Wills, Probate, and Asset Transfer

What should I know about wills, probate, and how assets pass after death?

Wills, Probate, and Asset Transfer (formerly Estate Planning Basics Module 3) focuses on the role of a last will and testament in directing asset transfers, naming beneficiaries, appointing executors, and reducing ambiguity after death. Learners examine how wills work, what can go wrong when they are vague or outdated, and how probate, intestacy, asset titling, and survivorship rights affect the transfer process. Through cautionary examples and applied review, the module helps learners move from assuming a will is simple or sufficient to asking more informed questions about clarity, completeness, and practical administration.

What You’ll Be Able to Do on the Other Side

• Identify the essential features of a valid and well-designed will, including executors, beneficiaries, bequests, guardianship provisions, signatures, and witnesses.
• Compare how assets may pass through specific, general, pecuniary, annuity, demonstrative, and residuary gifts.
• Distinguish between dying testate and intestate, and recognize how probate may affect privacy, cost, timing, and court involvement.
• Evaluate how beneficiary designations, contingent legatees, asset titling, and survivorship rights can affect whether assets pass through probate.
• Use cautionary examples to identify common will design flaws, including vague beneficiaries, outdated documents, missing backup provisions, and inadequate specificity.

The Experience

This module combines self-paced reading, will examples, cautionary tales, applied homework, and document review activities. Learners explore different types of gifts, beneficiary language, contingent legatees, per stirpes and per capita distribution methods, and the consequences of dying with or without a valid will.

The experience also includes analysis of real-world examples, including Howard Hughes, Clark v. Campbell, Warren Burger, Gene Hackman, and Elvis Presley’s will. Learners use these examples to identify design flaws, evaluate the importance of specificity, and consider how probate and asset titling can affect privacy, cost, timing, and family conflict.

Prerequisites: Estate Planning Basics and Estate Planning for Incapacity Recommended

Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours

Featured Resources: 

• The Will of Elvis Presley