Would you be able to accept money from a dead friends will?

It’s impossible to answer your question—it depends on you, and it depends on your friends. My gut feeling is that money should probably go to your parents, but stuff can go to your friends—especially if you can assign that stuff to people who either care about it or were involved in the story of getting it. With money, your friends are pretty much just in a death lottery; with things, you can say, “I know you’ll appreciate this, and it’s a memento of me.”

I totally second Jeff on regards to giving friends things instead of money. In terms of divvying things up, when making a will, it’s best to be as specific as possible in regards to who gets what items. I would suggest saying something like “all items to go to my parents with the exception of x item to x friend, y item to y friend, etc”. That way, your parents are the default except for specific bequests. Just out of curiosity, are you going to make this legally binding by getting it signed and notarized, or is it just an outline of your wishes? I would suggest the former if you think that your next of kin would not adhere to your wishes otherwise.

Well all of this money is in a broker account. If I die right right now my mom is the benefactor. So as long as I trust my mom I would think I don’t need to worry about notarizing since she will legally be given all my money already, and I do trust her :)

Thank you for your thoughts by the way, it has been helpful. ;)

Good luck w. dental surgery. You should be fine, but it is a very good idea to have a legal and binding will if you have money. Talk to your mom about your wishes viz a viz your friends or write out a distribution list.

The distribution of money is really up to you; if your parents don’t need it or your possessions, the younger generation may be thrilled by a small legacy, IMO.

Let us know after you wake up, healthy but minus 4 teeth.

i have to say at this point in my life i would be so touched if a friend had thought of me in their will. i only wish the best for the people i love, i actually wouldn’t want to know about it, that’s too weird. but if there are people you love and you know the money would make a difference in their life, i think that is a very loving thing to do.

be specific about what you want to go to whom. Write it down and get it notarized. Family and friends can’t be relied upon to adhere to informal verbal intentions. Remember that anyone can gift money, stock, valuables up to $12,000 to as many people as you want and there is no gift tax or income tax to the gifter or recipient.