Nobody 'needs' to make a Will however if you would like to choose things like who receives your assets at death, who administers your estate, ensure inheritance tax efficiency and choose who is legally responsible for your children in the event of no surviving parents then Yes, you absolutely do need to make a Will and further, this Will must represent your wishes accurately and must be valid once signed.
Single Wills are for one person and Mirror Wills are for two people (couples). Mirror Wills don't actually have to mirror each other though - this is just an industry term as the majority of Wills drawn up by couples do broadly mirror each other.
If you are a Will writer and fully understand the relevant laws surrounding Wills then Yes. If you aren't or don't, then No.
A Will for one person is £85 and Wills for two people (couples) are £145. Incidentally, a better question could be, "what is the cost of NOT making a Will"
Your Will instruction appointment typically lasts around an hour though we always allow 2 hours to avoid rushing you. If you require longer, we will be happy to oblige so long as we don't have another appointment immediately after.
Anyone is of 'sound mind' and who is over the age of 18.
We do have access to this software however we don't provide this service as we have seen far too many mistakes caused by clients doing it themselves, despite using advanced, sophisticated online Will drafting software. This is due mainly to the client being unaware of the full implications of what they were choosing to write in their Will. Firms who provide this service often provide an upsell service of having a professional check over the Will however to do this properly, they would need to complete a full Will instruction form. Due to time and cost, they don't do this and instead just highlight any obvious alarm bells such as contradictory clauses within the Will but with no understanding of the client's actual circumstances, asset values or the way in which assets are owned.
Make an online Will at your peril - it will feel easy but that may well not be the case for your loved ones when the time comes to administer your Will, obtain a Grant of Probate, declare values to HMRC for inheritance tax purposes and then distribute your assets.
Yes, a Will is relevant to the individual and so each person would have their own Will.
And yes and this is often the case.
Yes and no. They cannot inherit immediately but their inheritance will be held in Trust by the Trustees named in the Will until the beneficiary turns 18 at which point ownership of the assets will be passed to the beneficiary who at this point would be legally old enough to receive the assets.
Would you trust them to look after your children in the way you would envisage? Do they have enough money to take your child(ren) in? If not, how can money be provided to them? If you chose your brother and his wife, should they divorce how would you feel about the pair of them entering a custody battle for your child?
From an inheritance perspective, we would recommend that you consider the use of a Trust for their benefit. The Trustees can utilise the funds on the beneficiary's behalf
Trusts are created for a number of differing reasons and it is not possible to answer this question with a yes or no on a frequently asked questions page - this is something that your consultant would discuss with you if it is appropriate.
If you have particular items that would like to gift to specific people (such as your jewellery or your grandfather clock) then yes, this avoids any arguments between residuary beneficiaries post-death about who gets what.
The Will we draft will cater for your assets worldwide, HOWEVER, we always recommend that you get a Will drawn up in that country to ensure that your foreign Will takes into account any succession laws that would take precedent over the distribution of the Will we have drafted for you. Likewise, they will also be able to highlight any tax-saving measures that should be applied to ensure tax efficiency on your foreign assets at death.
If your existing Will is no longer valid, no longer represents your wishes, can't be found or isn't enabling the appropriate tax reliefs to be claimed then you should make a new Will.
Yes, getting married will invalidate your Will unless your Will was written in anticipation of that marriage.
In the event of divorce, your Will remains valid however any reference to your now-ex-spouse is disregarded. Typically your existing Will would make provision for what is to happen in the event of your then-spouse pre-deceasing you and so this provision would take effect in the event of divorce also.
You can revoke (cancel) your Will by destroying it (e.g. burning it or shredding it) or by making a new Will.
No, please refer to our page regarding the Laws of Intestacy. Additionally, any jointly owned assets held with anyone other than your spouse would pass to the surviving joint owner in the event of your death, regardless of being married or what your Will says.
No. Without a valid Will in place, the only assets your partner would receive are those that you own jointly with them along with any jointly owned assets debts.
Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependents) Act 1975, if you don't make a reasonable financial provision for certain people in your Will, they can contest your Will on that basis. The act includes a list of potential claimants under the act and stepchildren would be included within this list. Therefore we would look to understand how you wanted to provided for your stepchildren (if at all) and then advise accordingly on the most appropriate way to draft your Will.
Typically we would draft your Will to plan for that event i.e. should it go to their children or other beneficiaries and if so, who?
Money gifts are paid first and so if your estate had dwindled by the time you died, your main beneficiaries (residuary beneficiaries) may not receive the amount you had intended and may even receive nothing at all.
Are the gifts of significant value? If they are we would encourage you to specifically name in your Will. If they aren't we would encourage you to complete our Personal Possessions Letter of Wishes template whereby you would list the various items you'd like to gift on here (such as Photo A to child 1, Photo B to child 2, my toaster to my neighbour etc). We would then draft a clause in your Will pointing your Executors & Trustees to this letter for the gifts to be distributed. The letter isn't a legal document and so in this event, you would need to be comfortable that those responsible for the distribution would honour your wishes. It does avoid you having to update your Will each time you want to add or amend a relatively small gift though as instead, you can simply amend your template, print it out and sign it, store it with your Will and destroy the old template.
