One of my earliest experiences as an adviser was being called in by a solicitor to advise a lady and her two daughters. They had just inherited from her husband who had recently passed away and not left a will. Despite this being his second marriage and family, the rules of intestacy meant that all of his money went to this new family. His oldest children from his first marriage received nothing. I don’t know if this would have been his wish but what happened next surely wouldn’t have been.
Incensed at his loss of his inheritance, the son and eldest child of his first marriage broke into the house and badly assaulted all three women. Whatever the dad’s intentions were, for the lack of some thought, his son ended up in jail.
Death is one of those subjects that uniquely we will all experience, but we rarely talk about. Try as hard as they might, even the world’s Billionaires will one day die.
It is therefore extraordinary that the simple act of making a will is still only practiced by less than 40% of the population.
A will is simply a document to state our wishes, so that we can control what happens when we are gone and we take the burden away from those left behind.
Without a will, you will die ‘Intestate’ and this government website explains who gets what. It may not be the people you intend, and it is border line negligent if you are in a unmarried partnership because your sole assets will not pass to your partner.
Drafting a will is a reality low cost and simple process these days and it is something that we do for full advice clients.
We have seen many existing wills for clients, and some have been over-complicated to justify high charges. Do be careful when engaging with a will writer who only earns money in this way that they don’t ‘up sell’ you into something more complex than you need. One key myth that we see being used to ‘sell’ wills is that a trust in the will protects your house from care fees, this is rarely the case as the rules around care fees funding are very clear on anti-avoidance.
Altor is currently advising people about wills and estate planning across Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Nationally using the latest technology.