I’m a big fan of Slate Magazine‘s Dear Prudence column. Currently written by Emily Yoffe, it’s an Ann Landers-style advice column. It’s well written, often witty, and can deal with issues both serious and silly.
In yesterday’s column, a reader asked about problems she was having getting her father to do estate planning. According to the reader her father, “has a small real estate empire of 30 or so multifamily residential homes. He built the business himself and runs it as a one-man band. Toilet clogged? My old man fixes it so as not to have to pay someone else. The legal structure of my dad’s business is a jumble. Some homes are owned by him and my stepmother, others are held by an LLC he formed. He also has unwritten deals with half a dozen friends and family members.”
As the reader realized and Prudie confirmed, this has the potential for being a big mess. Although it does not say what state they are in, if her father dies intestate (which means without a will), state law decides how is property is divided and distributed. Plus, with active businesses, the court may have to appoint a third party to run the businesses (and get paid from the estate, of course), until it is all straightened out.
You can read her answer (which I found to be just fine) here.