You need to make a full and complete estate plan, but here’s a quick checklist for making a will in Draper Utah:
1. Decide what property to include in your will.
2. Decide who will inherit your property.
3. Choose an executor to handle your estate.
4. Choose a guardian for your children.
5. Choose someone to manage children’s property.
6. Make your will.
7. Sign your will in front of witnesses.
8. Store your will safely.

A will, also called a “last will and testament,” can help you protect your family and your property. You can use a will to:
• leave your property to people or organizations
• name a personal guardian to care for your minor children
• name a trusted person to manage property you leave to minor children, and
• name a personal representative, the person who makes sure that the terms of your will are carried out.

In Draper Utah, if you die without a will, your property will be distributed according to state “intestacy” laws. Utah’s intestacy law gives your property to your closest relatives, beginning with your spouse and children. If you have neither a spouse nor children, your grandchildren or your parents will get your property. This list continues with increasingly distant relatives, including siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins of any degree, and the descendants of a spouse who dies before you do. If the court exhausts this list to find that you have no living relatives by blood or marriage, the state will take your property.

Do I Need A Lawyer To Make A Will In Utah?

No. You can make your own will in Utah. However, you will need to consult a lawyer in some situations. For example, if you think that your will might be contested or if you want to disinherit your spouse, you should talk with an attorney.

What Are The Requirements For Making And Signing Wills Utah?

To make a will in Utah, you must be:
• an individual 18 years of age or older, and
• of sound mind.

You must make your will on hard copy. That is, it must be on actual paper. It cannot be on an audio, video, or any other digital file. Type and print your will using a computer, or you can use a typewriter. Utah does permit handwritten wills Utah code § 75-2-502 but they are usually not a good idea.

To finalize your will:
• you must sign or acknowledge your will in front of two witnesses, and
• your witnesses must sign your will within a reasonable time after you signed or acknowledged it. Although Utah law allows “interested” people to witness your will who stand to inherit from it (Utah code § 75-2-505), it’s generally best to only use “disinterested” witnesses to avoid claims of undue influence.
For holographic wills, you do not need witnesses, but your signature and all material portions of the will must be in your own handwriting. Utah code § 75-2-502.

Do I Need To Have My Will Notarized?

No, in Utah, you do not need to notarize your will to make it legal. However, Utah allows you to make your will “self-proving” and you’ll need to go to a notary if you want to do that. A self-proving will speeds up probate because the court can accept the will without contacting the witnesses who signed it. Utah code § 75-2-504. To make your will self-proving, you and your witnesses will go to the notary and sign an affidavit that states who you are and that each of you knew you were signing the will.

Should My Will Name A Personal Representative?

Yes. In Utah, you can use your will to name a personal representative who will ensure that the provisions in your will are carried out after your death. If you don’t name a personal representative, the probate court will appoint someone to take on the job of winding up your estate.

Can I Revoke Or Change My Will?

In Utah, you may usually revoke or change your will at any time unless you signed a contract not to revise your will. Utah code § 75-2-514. You can revoke your will by:
• burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying all or part of the will
• ordering someone else to burn, tear, cancel, obliterate, or destroy all or part of the will in front of you, or
• making a new will that says it revokes the old one or by having contradictory terms to the old will.

If you have two wills and it’s not clear whether you revoked the old will or not, Utah has rules that determine whether your new will revokes the old one or simply adds to it. If you intended to revoke the old will, the old will is revoked. Utah law presumes you intended to revoke your old will if the new will disposes of all of your estate. If you didn’t dispose of all of your estate in your new will, Utah law presumes you only meant to add on to your old will. In this situation, the executor should follow the instructions in both wills. If there’s a contradictory term, the executor should follow the instructions of the new will for that particular term. Utah code § 75-2-507. If you and your spouse divorce (or if a court determines that your marriage is not legal), Utah law revokes any language in your will that leaves property to your spouse or names your spouse to be your executor. This rule also applies to your former spouse’s relatives. However, this rule does not apply if you specifically state in your will (or divorce decree or contract relating to the division of your property) that divorce should not affect the provisions in your will or you remarry your spouse. Utah code § 75-2-804. If you have any concerns about the effects of divorce on your will, see an estate planning attorney for help.

If you need to make changes to your will, it’s best to revoke it and make a new one. However, if you have only very simple changes to make, you could add an amendment to your existing will – this is called a codicil. In either case, you will need to finalize your changes with the same formalities you used to make your original will.

Can I Make A Digital Or Electronic Will?

