If you don’t draw up a will, then who decides who gets what? It may not proceed how you would have preferred. To ensure your desires are followed, you need to construct a last will and testament.
If you pass away without writing a will it’s the courts that determines how your property is distributed. The intestacy laws will be used and it will not be what you will have expected or wished.
If your currently married or have a civil partner but are without offspring and your property is worth a specific threshold or less then your partner will get the total of the property including any life insurance cover . If the estate is worth above this amount and you have existing family, your spouse will still receive this amount, in addition to half of the excess. There is an priority in which relatives would inherit, with existing parents being at the start of the list, followed by brothers and sisters and so on.
Should you have a civil partner and offspring then your spouse will gain the predefined amount as above and half of the surplus. The children will inherit 50% of the sum over the excess immediately and the other 50% on the death of your partner.
If you have children but no lawful spouse, then your children would share the estate. This might not be at all what you would have wanted. You could have a partner who relies on you and who you might have wanted to receive at least share of your property, who’d receive nothing.
To avoid all potential apprehension about your estate, however basic it may seem, it would be prudent to draw up a last will and testament. There are various options for this. You may construct it yourself or hire a professional will service or a solicitor.
Many people build their own last will and testament, mostly using a form which can acquire from the post office. Be wary if you go along this path – it’s deceptively simple to make an error and you could potentially make it void. The price of having a will written, especially a relatively basic one, is not excessive and you can be definite that your wishes will be realised.
A professional will writer or a solicitor will be used to dealing with all forms of questions and will be able to aid you. You might have questions about setting up trust funds and maybe taxes.
Having made your will, it’s a sensible decision to inspect it periodically, as circumstances change. If you conclude to amend it, then it is probably better to nullify your previous one and have it re-written. If the alterations are minimal, it might be simpler to write a codicil to make a part of the will and to be read in partnership with it. Any codicil will have to be constructed in the same method as the will in relevance 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.