This isn't possible to answer on a frequently asked questions. There are various ways to mitigate inheritance tax making good use of the tax reliefs available. Some say that paying inheritance tax is a choice however in reality, for the average person their estate will suffer inheritance tax if they have breached their nil rate band and residential nil-rate band allowances at death.
Your executor should contact ourselves for expert help - we will be able to provide a fixed fee quotation for carrying out Estate Administration - this is the process of closing down your estate and obtaining a grant of probate where applicable. At this point your executor can either carry out the task themselves or instruct our panel of solicitors to complete the process on their behalf.
You should store your Will with Pattison James Associates, and here's why: your original Will is required at death, a photocopy is not a legal document. Therefore it is imperative to keep your Will stored safely and for that safe place to remain safe for years. Common problems we see from clients who choose to store their Will at home are they lose it or throw it away in error or even shred it in error when shredding a large pile of paperwork. Unscrupulous beneficiaries have even been prosecuted for finding the Will and then destroying it because they favour the laws of intestacy (you can imagine a Will gifting everything to the deceased's son and stepson. If the son finds the Will they can destroy it which will mean all assets get to the son via the laws of intestacy and that nothing goes to the stepson. We would imagine that this occurs much more than people think as proving such an event is extremely difficult.
If we store your Will for you we will provide you with a Will storage certificate and will also register the Will's whereabouts with the National Will Register so that in any event, your family can always locate the Will at death.
No, though you should let your executor know its whereabouts.
Once you have completed the signing of your Will correctly.
England and Wales (we don't cover Scotland and Northern Ireland as the laws for Will writing are a little different).
Yes they can, and they should.
An LPA is a legal document giving the person or persons you trust (your attorneys) the authority to make decisions on your behalf if you become incapable of making them for yourself. The LPA is prepared at a time when you are capable of making your own decisions.
There are 2 main types:
a. Health and Welfare. This type of LPA allows you to choose the person or persons to make decisions about your healthcare and personal welfare. You can choose to include making decisions to refuse or to consent to treatment on your behalf, and deciding where you live.
b. Property and Finance. This type of LPA allows you to choose the person or persons you trust to make decisions about how you spend your money, and how your property and day to day financial affairs are managed.
You can prepare either or both LPAs
Your attorney(s) can start using the powers granted by your Finance and Property LPA as soon as it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). Your Health and Welfare LPA can be used once it is registered with the OPG and you have lost capacity to make decisions yourself. However, you can specify the extent of the authority you are granting, or put restrictions, within the document if you wish to do so. For example you may wish to specify your attorney(s) can start managing your financial affairs in the event of your mental incapacity and not before. It is worth noting that it is becoming increasingly difficult for third parties to assist in managing the financial affairs of another. It is now a criminal offence to handle the affairs of someone who is incapable (even if prior authorisation was given) WITHOUT A REGISTERED LPA.
The LPA has no legal standing until it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). Once the document has been signed, it should be returned to The Will Associates Ltd who will arrange this for you. Registration is an additional service we can provide. Registration can take as long as 15 weeks and the document is then returned to us for storing on your behalf. Once registered, the LPA will continue to be a legal document until the donor dies.
A Your assets are distributed in line with the laws of intestacy with the court appointing personal representatives to manage the administration of your estate.
Your estate planning instructions are passed to our Drafting Team for their initial audit once you have provided all required information to your consultant.
After the initial audit has been completed a summary will be emailed to you for checking and once confirmed by you, your legal documents will be sent to you by 1st Class Royal Mail. Should we require any further information we shall be in contact with you.
On receipt of your documents please read these carefully and should you require any amendments please call us on 01276 903400 or submit your request here.
If you are happy with the documents then please follow the instructions on the covering letter sent to you with your documents.
For any documents placed in our secure storage facility, you shall be issued with a Certificate to confirm the documents that we hold. Please note that this will only be issued once all documents have been completed
No, you still retain your assets and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 prevents your attorneys from making decisions re. your finances that aren't in your best interests.
Yes if you want to choose who makes decisions for your property and finances and your health and welfare. It would be rare for us to draft only one type of LPA and not the other.
No, you can choose different people for different roles. For example, and being stereotypical here (apologies!), your oldest son may be best with managing money but is not particularly caring (we are sure he cares deep down!) whereas your daughter may not manage money and investments well but can't do enough for you. In this instance you may prefer to choose your son to make decisions in relation to your property and finances and your daughter to make decisions regarding your health and welfare.
Yes you can, you would need to advise us of the limitations you had in mind so we can advise then draft accordingly.
We will help you understand their role and in general you will know who you would like to choose. Where you have no-one that you trust enough you can instruct a professional from our panel of solicitors.
This is the person who determines that you have the capacity to make a Lasting Power of Attorney.
You don't have to register your Lasting Power of Attorney however it can't be used until it is registered. It can be registered years down the line, even after losing capacity however the registration process can take anything between 2 - 5 months and so we would encourage you to register your Lasting Power of Attorney documents once signed to ensure they are in place should they suddenly be required.
