If you die without a will, your estate may be subject to Louisiana intestacy laws. This means that assets will be distributed according to the rules of the state as opposed to your own wishes. This may result in conflicts between family members that might never be resolved.
Assets may not be used effectively
If you had a will, it may have stipulated that your cousin inherit your home because that person was the most capable of maintaining it. However, without a will, the state may decide that your sibling or parent gets it instead. That could lead to issues between your cousin and the person who actually gets the home. In addition, it could also result in the home falling into disrepair, which may make it harder to liquidate or otherwise make use of.
Assets may go to people you’re not close with
Without a valid will, your stuff may go to an estranged adult child or another distant relative who you don’t know very well. The people who you were close to may feel hurt or betrayed by the fact that you didn’t bother to take basic estate planning steps to protect their inheritance rights.
They may also resent those who did get an inheritance and take it out on them in various ways. For instance, they may refuse to see those people during the holidays or take other steps to keep them away from the family. In some cases, this may cause secondary issues with extended family members that may result in an even deeper rift between surviving loved ones.
Creating a will is something that you can do once you reach the age of majority. Even if you don’t have a lot of assets, a will can still be useful as it helps to override intestacy laws.
