers and government gov-ernment have things balled up good. I have known for some time that it was a complicated business busi-ness to die while owning property. prop-erty. But this week I sat in on the reading of a will in a lawyer's law-yer's office Just like in the movies. And It wasn't just complicated. com-plicated. It was unbelievable. The situation was this: A widower had died at age 71. He owned his home, a piece of business property and $12,000 in cash, bonds, etc. He also had $20,000 life insurance due and was entitled to a refund on his company pension. This seemed a simple estate. The man had three children and his will stated he wanted it divided di-vided equally among them after special bequests of $2,500 to old friends. This also seemed simple enough. But then the lawyer folded up the will and in effect told the children to come back in two years and he'd try to have them some money. There was no funny stuff involved in-volved and the lawyer was a fine one. This is just the way things are in some states and in some circumstances. The main problem was estate and inheritance taxes, always required re-quired by the Federal government govern-ment and usually by the State government. These taxes are high or low, depending on the worth of the property, so there must be an official appraisal. The lawyer estimated that it would take 18 months to get the will probated and the appraisal made. After that would come liquidation of the property, payment pay-ment of the taxes and finally distribution of money to the children. He explained it would not be wise to give them any of the ready cash in the estate because nobody knew what the taxes would be before the appraisal. If they were high, and the cash was gone, there would have to be a forced sale of the remaining property, prop-erty, with all sorts of complications complica-tions and a resulting loss. The $20,000 life insurance might have been sufficient safeguard, but the widower had provided that It be paid over a five-year period. The refund on the company com-pany pension was suspect. Was it a return of the widower's money or company money, and therefore taxable as income? Paperwork, Judges, lawyers, affidavits, appraisals and time, time, time. So much time, in fact, that when the children at last cash in, the grave will be cold, the weeds sprouting and they will be getting their money not from Papa but from a complex of tax men, lawyers and courts. My best advice on the matter is just not to die. Far a eopy t ths new Golden Tears booklet by Thomas Collins, send -K3 cents In coin tno stamps) to Dept. "NWSS" Box (Irani Central Station, New York 17, N.K. |