What Not To Put In Your Will

It's the wrong place for funeral instructions and vengeance.

Your will is not the place to include instructions about your funeral, burial, cremation, or organ donation. Nor is it the place to inform family members about the prepaid funeral arrangements or cemetery lot you purchased. In the days immediately following your death, it may not occur to anyone to look at your will for these instructions. By the time anyone does, it may be too late to follow the wishes you expressed.

If you want to donate your body to a medical school for research, or donate specific organs for transplant, you should make those arrangements in advance and be sure that someone close to you is aware of them, so there's no delay in complying with your wishes. Similarly, make sure that your minister, family members or your executor know about any special requests you have about how your funeral or memorial services should be conducted. And if you have already purchased a burial plot or vault, don't keep that information to yourself. Many families have incurred added expenses by purchasing a new burial site only to discover after the fact that arrangements had already been made by the deceased.

Finally, while plays, movies and television programs often depict wills that make unflattering comments about an heir ("I leave nothing to my sister, Bunny, because she treated me so cruelly when we were young") I don't recommend including provisions like this in your will. If you don't want to leave property to someone, you don't have to give a reason for the omission.