By Minko Law Office

03/06/2015 The Will is Ancient A lot of people know that a last will and testament is one of the more basic estate planning documents you can create. But what you might not know is that these documents have been around since ancient times.
Archaeologists discovered the first evidence of people using wills when they found ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics written by two brothers who had detailed their final wishes. The hieroglyphics stated terms about inheritance choices, guardianship nominations, and many other similar choices that we still use wills to accomplish today.
After the Egyptians, the ancient Romans were widely known for the use of last wills and testaments. In fact, by the fifth century A.D., Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian included detailed provisions about wills when he introduced his eponymous legal code.
Estate Taxes are Nearly as Old as the Country The use of estate taxes is something that has been around since early in our U.S. history. President John Adams passed the first estate tax into law in 1796, largely as a result of needing money to buy ships for the Navy. At the time, the United States and France were about to enter into what is known as the Quasi-War. This undeclared war was almost exclusively a conflict between the naval forces of the two nations and their allies. The nation repealed the estate tax, though it came back over the coming centuries, primarily because of the need to raise money in times of war.
In fact, the estate tax passed just prior to the country’s entry into WWI, which is the direct ancestor of the current tax we have in place, though the current tax has gone through some significant changes since then.
Less than 1 out of 10 Presidents have Died without Leaving behind a Will. Presidents of the United States occupy a rarefied position. There have only been 44, and almost all of them have left behind a last will and testament. However, four presidents have died without a will, meaning they died intestate.
Of those four, it shouldn’t be surprising to find that two of them, President Abraham Lincoln and James A. Garfield, died intestate because they were assassinated while still in office. President Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, also died without leaving behind a last will and testament, as did his successor, Ulysses S Grant.
Today, people can easily read the last wills and testaments of many presidents, including John F. Kennedy’s last will, Thomas Jefferson’s last will, and George Washington’s last will.