Writing a Will
If you have not gotten a Will in place, or if your Will has been written a long time ago then it may be time to consider getting a new Will in place.
Even though you may have written a Will in the past, if your circumstances have changed, for example if you had children, you got married or divorced, bought property or started a business, you should create a new Will. Your old Will could not be legally recognised, or it could not reflect your wishes any longer.
Writing a Will doesn’t have to take you long and there are multiple ways to go about doing so. You may want to leave a Will as an individual or you may want to get a joint Will with your partner or spouse. There are templates online you can use to get you started, or where your estate is larger or more complex an expert Wills and probate solicitor can help set up your Will for you.
If you set up a Will with the help of a solicitor you can ask them to store a copy on your behalf, and after your passing that solicitor can handle the probate process for your family too.
Will writing services from a solicitor are normally available even where a person is close to passing. Such solicitors often offer to come to the hospital, home or care home to get your Will set up when time is of the essence.
Parents and grandparents
When children are born, parents and grandparents might want to make amendments to their Will to include the new child. If this is not done the child might not inherit what you wanted them to.
Dying intestate
If no Will is in place at the time of a person’s passing that person dies ‘intestate’. When this happens, who inherits will depend on stringent intestacy rules. This may mean that people that you wanted to inherit do not inherit at all, and that if no close relatives are left behind under these intestacy rules the estate goes to the Crown.
In some cases, it may even mean that children miss out on their inheritance, and unmarried partners will not inherit anything.
In the UK the majority of people still do not have a Will in place. This could lead to significant issues to those left behind. If matters aren’t handled correctly and a Will is not set out properly there may not be anything your loved ones can do, and there is also a risk of increased inheritance tax.
With a Will writing professional or solicitor by your side you can be assured that no such problems will occur, and your solicitor can further help you assess other options too, such as setting up a trust fund.
When putting in place your Will you may further want to consider setting up Lasting Power of Attorney. With these documents in place you can feel safe in the knowledge that no matter what happens next, you have taken care of everything.
