What To Do When There is Not Enough $$ To Satisfy All the Specific Bequests

I want to go over what to do when somebody writes a will and they leave a bunch of cash bequests whether it's $20,000 or $50,000 or $5,000 to lots of different people and then they pass away and there's not enough money in the estate to pay those cash bequests. That actually happened just yesterday when a family came in and talked to me about helping them get through that succession. So the answer is, if there's not enough money to pay all of the bequests then all of those bequests get reduced proportionately. So if there was $100,000 of total bequests and there were 5 bequests of $20,000 each but after all of the debts and costs get paid there's only $50,000 left then those people who were bequeathed $20,000 are going to get $10,000 because their bequest is reduced proportionately because there's not enough money in that estate to fund those bequests. Again we've got rules and procedural rules and succession and probate rules that govern exactly how that and other scenarios are to be handled and that's our job to make sure we walk families through the proper procedural rules to get everything done like it's supposed to be so those family relationships can be maintained and even enriched. If you have questions about successions read through our 3 blogs here on our website RabalaisLaw.com. Check out the blogs and our testimonials. If you feel like you would need our services and you would like to talk to us about that give us a call toll free at 1-866-491-3884. I'm Paul Rabalais and have a great day!