There are several reasons for an individual to make a Will. Firstly, a will allows you to ensure that your wishes are carried out as you would like. It also reduces stress for those left behind at what can already be quite a difficult time.
In your Will, you can choose exactly how your assets and possessions should be dealt with in the event of your death. You can give specific gifts to your family, friends or even charities. If you pass away without a Will everything you leave will be divided according to the fixed rules of intestacy, which includes civil partners. This could mean that the people that you would like to benefit from your estate may not receive anything. It could also leave your beneficiaries with an unnecessarily large tax bill.
It could also mean that a surviving spouse (including civil partners), only receives part of an estate if there are children, which may lead to a forced sale of the family home.
If you draw up your own Will there is a real risk that you may not sign the Will in accordance with the law, and you may also use language that will misinterpret your intentions. This can cause more problems than no Will at all. If a bank prepares your Will it often insists on also acting as an executor. Its fees for doing so are usually much higher than those of a will solicitor.
We help clients with complex estates by offering expert legal advice and take measures to make sure they pass on their estate in a tax-efficient manner whilst meeting all the legal requirements. This often involves making use of lifetime gifts, trusts, partnerships and company structures. See our trust page for more information on the tax benefits of creating a trust.
We are widely regarded as specialists in this field and our solicitors have been recognised by Chambers & Partners, The Legal 500 and Spear’s Magazine.
If you have not made a Will, everything you leave will be divided according to the fixed rules of intestacy. For example:
In your Will, you can specify who you would want to act as a guardian for your children. If you and your spouse or their parent predecease, you can specify in a letter of wishes how you would like them to be brought up.
If you don’t have any surviving relatives and you pass away without a Will, then the estate passes to the Crown. That’s why making a Will is important because if you had made one, you would have maybe instead left it to charity or to friends.
If you prepare your own Will, there could be complications. It’s quite fraught with danger because there is language that you may use that could misinterpret your intentions that could accidentally be included. If the Will itself isn’t executed correctly, it could actually be completely invalid, or it could result in a partial intestacy.
Solicitors belong to a regulated profession and have insurance to cover any possible mistakes that might happen, whereas non-solicitor Will writers are unregulated and sometimes unqualified too. Solicitors are also able to use their specialist expertise and knowledge not only of the law of Wills but also the laws of property and trusts and tax.
Every three to five years is a good guide because the law changes and your circumstances might do too. There may be new additions in the family, or you appointed executors while your children were still young, but now you want to appoint them. It would be sensible to keep an eye on it every three to five years and then just make sure that you’ve received all the up to date Inheritance Tax advice and see if there are any changes that need to be made.
Executors are the people that you appoint in your Will who will deal with all the paperwork in the administration of your estate when you pass away. Executors are the people that are responsible for locating the paperwork to do with any assets and liabilities. They apply for a grant of probate if it’s needed and submit the Inheritance Tax return. They can then distribute your estate in accordance with your Will.
