ON MAKING A WILL

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 24

ON MAKING A WILL

EVERY MAH'S DUTY “In the Order for the Visitation of the Sick in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, instructions are given to the minister a.s to various exhortations to the sick person with regard to his spiritual affairs. '-Iho rubric following with 'regard to his temporal affairs draws attention to a matter which, though many ministers may think it presumption to make such an inquiry, is often of the gravest importance,” says a writer in the ‘ Record,’ of the United Free Church. ‘“And if ho hath not before disposed of his goods, lot him then be admonfshed to make his Will, and to declare his Debts, what he oweth, and what is owing to him; for the better discharging of his conscience, and the quietness of his executors. But men should often ho put _in remembrance to take order for the settling of their temporal estates, whilst they are in health.’

“ Tho remembrance of a fragrant life, full of good and kindly deeds, has often been spoiled by the irreparable omission to make a will. ’ One knows such cases aa these—a widow being turned out of a homo built up largely by her own industry; a farm round which happy memories cling passing from tho family into the hands of a distant heir; a prosperous business ruined and the employees turned adrift —all on account of a man’s neglect, his list sin of omission. There is no more fertile source of family dispeaco than an intestate succession.

“ One has known good Christian men and women to fight like tigers over some trilling personal belongings which ought to have been left to one of them by a will; maiden sisters have been left in poverty, to earn their own living, while sisters, married and provided for, have carried off that which would have kept their loss fortunate sisters in comfort; young children deprived of home aud parents have been left to tho tender mercies of strangers. A death-bed will is often an unsatisfactory will. It is probably prepared hurriedly and with little consideration, and tho rubric referred to is therefore wise in urging that ‘ men should often bo put in remembrance to take order for the settling of their temporal estates, whilst they are in health.’ In all cases legal assistance should be sought, even for the simplest of wills.

“ The home-made will and the printed form filled up are sometimes worse than no wiil at all. In many cases they are an expensive economy. They, no doubt, save a lawyer’s fee at tho time, but they often' cost many times the fee before they can bo put into operation. There is an old saying that a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client—a saying which applies as much to lawyers themselves as to the rest of mankind, for even eminent judges, who have written their own wills, have sometimes made a mess of them.

“ And, finally, tho place for a man’s will is in the safe in his lawyer’s office. A man has been known to put his will so safely away that careful search has hot revealed its hiding place, until, perhaps years after, it turns Tin in the family Bible; and cases are not unknown where--a malevolent person, finding- a will in a deceased’s repositories, has put it in the fire. These and other reasons make it evident that a man should not retain his will in his own possession.”