depends on your state. CA is car-obsessed, so we make it easy to transfer a car, particularly to a family member, but your state may not. Suggest checking the website for your state DMV.
Your state may also have a simple way to avoid probate for small estates, which it sounds like your mom’s will be.
Yes, adding someone as a co-owner would definitely raise insurance/liability issues.
That’s a good idea, but what she is doing is skipping our generation (my H and the moocher brother, because we don’t need it and the other brother is the moocher) and leaving it to our 2 kids, moocher’s 3 kids and some godchildren. My H is executor.
I mean, you understand that that’s her intent; I just don’t want the moocher to come back and paint it differently, like she made a mistake by bypassing her siblings, that that wasn’t her intent.
The Legal beagles at NOLO press say that this is really unnecessary. Anyone can challenge a Will, regardless of whether they are mentioned in the Will, or not. And if a Judge wants to over-turn a Will, which is rare and an expensive to challenge, the Judge can.
Excellent point. Unfortunately don’t get much input. She doesn’t take it well. She has commented all of this to me when wh have talked but she is clear she doesn’t really want to talk about it. She’ll talk to my h.
Can she set up a special needs trust for the nephew on the spectrum? I’d explore that option.
I hope so
My H’s aunt skipped a generation in her will. The judge threw it out, awarding it to the aunt’s siblings. The only living sibling was my FIL, who got a quarter. The children of the three deceased siblings received their parent’s share, divided equally among the children of that parent. The original intent had been to give each niece/nephew 1/10. It didn’t turn out as the aunt wanted. It’s important to make sure wills are properly written & updated every so often. Which brings me to a question … how often should a will be updated?
When folks die without a will, statutes in the state where you died decide how your assets are distributed. When the court is involved, there are costs which decrease the assets to be distributed.
Estate attorneys are very familiar with typical situations and will do their best to help the person who consults them to have as much of the assets go to the desired parties as possible. They have heard and experienced many of the problems of greedy and worthless relatives, etc and can do their best to protect those that are deserving.
In my opinion, good estate attorneys are are a bargain for the peace of mind and their skills.
@kelsmom What was the basis for the aunt’s will being thrown out?
My older sister(only sibling) never married and I would have no problem if she wanted to skip over me and leave her money to my children, who she is very close to. And I hope she leaves some to her favorite charities. She knows that. I’m old and there’s only so much money I want to deal with at this point! 
Wills should be reread every time there is a major change—in the family, in tax code, in beneficiary ages, marriage, divorce, birth/death, etc. Depending on how much us going on in people’s lives, this can be pretty frequent.
Our wills were written over a decade ago. We plan to update them after S’s wedding this year.
What we were told by FIL is that the judge said that the will, written 30 years prior, was “too old.” I don’t know if there were changes to laws since it was written or what.
While that is true, there’s a big difference between public court filing fees (which can be just a couple of hundred dollars), and estate attorney fees (which can be a % of the total estate depending on state law). One can eliminate the latter by asking the court to appoint you as PR of your mother’s estate, and not an attorney.
For small estates, a Probate attorney is not necessary. That said, buying a couple of hours of a Probate attorney’s time can be well worth it, just don’t offer a % of the total estate.
Why did the judge throw it out?? Oh, I found your response. SIL wrote her will maybe 5 or 6 years ago and 
she will meet with an attorney and update it!
It also depends on how much in assets you’re talking about. The estate attorneys we used charged a flat rate to prepare docs and an hourly rate for helping settle estate.
The fee for preparing the docs can vary. My bank offered several estate attorneys who would prepare all docs including power of attorney and living will for about $1000 for both H and me. The attorney we hired cost a bit more but was happy to do other things, including clearing the title of properties we have at no extra charge. We felt it was money well spent.
Some folks forget to look over their estate plan when there’s a death, birth, divorce, etc and can end up having an ex spouse get a large chunk of the estate, not giving anything to a beloved child born after the estate docs were written, and more.
A Trust could offer some advantages. Our situation is simple, and at least for now we’ve opted to not do a Trust even it is a free service with our financial planning firm.
Trust factors to consider:
TOD for vehicles is state dependent.
Hot off the press (May 2023): New Jersey now allows beneficiaries for vehicles, bypassing will/estate. Pleasantly surprised that the process to name beneficiary only requires a notarized form and not a visit to MVC/DMV
My father only put about half of his assets in the trust he set up with an estate attorney. Big headaches for me as his executor.
If assets are small and simple, TOD accounts, which transfer assets at time of death with presentation of death certificate can be part of estate plan. My SisIL had some assets titled that way and they passed very quickly to beneficiaries. All the banks and brokerages were cooperative except Wells Fargo who threatened to turn over assets to the state instead of executor or beneficiaries.
That would be ideal! When I googled it for my state it appeared the only easy transfer was to a surviving spouse (which we did when my dad died and it was very easy) but might be worth a phone call to see if there is a TOD possibility.