Making a Will

The reality of our own mortality is a tough subject, but discussing and formalising your wishes with your family and alongside a legal professional will ensure your assets can be passed on to your chosen beneficiaries and may avoid arguments and issues after your gone.

If you want to be sure your wishes are met after you die, then it’s important to have a Will. A Will is the only way to make sure your money and possessions that form your estate go to the people and causes you care about.

Important component of an estate plan

First and foremost, a Will puts you in control. You choose who will benefit from your estate and what they are entitled to. You also decide who will administer your affairs after your death.

If you do not make a Will, the intestacy rules will decide who benefits from your estate – and that can produce undesirable results.

Intestacy rules also set a hierarchy of who can handle your financial affairs after death, and that can lead to problems if the person is not suitable because of age, health, geographical location, or for any other reason.

Your Will is a final indication of your wishes and removes any uncertainty and directs your executors as to how to carry out your wishes.

More than money

Writing a will is about more than money. You can layout your wishes around your funeral preferences and stipulate who you would like to look after your children and your pets.

Consider implications such as Inheritance Tax

By writing a Will you give yourself the time to consider implications such as Inheritance Tax and what you can do to minimise any tax liabilities that your estate may incur.

Implications of dying without making a Will

Dying intestate is a technical term used in law for someone who dies without a Will. The law lays out who inherits and how much, which may not align with the deceased’s wishes. Those the deceased would have wished to benefit from the estate may be disinherited or left with a substantially smaller amount. 

Dying intestate means it will also take longer to sort out your affairs and could mean those close to you are unable to access any of your finances for some time after your death.

Unmarried partners have no right to inherit under the intestacy rules, nor do stepchildren who have not been legally adopted by their stepparent. Given today’s complicated and changing family arrangements, Wills are often the only means of ensuring legacies for children of earlier relationships.

Making a Will is the only way for an individual to indicate whom they want to benefit from their estate. Without one you could compromise the long-term financial security of your family.

Intestacy rules may mean that:

• Assets people expected to pass entirely to their spouse or registered civil partner may have to be shared with children
• An unmarried partner does not automatically inherit anything and may need to go to court to claim for a share of the deceased’s assets
• A spouse or registered civil partner from whom a person is separated, but not divorced, still has rights to inherit from them
• Friends, charities, and other organisations the person may have wanted to support will not receive anything
• Distant or even unkown relatives may inherit
• If the deceased person has no surviving relatives at all, their possessions may go to the Crown

Who will sort out your affairs?

Without a Will, relatives who inherit will usually be expected to be the executors of the estate and will take on the legal responsibility of the deceased person’s remaining financial obligations.

They might not be the best people to perform this role. Making a Will lets you decide the people who should take on this task.

Things to think about

Making a Will is the cornerstone for Inheritance Tax and estate planning. Before making a Will, a person needs to consider:

• Who will carry out the instructions in the Will (the executor/s)
• Nominating guardians to look after children if the person dies before they are aged 18
• Making sure people the person cares about are provided for
• What gifts are to be left for family and friends, and deciding how much they should receive
• What provision should be taken to minimise any Inheritance Tax that might be due on the person’s death

Preparing a Will

A person needs to think about what possessions they are likely to have when they die, including properties, money, investments and even animals. Prior to an estate being distributed among beneficiaries, all debts and the funeral expenses, must be paid.

Estate assets may include:

• A home and any other properties
• Savings in bank, building society and National Savings accounts
• Insurance, such as life assurance or an endowment policy, not in Trust
• Pension funds that include a lump sum payment on death
• Investments such as shares, investment trusts, Individual Savings Accounts
• Motor vehicles
• Jewellery, antiques and other personal belongings
• Furniture and household contents

Liabilities may include:

• Mortgages including equity release arrangements
• Credit cards
• Bank overdrafts
• Personal loans

Jointly owned property and possessions

Arranging to own property and other assets jointly can be a way of protecting a person’s spouse or registered civil partner. For example, if someone has a joint bank account, their partner will continue to have access to the money they need for day-to-day living without having to wait for their affairs to be sorted out.

There are two ways that a person can own something jointly with someone else

• Tenants in common (called ‘common owners’ in Scotland). Each person has their own distinct shares of the asset, which do not have to be equal. They can say in their Will who will inherit their share.
• Joint tenants (called ‘joint owners’ in Scotland). Individuals jointly own the asset so, if they die, the remaining owner(s) automatically inherits their share. A person cannot use their Will to leave their share to someone else.

Partial intestacy

Partial Intestacy can arise in cases where a deceased person has failed to dispose of some or all their assets by Will, hence the need to review a Will when events change.

Keeping your Will up to date

Reviewing your Will every few years is as important as making one in the first place.

You may wish to change how your assets are to be distributed, or your family circumstances may have changed.

You should look at your Will every couple of years to check that it is still an accurate reflection of your wishes and makes the most of available tax reliefs as laws around inheritance can change.