For a Russian person, the word "will" is still associated mainly with detective stories. Meanwhile, writing a will can significantly simplify the life of the heirs.
Understanding the inheritance queue
The only situation in which you should not think about writing a will is if you have one single heir who can confirm the relationship, that is, all documents must be in order. There is simply no point in making a will in this situation, since your heir will receive everything due without any problems.
It is worth thinking about creating a will if you want to leave the property not to your direct heirs, or to your legal heirs, but not in equal shares. In Russia, inheritance occurs on two grounds: by will (it always has priority) or by law (in the absence of a will), that is, according to the sequence specified by law.
The law divides all heirs into several groups. The heirs of the first stage include spouses, parents and children; in the absence of a will, they are equal, therefore, receive equal shares of the inheritance. The heirs of the first order must declare their rights within six months from the date of death of the testator, if this was not done, the second (and further priority) begins. Heirs belonging to the following categories must claim their rights in the next three months.
The heirs of the second order include sisters and brothers (full-blooded and half-blooded), grandparents and, by legal representation, nieces and nephews. The third stage includes relatives of uncles and aunts. By the fourth - great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers. By the fifth - great-uncles and granddaughters and great-uncles and grandparents. By the sixth - great-cousins and great-grandchildren, cousins and nephews, as well as cousins and uncles. It is customary to include the stepfather, stepmother, stepdaughters and stepsons in the seventh order.
Why is a will needed?
It should be understood that even if there is one heir to the previous queue, the heirs of the following queues will not get anything. If, for example, you have some dysfunctional relative with a high priority queue, and you want to deprive him of his inheritance, you must write a will.
If your family has tensions between relatives of the same line of inheritance, it is advisable to write a will in order to remove possible problems during the division of the inheritance. In addition, you can specify in the will of the special conditions for obtaining an inheritance, if you see a need for this.
The easiest way to draw up a will is by using the services of a good notary who will be able to advise you on all issues of interest. But you can write a closed will, the content of which will only be known to you, it must be transferred to a notary for safekeeping in the presence of two witnesses. In this case, its contents will become known to the heirs only after your death.
