Answer:
You are not likely to find the words "pour over will" in a pour over will. The term is used by lawyers (and others) to describe a will that is used in estate planning situations where the main property distributions will be handled under the terms of a trust. Accordingly, the will in this type of estate plan will have language that directs distribution of any probate property to the decedent's trust.
The main idea in this type of plan is to use the trust to avoid probating one's estate. To accomplish this, the creator of the trust must make sure that legal ownership of all of his or her property has been placed into the trust before death. The pour over will is used as a protective measure in case there is some property that, for some reason (usually oversight), was not transferred into the trust. The property not owned by the trust at the time of the decedent's death will ultimately be "poured over" into the trust at the conclusion of the probate proceedings. Note, since the trust is not filed in the probate case, the dispositive intentions of the decedent (i.e., who gets what out of his/her estate) is kept out of the public record.
First published on BankersOnline.com 8/27/07
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