Common Mistakes People Make When Drafting Their Will (and How to Avoid Them)

Most wills that cause trouble were not written carelessly. They were written once, put in a drawer, and never looked at again while the family and the assets kept changing around them. The documents that come to Alturas Law Group for review tend to fail in ordinary, predictable ways: a witness nobody can locate, an ex-spouse still named on a retirement account, a house titled in a form the will has no power over. None of these are exotic legal puzzles. All of them are expensive to untangle after someone dies.

Below are the errors that surface most often in estate planning, and the practical fix for each.

Does a handwritten will hold up in Idaho?

Sometimes, but it is a poor bet. Idaho recognizes holographic wills, meaning a will where the signature and the material provisions are in the handwriting of the testator, the legal term for the person making the will (Idaho Code § 15-2-503). No witnesses are required.

The problem is proof. A typed will signed by two competent witnesses under Idaho Code § 15-2-502 can be made self-proving with a notarized affidavit under § 15-2-504, which lets the court accept it without tracking anyone down. A handwritten page has no such shortcut. Someone must come forward and verify the handwriting, often decades later, and if a relative decides to contest, that verification becomes the fight.

What happens when your will contradicts your beneficiary designations?

The beneficiary designation wins, almost every time. Life insurance proceeds, 401(k) and IRA balances, and payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts pass by contract directly to the named person. They never enter probate, and a will cannot redirect them.

This is where remarriage causes real damage. A person updates the will to name a second spouse, forgets the 401(k) form signed in 1998, and the first spouse collects. Pull every account statement and policy, confirm the primary and contingent beneficiaries in writing, and repeat that review after any divorce, death, or birth in the family.

Why does the wrong personal representative cause more problems than the wrong beneficiary?

Because the personal representative, called an executor in many states, does the work. This person inventories assets, notifies creditors, files the final tax return, and answers to the beneficiaries for every dollar.

Naming the oldest child by default, or a friend who lives three time zones away, adds months to an already slow process. Idaho allows informal probate without ongoing court supervision, which keeps costs down, but only when the representative is organized enough to meet the deadlines. Ask the person before you name them, name an alternate, and consider a corporate fiduciary when the family dynamic is strained.

Can you leave money directly to a minor child?

You can write it, but a minor cannot legally receive it. If a will leaves assets outright to someone under 18, the court typically appoints a conservator to hold the funds, files annual accountings, and hands the entire balance over on the child's eighteenth birthday.

A testamentary trust written into the will, or a revocable living trust created during your lifetime, lets you set the terms instead: distributions for education and health, principal released in stages at 25 and 30, a trustee you chose. Naming a guardian for the child's care is a separate decision from who manages the money, and often should be a different person.

Is the estate tax the reason to update an old will?

For nearly everyone, no. The federal estate tax exemption rose to $15 million per person in 2026 under the tax legislation enacted in July 2025, and it is indexed for inflation going forward. Idaho imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax.

The reasons to revisit a will are logistical. Estates under $100,000 in personal property with no real estate can often be settled with a small estate affidavit under Idaho Code § 15-3-1201, skipping formal probate. Estates above that, or any estate holding Idaho real property, generally cannot. Idaho is also a community property state, which means you can only direct your half of property acquired during marriage. A will that ignores that distinction creates a dispute over what was separate and what was shared.

What does Alturas Law Group check when reviewing an existing will?

We start with the mechanics before the substance: is the original signed document accounted for, are the witnesses identifiable, and is the self-proving affidavit attached. Idaho probate generally requires the original. A lost original raises a presumption that the testator destroyed it on purpose, and rebutting that presumption is difficult.

From there we compare the will against the actual title on every asset, the beneficiary forms, and the family situation as it stands today rather than the year the document was signed. Most revisions we recommend are small. The consequences of skipping them are not.

A will is only as good as the last time someone read it with fresh eyes. If yours predates a marriage, a divorce, a business, a property purchase, or a child reaching adulthood, schedule a review with Alturas Law Group and find out what needs correcting while correcting it is still simple.