Making a Will
Our expert advice and assistance can help you when the time comes to make your will.
How can we help?
Why make a Will?
Making a Will avoids having your estate pass under the law of intestacy. Sometimes this will achieve what you would have wanted anyway, but often it does not and real hardship can result for your loved ones. For example, in some cases, if you are married or in a civil partnership and have children, only £250,000 will go to your spouse. With today’s house prices in London this can cause enormous difficulty to a widow, widower or civil partner, who may be forced to sell the family home. On the other hand, if you live with your partner but are unmarried, they will receive nothing from your estate under the laws of intestacy.
Making a Will ensures that matters are dealt with as you wish and avoids confusion amongst family members after your death. Our specialist team can offer advice on the best way of giving effect to your wishes. Once your Will has been drawn up, the original will be stored safely in our office free of charge. You will always know where it is should you want to make any changes.
Mirror Wills
Mirror Wills are often prepared when a couple want to make similar Wills. Each may leave his or her estate to the other, so that the survivor becomes the beneficiary of the other’s estate. Both can then work together to ensure that their children are the beneficiaries on the death of the second of them.
Tax Planning
Inheritance tax can have a large impact even on a fairly modest estate. Our team can advise on the implications and on ways to mitigate this tax.
Making a Will – FAQs
You must 18 years old or over to make a legally valid Will, unless you are on active military service in which, case there is no minimum age requirement.
However, rather than deciding a particular age when you should make a Will, consider what events have happened in your life where having a valid Will is important. For example, if you purchase or inherit a property or an item of significant value, it is advisable to write to Will to set out who you would like to benefit from your asset/s.
There is no legal requirement to use a solicitor to write your Will, however, it is strongly recommended that you do so. A solicitor will draft your Will to ensure that it will have the effect that you want, advise upon any tax implications, and thus help avoid problems occurring in the administration of your estate when you die. Dealing with issues or disputes after your death may incur considerable legal costs which reduce the amount of money in the estate that will pass to your dear ones.
A solicitor can provide you with tailored advice relating to your individual circumstances and work with you to draft a Will that fully deals with your assets. They can offer advice in relation to effective inheritance tax planning, providing for your dependants and provisions for your assets, including any business interests.
If you would like to learn more about how a Wills and Probate solicitor can assist you, visit our blog here.
A solicitor can provide you with tailored advice relating to your individual circumstances and work with you to draft a Will that fully deals with your assets. They can offer advice in relation to effective inheritance tax planning, providing for your dependants and provisions for your assets, including any business interests.
Find out more on how a Wills and Probate solicitor can help you write your Will.
You should consider the following: –
- what are your assets
- what you would like to happen to assets that are owned jointly with another
- who you want to provide for (e.g. spouse/civil partner, children, friends, charities),
- whether you need to appoint a Guardian for your children and if so who would be appropriate
- who you would want to appoint to administer your estate
- if you have any foreign assets that might be subject to special inheritance rules
- inheritance tax planning including whether it would be beneficial to put assets in trust
- any business interests
If you die without leaving a Will, you will die intestate. This means that your estate will be distributed in accordance with the intestacy rules which are governed by legislation.
There is an order of priority when someone dies intestate which dictates how the estate will be distributed and to who.
If you die leaving a spouse/civil partner and no children, the spouse/civil partner will inherit the whole estate. If you die leaving children and a spouse/civil partner, special provisions dictate the division of the estate between them. If there are only children, they will inherit the whole estate. If there are no children or spouse/civil partner, the estate will pass to whichever family members are still alive in a specific order which is set out in legislation.
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For any enquiries, please call +44 20 7228 0017 or contact our private client team via the form below.
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