While my beloved and I are small savers we still have a will set in place. The last thing I want is for any government official taking ANY part of my estate for whatever they deem it to be used for especially in this day and age. I have encouraged people for decades to have set up both Will and Medical Power of Attorney. During the Shavio incident in Florida both my beloved and I were appalled at Gov Bush’s direct underlying contribution to her death and we were darned well sure not going to have that happen to either one of us. We’re in Texas and we still have no trust in that part of the Texas law...too many ifs and buts in the system. Back to Wills... We want our monies/land to go to who we choose, not to be whittled down and dispersed by a Government Drone.
If you aren’t of substantial means, it’s still plenty easy to list beneficiaries on your financial assets. Commonplace of course to have beneficiaries listed on insurance policies, annuities and IRA accounts. But you can also list TOD, transfer on death for your bank accounts, savings accounts, investments. You can’t TOD a house, physical assets, but most people’s net worth is in liquid type assets.
Furthermore, beneficiary designations and transfer on death are senior in rights to a written will. AND, requires NO probate.
If you inherit via bene or tod, all you need is a death cert and a valid form of identification! Easy peasy...