It is very important to make a will. If you die without one, the way your money, property or possessions are distributed may not be what you would have wished.
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These are some of the main reasons for making a will:
If you die without a will your estate will pass under the intestacy rules, which set out the order of priority among your relatives in terms of who will receive your assets. These rules mean that your closest relatives will have priority, which may not be what you want. Most importantly, if you are in a cohabiting relationship with someone (and you are not married or in a civil partnership with them), they will not receive anything under the intestacy rules.
If you die without a will, you have died ‘intestate’. The people who are responsible for administering the estate (i.e. identifying your assets and liabilities, completing the tax forms, obtaining a Grant of Representation and then dealing with the estate) are nominated according to an order of priority set out by law. This means that the job could fall automatically to someone who might not be suitable. Administering your estate is an important duty, and it is far better to be able to choose who carries it out. Some people choose a solicitor in their Will to deal with their estate, which has a number of advantages.
For anyone with children, this is extremely important. If you haven’t named guardians in your will, the decision about who will care for your children could end up being made by a court.
Where a person has died without a will, the time and expense involved in dealing with the estate tend to increase. In particular, it can take a long time to track down the beneficiaries (the people who are entitled to your estate), and it may be necessary to employ tracing agents. This all adds to the cost, and will therefore reduce the size of the estate and the amount of money that your loved ones will receive.
As mentioned above, without a will your estate will be divided up and distributed according to the intestacy rules. The distribution is based on how closely they are related to you, with no weight given to the quality of the relationship you had with them. As a result, a relative who you haven’t spoken to for years may receive the same amount as a relative who has helped to care for you on a daily basis. Situations like this can cause friction between family members, and can easily be avoided by preparing a simple will.
There are a number of ways in which a will can help you avoid or reduce the amount of inheritance tax payable when you die. If you have a large estate this is a particularly important issue, but even if you think you don’t fall within that category, rising property prices are pushing many people into having potentially taxable estates.
The 2024 Budget introduces proposed changes to the Inheritance Tax (IHT) treatment of unused pension funds. Starting in April 2027, these funds will be included in the deceased’s estate for IHT calculations. This could significantly impact estate planning strategies, especially for those who have been using pensions to pass wealth tax-free.
The Law Society has warned that the severe backlog in probate applications is having a detrimental effect on those mourning the loss of their loved ones. The warning is part of the Society’s evidence to the Justice Select Committee’s probate inquiry. A Law Society spokesman said: “We are aware of significant delays to the probate
The husband of the late Dame Barbara Windsor, Scott Mitchell, has been named the People’s Champion of the National Mission to Beat Dementia. The appointment comes alongside £6 million in funding to boost clinical trials and innovation to detect and treat the disease early. The ‘Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission’ was launched in August 2022,
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