In a few states, you can make a legal will digitally – that is, you can make the will, sign it, and have it witnessed without ever printing it out. Although such electronic wills are currently available in only a minority of states, many other states are considering making electronic wills legal. It is generally assumed that most states will allow them in the near future. Utah became the first state to adopt a version of the uniform electronic wills act in 2020. This law allows for the “electronic” presence of witnesses. Utah code 75-2-1405. The e-will can also be made self-proving. Utah code 75-2-1408.

Asset Protection In Draper, Utah

In Utah, a person can establish a substantial measure of asset protection from his or her future creditors through the combined use of a self-settled asset protection trust and limited liability entities. This is particularly true in light of Utah’s new self-settled asset protection trust law, which is discussed in detail below. In addition, through the use of traditional irrevocable trusts and limited liability entities, a person can set aside property for his or her children and other beneficiaries while shielding that property from the beneficiaries’ creditors. It is important to understand, however, that there are no guarantees when it comes to asset protection. The law in this area is not fully developed, and the best that one can hope for is to reduce the odds that a creditor will be able to reach the property. It is also important to understand that legitimate asset protection techniques protect assets only from future creditors. They provide no protection from existing creditors. Attempts to keep assets from existing creditors may constitute fraudulent transfers, and should never be undertaken.

Revocable trusts

Simply put, a revocable trust does not provide protection from creditors. Because a revocable trust is revocable and amendable by the person who created and funded the trust, that person’s creditors can reach the trust assets just as they could reach assets that are owned directly by him or her in his or her own name.

Irrevocable Trusts For Third-Party Beneficiaries

In Utah, a properly-designed irrevocable trust that is created by someone other than a trust beneficiary can provide meaningful asset protection from the beneficiary’s creditors. If the trust requires that all distributions from the trust be in the trustee’s discretion (i.e. that there be no mandatory distributions), and if the trust contains other appropriate provisions, property that is held in an irrevocable trust can be reached by the beneficiary’s creditors only after it has been distributed to the beneficiary. The creditor can neither attach trust assets, nor force distributions, nor require that distributions to be made to the beneficiary instead be made to the creditor. The protection is not absolute. Certain creditors, such as governmental entities and persons to whom the beneficiary owes child support payments, may be able to require that distributions be made directly to the creditor. If the trust provides for mandatory distributions, any creditor of the beneficiary can force the trustee to make a distribution if it is not otherwise made in a timely manner. Where the trustee’s discretion is subject to a standard, a creditor of the beneficiary who is owed spousal support or child support can force the trustee to make even a discretionary distribution if the trustee has abused its discretion in withholding a distribution. But in many cases, an irrevocable trust created by someone other than the beneficiary can provide significant protection from the beneficiary’s creditors. For example, suppose a mother creates an irrevocable trust of which her daughter is a beneficiary. If the trust provides that all distributions to the daughter may be made only in the trustee’s absolute discretion, and if the trust contains other appropriate provisions, the daughter’s creditors may be prevented from reaching the trust assets.

Self-Settled Irrevocable Trusts
Unless the trust qualifies as a self-settled asset protection trust, an irrevocable trust of which the person who created and funded the trust is also a beneficiary offers relatively little protection from his or her creditors. The creditors can generally reach the maximum amount of the trust’s assets that could be distributed to the debtor.

Self-Settled Asset Protection Trusts

As of may 14, 2013, Utah has a new self-settled asset protection trust statute. The new law provides the greatest degree of asset protection of any such law in the country.

Under Utah’s new law, a person can create and fund an irrevocable trust with his or her own assets. As long as the requirements of the statute are satisfied, the person’s future creditors will not be able to attach the trust property, will not be able to force distributions from the trust to the trust’s creator, and will not be able to require the trustees to pay directly to the creditor distributions that would otherwise be made to the trust’s creator. The creditor must wait until the trust distribution is actually received by the trust’s creator. To qualify under the new law, the trust must have at least one trustee who is a Utah resident or a Utah trust company. The creator of the trust may serve as a co-trustee, but he or she may not be permitted to participate in distribution decisions. Distributions from the trust would be made in the discretion of the other co-trustee.

The trust does not protect any property that was transferred to the trust with the intent to defraud an existing creditor. A creditor of the trust’s creator who exists at the time the trust is created must bring an action to enforce his claim within the later of two years after the property is transferred to the trust or one year after the creditor could have reasonably discovered the transfer. However, the creator of the trust may shorten this limitations period to 120 days by sending notice to known creditors and publishing notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which he lives.

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It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Legal problems come to everyone. Whether it’s your son who gets in a car wreck, your uncle who loses his job and needs to file for bankruptcy, your sister’s brother who’s getting divorced, or a grandparent that passes away without a will -all of us have legal issues and questions that arise. So when you have a law question, call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you!