Protect The Little Ones In Your Will
If you choose not to write a will, then who determines who receives what? It will not proceed how you would have liked. To ensure your desires are followed, you need to make a will.
Should you perish without without leaving your will in trust it’s the state that determines how your assets is divided. The intestacy laws are applied and it will not be how you will have expected or wished.
If you are currently married or have a civil partner but are without children and your belongings is valued at a set figure or less then your legal partner would receive the total of the property including any life assurance . If the estate is worth greater than this threshold and you have existing family, your partner will still receive this amount, plus half of the surplus. There is an order in which family will inherit, with existing parents being at the head of the list, followed by siblings and so on.
Should you have a spouse and children then your partner would receive the set amount as above and half of the remainder. The descendants would receive 50% of the amount over the set amount immediately and the other half on the death of your spouse.
Should you have children but no lawful spouse, then your children would share the estate. This might not be as you’d have hoped. You might have a partner who relies on you and who you will have wanted to get at least share of your assets, who’d get nothing.
To avoid all possible doubt about your assets, regardless of how basic it may appear, it would be prudent to construct a last will and testament. There are various ways to do this. You may construct it yourself or use a skilled will agent or a solicitor.
Often people write their own will, mostly using a form which you can buy from stationers. Take care if you go down this path – it’s very easy to make an error and you could potentially find it invalid. The cost of having a will written, particularly a comparatively straightforward one, is not exorbitant and you can be assured that your wishes will be fulfilled.
A trained will company or a solicitor will be used to processing all forms of enquiries and will be able to help you. You might have enquiries regarding setting up trusts and maybe taxes.
Now you’ve drawn up your last will and testament, it’s a good idea to review it on occasion, as circumstances change. If you resolve to change it, then it’s sensible to revoke your existing one and have it remade. If the amendments are minor, it could be more straight forward to make a codicil to make a part of the will and to be read in conjunction with it. Any codicil will have to be constructed in the same fashion as the will in regards to signatures and witnesses.
Please be aware that any health insurance will terminate on the death of the will holder and no value will be attributed to It in the will.