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To Donate today:

Donate to the Wilmington Sympony Orchestra

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QUESTIONS?
Individual circumstances will vary -
as with all tax and estate planning,
please consult your attorney or
estate specialist. We will be glad
to answer questions and offer
suggestions confidentially based
on your personal circumstances.

We are pleased to work with you
to determine how a planned gift
can satisfy your overall financial
and personal goals while providing
a secure future for Wilmington
Symphony Orchestra.

All consultations are held in strict confidence. Please contact us today
for more information or to request
a personalized illustration of how
a planned gift can benefit you.


Contact us below:

Wilmington Symphony Orchestra
4608 Cedar Ave., #105
Wilmington, NC 28403

Phone: 910-791-9262
Fax: 910-791-8970

Reed Wallace, Executive Director:

info@wilmingtonsymphony.org

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Please note, individual financial
circumstances will vary. The
information on this site does not
constitute legal or tax advice.
Donor stories and photographs
are for purposes of illustration
only. As with all tax and estate
planning, please consult your
attorney or estate specialist. All
material is copyrighted and is for
viewing purposes only. Use of
this site signifies your agreement
with the terms of use. The content
in this Planned Giving section has
been developed for the Wilmington
Symphony Orchestra by Future
Focus
. Revised: Oct. 3, 2008

 

 

Why does everyone need a will?

With a will you can:
Without a will:
Some of the reasons people use for not having a will include:

"I don't have much property."
Each of us has property worthy of distribution to someone-an automobile, bank account,
stereo, home computer, furniture, jewelry, paintings, china, etc. Even if everything were
sold at an estate auction, it would probably yield several thousand dollars which could
be useful to your favorite charity.

"My property is in joint names.
This is a trap into which many people fall. Having property in joint name is no excuse
for not having a will. In the event of a common disaster, you will have no distribution plan.
Or, the other joint tenant could predecease you. Having everything in joint name is also
a bad estate plan because the first spouse to die loses the benefit of his or her lifetime
estate tax exemption.

"My spouse will get everything anyway."
This is an invalid premise. If you die without a will, your children may share in a major
part of the estate. Your spouse may predecease you, or you may get a divorce. Both
of you may die in a common disaster with the result that everything will be left up to
chance. (For example) Did you know that if you die without a will in Massachusetts,
your children share in the estate? Do you want your 21 year old college student to
receive a percentage of your estate rather than having it all go to your spouse?

"I'm young. I have plenty of time."
A review of the obituaries will show that death is not a state reserved only for the
elderly. Many people in their forties and fifties and younger die from all kinds of
unexpected accidents and diseases. (The number of court appointed guardians
after 9/11/01 should be a reminder that we're surrounded by uncertainty.)

"I'm not married so I don't need a will."
This is all the more reason why you need one. Who knows what haphazard distribution
will result from a distribution under state laws in your case.

"My wife and I already split out estates into two revocable trusts.
Everything worthwhile is in the name of either my trust or my wife's trust
and will be distributed according to the terms we have outlined."

Each of you still needs a pour-over will that simply provides for anything standing
in your name alone upon your death to be distributed to your trust. Then, the
trust takes over the distribution plan. It is very unlikely not to own something outside
the revocable trust at death. Moreover, some people set up living trusts but neglect
to fund them.

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