But I\u2019m not worth anything!<\/strong><\/p>\nTraditionally Wills were both expensive and inconvenient to prepare. The process involved making an appointment with a solicitor, which would usually have to be coordinated with a spouse. Knowing that a simple change in your personal or financial circumstances would render the document out of date. As a result, people would write a last will and testament as a once-in-a-lifetime activity. Rather than preparing a document that is written and updated throughout your life. The thing is, you have absolutely no idea how much your estate will be worth when you die. The chances are you will not die today even if you write a Will. If you did die today, it may be as a result of an accident, somebody was negligent and is ordered to pay compensation to your estate. Your estate can easily be worth much more after you have died than it ever was when you were alive.<\/p>\n
Wills are not just for the wealthy<\/strong> You don\u2019t only\u00a0write a last will and testament if you are rich,\u00a0as it simply declares your wishes and provides instructions for your family. Even if you don\u2019t have many assets to bequest, a Will can outline the guardians for your children; set out health care wishes, and even disinherit people. Therefore, even if you\u2019re fairly young and healthy, you may want to consider putting together a Will if:<\/p>\n\n- you own property or have savings, stocks and bonds.<\/li>\n
- you have children, and<\/li>\n
- You are joining the military or other occupation where your life is at risk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As we have stated above, if you don\u2019t provide instructions for your assets in the form of a Will, the government will dispose of it following UK intestacy rules.<\/p>\n
Protecting your loved ones<\/strong><\/p>\nThe UK laws on intestacy do not consider your individual circumstances and it doesn\u2019t know or care for any unresolved family disputes. Therefore, if you do not set out your intentions your estate could fall into the wrong hands. This could have a terrible result for your loved ones as distant relatives, ex-partners and uninvolved parents could be the ones to legally gain from your death. Would you not prefer to be the person that determines where your hard-earned money, cherished pets and beloved children go? Another consequence of not having a Will is that it virtually guarantees that your surviving family will face more costs and stress. As Rik Mayall\u2019s death demonstrated, your estate will incur extra fees and delays if you choose not to write a last will and testament. Your family will have to watch as the estate gets distributed by the government which could result in arguments and expensive legal battles. These added burdens can all be avoided by simply having a Will which will ensure your final wishes and give your family peace of mind.<\/p>\n
Penny-pinching<\/strong><\/p>\nThe number one reason that people don\u2019t write a last will and testament is that they don\u2019t want to pay the legal fees. It can be hard to justify the cost of a Will when you don\u2019t come home with a tangible product or see the benefit for yourself. But this is financial planning for your loved ones and the minimal cost involved is nothing compared to the reassurance you will feel knowing that your assets and your loved ones are protected. Can a will be contested?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nYes, although the person contesting the will must be a spouse, child, cohabitee or a person who is expressly mentioned in the will, or a previous will. The person must also ensure they have valid legal grounds to contest a last will and testament successfully.<\/p>\n
Grounds for appeal include the following:<\/strong> Lack of testamentary capacity \u2013 The person creating the terms of the will, known as the testator, must be of sound mind when they create and sign the document. They must understand the full extent of their estate and possessions and understand who they are choosing to include and exclude. Lack of due execution \u2013 The testator must sign their will in the presence of at least two formal witnesses who are present at the time of signing. Each witness must then also give a signed receipt that they have witnessed the signing of the will by the testator. If there is any evidence to suggest otherwise then a claim of lack of due execution may then be raised. Undue coercion \u2013 A claim may be raised if there is significant evidence to suggest that the testator has been manipulated into submitting unfair or invalid terms within their will. Due to the nature of this claim, the supporting evidence must be of a high standard in order to stand any chance of it being successful. Fraud \u2013 It\u2019s possible to contest a will if the claimant has valid grounds to suggest that the will has been forged in any way. For instance, if a testator instructs another person to formalise the terms of their will, and then that person submits false terms to benefit themselves and forges the signature of the testator, then the will may be overturned and declared fraudulent. You hear it all the time \u2013 stories of children of a first marriage being left out of the will as everything goes to the new spouse and their family. Stories of incorrect wills being written and disputed by everyone who believes they have a cause or should be given Aunt Mary\u2019s silver, or Uncle Sam promised me his collection of Pok\u00e9mon cards. It doesn\u2019t end there! There has been plenty an occasion when siblings, aunts, uncles all contest the will as they do not think that they were afforded the correct amount of the estate as they believe they should receive. A safe defence against this is twofold:<\/p>\n\n- Write a will \u2013 ensure that this covers everyone and is explicit with your wishes.<\/li>\n
- Appoint an executor of your will. This will usually be a trusted person, with experience of dealing with money and\u2026 well, look forward to next weeks\u2019 blog for our second line of defence on misappropriation of your estate!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
To read more about personal finance click here\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nWritten by Andrew Calister<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of people are finally getting Will writing off their To-Do list. Writing a Will is a task that most people know is important. We know that putting a Will in place saves our family and loved ones from a great deal of anxiety and trouble after you have passed away. There is never a situation where not having a Will is a better plan than having one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12312401,"featured_media":26023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,493],"tags":[191,473,472],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12312401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outsourcedacc.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}