5 Star Assignment

Original Text: Used from this source http://hughes-tuj.blogspot.com/2011/11/data-of-dead-digital-story-writing.html

I, STEPHANIE HUGHES, residing at Tokyo,Japan, being of sound mind, do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament and do revoke any and all other Wills and Codicils heretofore made by me.

ARTICLE 1
1.1 – I direct payment of my debts, funeral expenses and expenses for administration of my estate.

ARTICLE 2
2.1 – I direct that the rest of my estate be to my mother, HIROMI TADA. If she predeceases me, I give the rest of my estate to my sister, JULIANNE HUGHES.

2.2 – If any beneficiary shall fail to survive me by 45 days, it shall be deemed that such person shall have predeceased me.

2.3 – If neither my mother nor my sister survive me, I direct that the rest of my estate be divided into four equal parts. I give one part to my sister’s first child; one part to my mother’s mother; one part to my mother’s brother, TOSHIHIKO TADA; one part to my mother’s sister, NAOMI TADA.

ARTICLE 3
3.1 – I appoint my mother Executrix of this will. If she predeceases me, I appoint my friends (a) WALTER AVALOS and MARINA SAITOH, to said office. I direct that no appointee hereunder shall be required to give bond for the faithful performance of the duties of said office.

ARTICLE 4
4.1 – To the following I leave my possessions. WALTER AVALOS, I leave my favorite stuffed animal, Tigger. To my sister, JULIANNE HUGHES, I leave all of my jewelry.

4.2 – This Will has been prepared in duplicate, each copy of which has been executed as an original. One of these executed copies is in my possession and the other is deposited for safekeeping with my mother.

I, Stephanie Hughes, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I am 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence willingly sign and execute this instrument as my Last Will and Testament in the presence of the following witnesses, who witnessed and subscribed this will at my request, and in my presence at Tokyo, Japan on this 10th day of November, 2011.

Translation

My name is Steph Hughes and I currently reside in Tokyo, Japan. I am making a will that revokes and supersedes all prior wills.

Chapter 1

a.Payments of my debts will be handled by administrators of my home.

Chapter 2

a. The rest of my home will be given to my mother, HIROMI TADA. If she passes away before I do it will be given to my sister, JULIANNE HUGHES.

b. If any of my beneficiaries passes away within the next 45 days of my death it will count as predeceasing me.

c. If neither my mother nor my sister survive me, I direct that the rest of my estate be divided into four equal parts. I give one part to my sister’s first child; one part to my mother’s mother; one part to my mother’s brother, TOSHIHIKO TADA; one part to my mother’s sister, NAOMI TADA. (Concise and direct)

Chapter 3

a.  I appoint my mother Executrix of this will. If she predeceases me, I appoint my friends (a) WALTER AVALOS and MARINA SAITOH, as the one who control the will. Also no appointee shall be required to give bond (money) for the performance of the duties as the care holder of the will.

Chapter 4

a. I will be leaving possessions to: WALTER AVALOS, I leave my favorite stuffed animal, Tigger. Also I will be giving all of my jewelry to my sister, JULIANNE HUGHES.

b. – This will has a copy that has the same power as the original .One of these copies is mine and the other is with my mother.

I, Stephanie Hughes, declare  that I am 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and not under undue force or pressure to sign this will in the  presence of the following witnesses, who witnessed and subscribed this will at my request, and in my presence at Tokyo, Japan on this 10th day of November, 2011.

Signature

Process

Looked on blogs and found an appropriate will to copy and use! I then looked at the original text and translated it into terms that more people should be able to understand

Motivation

First off I would like to say I hope I did not offend Stephanie or any others through this process. I was looking at several wills and they all seemed very serious. The one I ended up picking was just the one that seemed the most appropriate considering the length and description on the blog.

On another note, basically what I tried doing was translating complicated legal text into something more easily understood. I realized that through my translation the document was more easily understood, but at the cost of the clarity of the will. Legal writing must be exact so it leaves no room for misinterpretation. Even though I believe my translation made the will easier to understand it risks much. As a frame of reference I thought to myself will my mother be able to understand this. Hopefully I did an okay job!