Everyone should have a will even if they think the inheritance line is so simple and logical. A simple will can be done without any legal help and cost nothing. There are plenty of templates on the internet. WIlls do not have to be done on official paper with loads of legal jargon. As long as your wishes are clear and signed by 2 witnesses then it is valid.
If it is going to be a complicated will (businesses, loads of people involved, special condition etc) then it would be advisable to take legal advice on the will but for the majority of people the will can be done by themselves with no cost. Solicitors make it sound complicated as they would be doing themselves out of money if they advised people to do it themselves.
But, always have a will. When my father-in-law died, there was no will. Everyone thought it so logical that everything would transfer to my mother-in-law but quickly found out that was not the case. It tooks months and in that time all his assets were frozen and she even had problems drawing money out of a joint bank account.
My mum and dad did their own wills as have I. When my mum and dad died (the last about 4 years ago), I just submitted a couple of forms with the will to the probate office and everything was sorted in less than 4 weeks. Without a will, that process would have taken substantially longer even though I am an only child and my parents had no other living relatives.
Our wills just mirror each other with the names changed and basically just say that if I die first then my wife gets everything and if my wife has died as well then everything gets split equally between my 2 children. The wills cover us no matter who dies first or if we both die together. It also states that if one of our children has died then the other one gets everything. If both the children had died then I really don't care what happens to my estate.
Quote: Originally posted by mzzy on 15/5/2017
I'm not keen on changing the mortgage to separate halves.
The problem we have is if one of us dies, the other owns the house. But step children don't inherit.
So if I died, my 2 children from my first marriage wouldn't automatically inherit from my husband.
The initial deposit on our house, over 1/3 of the value, was from my property, so I definitely want them to get something.
It's just so complicated when you have 2nd marriages and step children x
Post last edited on 15/05/2017 10:17:00
So in your will, with the property trust you allocate percentages or parts of the property value to each child. We had it arranged that my husband's 2 lads get a third share each of his half of the house...Phoebe (our joint child) gets a third of his half and all of my half. It sounds a bit petty really, but it does protect them. Now my husband has died, there is nothing I can do to change that property trust, so the boys know that even if I marry again, they still get their share of their Dad's half. It's simple really.
The problem I now have is that my husband had considerable life insurances and pensions, so there is quite a bit of money, but they don't have the same entitlement to that, as it isn't part of their dad's estate, it's money that is for me to use to live the rest of my life...if my husband hadn't died, we wouldn't have had that money. I have also just taken out a new life insurance policy which is held in trust for Phoebe...one of the lads had a moan about that, but the money is for her to live on if I die before she's 18 and self sufficient.
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Topic: Making a Will
