Monday, July 12, 2010

Revoking Your Will

If there's evident proof with documentation that you are mentally competent, you can revoke a previous Will by destroying it. This act of revocation nonetheless needs to be properly witnessed and recorded. Some other person can contend the Will to be lost and not revoked, or lacking mental comptency at the time you "attempted" revoking your Will. This can result to a "Will Contest" in further time. A change in your martial status also revokes parts of a Will in relation to a former spouse that you may have had in the past. Any divorce of a testator and his spouse or annulment of the marraige, that occured either of which was subsequent to the execution of the testator's will; as well having all other provisions in the will relating to the spouse, and the provisions only can be revoked unless by alternative have been provided in the will or decree.

Dying Without A Will

If you plan to die without a will, the state of Maryland calls it dying "intestate." In which your assests will be divided among your existing family. With minor aged children, your spouse will receive only one half of your estate. And the other one half will go to your minor children. Children of yours that are not legal minors, your spouse will recieve the first $15,000 plus one half of your leavings from the estate. If there are no children but still have parent(s), then your spouse will recieve the first $15,000 plus one-half of the leavings of your estate. Likewise, if you don't have children or parents, your spouse will recieve the whole estate that you own.

Any part of your estate will go to your children first equally then your spouse. If there's no children or granchildren, your property goes to your parents, siblings, grandparents, and great grandparents.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Judicial Foreclosure vs. Non-Judicial Foreclosure

Judicial Foreclosure

In the state of Maryland, a judicial foreclosure is pursued when the security instrument consists neither a power of sale that will authorize the lender to sell his/her property in the event, nor an agreement to a judicial decree of forclosure.

If the loan document depicts an assent to a decree of foreclosure, it will clearly show that the borrower agreed to entry a decree of sale. The lender also needs to file a complaint against the borrower to forclose; there is no hearing required to continue with the sale.

If the borrower and lender is not present in the loan document, the lender will sue to gain a decree of sale. The court will then rule if a default has taken place. If the court comes to a decree of sale, it will fix the amount then due and arrange a legitimate period of time for the borrower to fix the default.

Non-Judicial Foreclosure

This is used when the document contains a power of sale. However, the lender will still file an order to the court's docket before any proceed can begin. There is also not hearing required.

A sale notice needs to be published weekly for a duration of three successive weeks prior to the sale. Which is then served upon the borrower by registered mail to last no more than 30 days or less than 15 days prior when the sale occured.

During the 30 day time period after the sale, the person that is conducting the sale files a report of the sale with the clerk of the court. The clerk will then issue a sale notice to be ratified unless cause to disqualify is presented within the 30 days. The notice has to be published weekly for three weeks consecutively during the 30-day time period. A suit for inadequacy, or for any deficiency for that matter, must be filed within three years.

During the event of a postponement, the new sale date has to also be published in the same approach as the original notice of sale.

Sale in lieu of Partition

Whenever real property is being jointly owned by two people and over, any person can ask the court to divide the acreage or sell the property. Since it's improbable to split a house in half, the court can appoint a trustee to sell the home for the owners interest and allot the proceeds accordingly.

A sale in lieu of partition commonly occurs when the owners can't get a buy-out agreement between or among themselves. Mainly because they cannot make an agreement on the value of the home. It is also appropriate when the co-owner cannot be found.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Keeping an Updated Will

Writing the first copy of a will may be one of the most important parts of properly seeing your estate through to your loved ones, but failure to maintain and update that will may potentially make it effectively worthless.

Be sure to review your will every couple of years, perhaps even every few months, to make sure that any newly-gained property is accounted for and properly attributed to their recipients. Better still, you may have learned that someone specifically desired a certain article or another has insisted their given share upon someone else.

The most important benefit of regularly updating a will is appropriately keeping up with your relationships with your loved ones. Such things as divorces, marriages, new births and unexpected deaths - even earthquakes or storms - may all effect how your estate gets passed on to your loved ones.

By keeping an updated will with a qualified Maryland estate lawyer you can rest assured that your hard earned estate will all be accounted for and able to fully benefit your loved ones.

What exactly is a will?

A Will is an official document written according to local state law that allows a person to dictate how their remaining estate will be distributed after their passing; property that is divided into two categories: "real property" and "personal property." Real property would be anything of a permanent nature that is located on or under the land, things such as houses or other structures. Personal property is everything else; ranging from a photograph to clothing to money.

Now, in order to be able to write a will, the executor needs to decide which type of will he or she wishes to write. There are only two choices of wills that can be officially endorsed by the state of Maryland and any other type would not be counted as your official will.

A formal will is a will that is written and signed by the testator, the person writing the will, in front of two competant witnesses that must also sign an attestation clause. Although unecessary by law, having the two witnesses attest to your will will help it more easily be executed and your possessions distributed according to your wishes.

A holographic will is one that is written by hand by the testator of the will in front of no other witnesses. However, the will itself is not endorsed by Maryland law until the testator personally has two other witnesses sign the will.

Certainly one may have further questions than these when planning their estate. As such, it is highly recommended that one consult with a Maryland estate lawyer so that unfortunate costly mistakes can easily be avoided.