If you don’t write a will, then who decides who acquires what? Things will not proceed how you would have liked. To be sure your wishes are adhered to, you should to draw up a will.
If you perish without without leaving your will in trust it’s the state that dictates how your assets is distributed. The intestacy laws will be used and it may not be what you will have expected or wanted.
If your legally married or have a civil partner but are without offspring and your assets is valued at a certain figure or less then your civil partner would get the total of the assets including any life insurance . If the property is valued at more than this amount and you have existing family, your partner will still receive this figure, in addition to half of the excess. There exists an order in which relatives would inherit, with existing parents positioned at the top of the list, followed by siblings and so on.
Should you have a civil partner and children then your spouse will gain the predefined amount as above and 50% of the excess. The offspring will receive 50% of the total over the excess immediately and the other half on the death of your partner.
Should you have offspring but no legal partner, then your children would share the inheritance. This could not be as you would have wished. You might have a partner who relies on you and who you will have wanted to inherit at least a proportion of your assets, who’d receive nothing.
To eschew all potential doubt about your assets, however basic it may seem, it would be prudent to draw up a will. There are several options for this. You may make it yourself or hire a trained will service or a solicitor.
Many people make their own will, commonly using a template which can buy from the post office. Caution is advised should you go along this path – it’s deceptively simple to make a mistake and you could even find it invalid. The cost of having a will drawn up, particularly a relatively basic one, is not excessive and you can be assured that your intentions will be carried out.
A skilled will service or a solicitor will be experienced with handling all forms of enquiries and will be able to aid you. You might have queries regarding starting trusts and maybe inheritance tax.
Now you’ve written your will, it’s a good decision to review it from time to time, as your situation changes. If you resolve to change it, then it’s a smart move to nullify your earlier one and have it re-written. If the alterations are minimal, it might be more straight forward to write a codicil to make a part of the last will and testament and to be read in association with it. Any codicil will have to be made in the same fashion as the will in relevance signatures and witnesses.
Please be aware that any health insurance will terminate on the death of the will holder and no value will be attributed to It in the will.
