David C. Franklin
Meier & Franklin Law, PLLC
3500 Westgate Drive, Suite 603
Durham, NC 27707
Phone: 919-246-5842
Toll Free: 1-866-654-5117
Fax: 919-433-0295
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Wills

Your will gifts (in legal parlance - "devises") your property to the persons or institutions you want to give it to at your death. The will only has effect after you die because you can amend it anytime, as long as you are competent and have not agreed in a contract not to amend it, until your death. You must name an executor (male) or an executrix (female) in your will. This person will work with the attorney to carry out the terms of your will in a fiduciary capacity. Most husbands and wives name each other to act in such capacity but you should also each name an alternate in the event your spouse is not alive or cannot otherwise act. So, for example, your alternate could be a sibling or a trusted friend or anyone else who you trust implicitly. You should also provide multiple recipients (devisees) of your property in the event your first choice has pe3deceased you or dies in a common event. So for example, you might leave all your property first to your surviving spouse (if you are married), then to your children (if you have children) if your spouse predeceases you and then to more remote devisees, if neither your wife nor any descendent survives you. If you are not married, a typical gifting regime might be leaving all your property to your brothers and sisters and then to their children and then to more remote relatives.

At the office of David C. Franklin, our staff is pleased to offer legal assistance to clients in
Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Cary, Hillsborough, Roxboro and Morrisville, as well as to residents of Durham County, Orange County and Wake County, North Carolina.