What is a Pourover Will?
When I draft a living trust for a client, I make it clear that the client still needs to have a Will. "But why?" clients will sometimes ask. "Isn't the living trust taking the place of the Will?"
My answer to that question is, yes, the goal of the living trust is to replace your Will as the primary vehicle by which you dispose of your property. But we don't live in a perfect world, and it may be that all of the client's property isn't retitled in the name of (or made payable to) the client's living trust before he or she dies. Sometimes this is because of an oversight on the part of the client. Sometimes it's because the client unexpectedly acquires property (like an inheritance) right before his or her death. Whatever the reason, the issue is property that for some reason doesn't pass under the living trust upon the client's death. If you don't have a Will, such property passes by intestacy, regardless of what your living trust says. That can be a really bad result, since your property will go to your heirs under Illinois law instead of to the beneficiaries you've chosen.
Enter the "pourover Will." This is a fairly short (maybe 4 or 5 page) document designed to clean up any of your estate's "loose ends." The main provision of a pourover Will would say something to the effect of this:
I give any property I own in my own name at my death to the trustee of the Joel A. Schoenmeyer Trust dated November 20, 1970....
Why "pourover"? The idea is that your living trust is like a big bowl, and funding your living trust is like filling up the bowl. A pourover Will completes this process at your death, by pouring over -- into your living trust -- any property that wasn't placed in your living trust during your lifetime.
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