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such acts have been given. Space does not, however, permit a comprehensive discussion of all the curious things that testators sometimes do in connection with their wills, and the uncertain legal effect of such actions. Likewise it is always necessary to inquire as to the effect of marriage and the birth of a child, etc., if such events take place after the execution of a will.

Notes:

1. Make, change, or revoke your will while you are sane, in good health, and at peace.

2. If you have done this, do not alter it or make a new will when you are on a sick bed.

3. A revocation should be complete, and a written memorandum of such revocation should be made and preserved.

§ 25. Well-Considered Wills

Few people give adequate consideration to making their wills, or advise with those competent to aid them in wisely apportioning such worldly goods as they possess. A will should be planned when one is at his sanest and clearest. It should be thought out when one is well and kindly disposed, and not when one is weary, sick, sour, and disheartened with the general perversity and folly of the race.

It is a sorry thing to write into a will the small antagonisms, the petty prejudices, and the long remembered slights of kith and kin. Too often this is the case and the testator provides hard thoughts to live after him for long years.

Again, to make a good will requires judgment and farsighted care for the future. Adding to the wealth of those who have plenty is not so good as helping those who are trying to make their own way, educating children who are worth educating, helping to build up independent businesses

for those who are capable, and helping those who are in the class that aspire and to whom a little help at the right time would mean a good deal.

The claims of the immediate family most men are willing to recognize. It is well to consider what income will be available; how the principal should be preserved intact; in what cases money and property should be left outright; and in what cases only the income should be paid over, and if so, for how long. It is not always well to try to look out for other people's fortunes for the far future.

The law in its distribution aims at equality because that is the best general rule. The father of a family should be able to do better than this. The daughter who has married a money maker and has a small family should not expect nor receive so much as her sister who has espoused a college professor and has five children to educate.

The testator who provides that his accustomed contributions to educational, charitable, and religious causes shall continue for at least the year after his death, does a helpful thing.

Those who can afford to leave gifts to worthy causes might distinguish between those things that each generation should provide for itself, and things of enduring value to mankind. A large gift to the congregation of a present-day church would merely relieve the members who should and would keep it up as part of their duty. The same money given to some vital present need-food for hungry people, education for ignorant people, and such civilization and religion as we have for those who have less-would seem productive of greater good.

Many people have an ambition to found some charity, a school or a library that shall bear their own name. If such people would look into the history of such small individual foundations, and see how rarely they are effective and how prone they are to be mismanaged and to be taken possession

of by a small self-perpetuating group of officials, they would prefer to give to some strong, well-managed organization that is sure to apply the gift to good purpose.

Another consideration is that the world is in an endless flux of change. It is a question how far money should be tied up in any long-time endowments. Many old foundations for charity, education, and religion now sustain a few drones who are contributing little to the betterment of present-day conditions. Money may well be spent today in buildings and teachers for the work that needs doing today, while future generations may be trusted to provide for the buildings and teachers required for the next century.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. In your state, who can make a will? Who cannot make a will? Is the right to leave property to charity restricted? To what extent? What rights, if any, has a wife against an adverse will? What rights, if any, has a husband against an adverse will? Can a child or children be disinherited by will? What are the usual reasons for which wills are set aside?

2. Why should every person make a will? Is it simpler to settle an estate with or without a will? Should a young man make a will? In your state can a man provide better for his wife if he makes a will? What would your state law do with your individual property in event of death? Could you leave it more fairly by will?

3. How is a will made? Why are the services of a lawyer usually necessary? May a will be typewritten? How many witnesses are required in your state? A, who owned a valuable summer home in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, made his will in New York, where he lived, and had it witnessed by two witnesses. He left his summer home to his only sister, providing otherwise for his wife and children. How would you ascertain what would happen to the summer home?

4. What are the essentials of a will? Is there any prescribed form

What if the wili

What if the wit

for a will? Where should the signature be?
were attested the day after it was signed?
nesses signed separately? What if a clause in the will were
crossed out? What is the effect of having a legatee act as
witness?

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5. In selecting an executor, what qualities would you seek? Why is the task of an executor an onerous and difficult one? vantages has a banking institution for this sort of work? an individual and a bank work together as executors? 6. What do people usually do with their wills after making them? What objections are there to putting them in a safe deposit box? Does your state provide for filing wills for safe custody with any public officer? Where should a will be kept?

7. What is the purpose of adding a codicil? Is there any reason fo preparing a new will instead of adding a codicil?

8. How may a will be revoked? What is the effect of a later willi If a testator has two wills in existence and destroys the lates one, is the other will revived? What circumstances will revoke a will, and to what extent?

9. What motives should influence a man in making his will? Wha kind of will is most likely to be approved by a court of probate? How can a man make sure of his will being held good? Is it easy to break a will?

CHAPTER IV

COMMON MISTAKES IN MAKING WILLS

§ 26. Procrastination

In making wills, possibly the most common mistake is to put the task off too long. Everyone should insure his life, but probably 90 per cent of those who do insure would postpone indefinitely if it were not customary in the insurance business to employ pertinacious and persistent salesmen to harass and follow up every man who should insure and give him neither peace nor time to attend to his own affairs until he consents to take all the insurance he can carry. It is equally important to make a will. Both the insurance policy and the will are proper and prudent preparations for what will come as surely as taxes. But no one is sufficiently interested in bringing the matter home to the 90 per cent who put off making their wills, and these let the matter go "until a more convenient season." At last, when weakened by sickness and physically and mentally unfit even to contract intelligently for a player piano, much less to make a careful and long-sighted disposal of all their worldly affairs, they make a hurried and ill-considered will.

Men object to the thought of death, and to the young man it seems far enough away. The insurance agent fights this tendency and tells tales of sudden death and bereaved families left helpless. All of these arguments apply equally well to making a will, but no one is paid to go round and tactfully and tirelessly stir the dilatory to action.

If one has but little he should make sure that it goes where it will do the most good, and is not tied up by the law until

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