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A will is a legal document that sets forth your wishes regarding the distribution of your estate when you pass away. If you die without a will, those wishes may not be carried out. Further, your heirs may end up spending additional time, money, and emotional energy to settle your affairs after you're gone.
Why you should have a Will?
- You can be clear about who gets your assets. You can decide who gets what and how much.
- You can keep your assets out of the hands of people you don’t want to have them (like an estranged relative).
- You can identify who should care for your children. Without a will, the courts will decide.
- Your heirs will have a faster and easier time getting access to your assets.
- You can plan to save your estate money on taxes. You can also give gifts and charitable donations, which can help offset the estate tax.
Different Type of Wills
Trust Wills
If you’re married or in a civil partnership, you may have assumed that your spouse would automatically be able to deal with your bank account and pensions, and make decisions about your healthcare, if you lose the ability to do so. This is not the case. Without an LPA, they won’t have the authority.
Property Trust Wills
A property Trust Will protects property in your estate. This allows someone to benefit from the property held in the trust while at the same time preserving all or part of it for other beneficiaries. For example; if you would like your home to pass to your children but you want your surviving spouse to remain in the house until they die, this is useful if you have remarried but want your home to pass to children from a previous marriage.
Single Wills
A Single Will is perhaps the most familiar and suitable for any individual person to outline their wishes. While Single Wills are generally for people who are not in a relationship or are divorced, they’re also used in circumstances when your wishes differ from your spouse or if they already have a Will.
Single Wills are especially useful if you are married but have children from a previous relationship as you can divide your estate between your spouse and your children. But if you would like to make special provisions for loved ones, a Trust Will might be a better option.
In a Single Will how your assets are divided is laid out and the document signed in front of witnesses.
A Will doesn’t just have to cover how your assets are distributed but also details such as plans for your funeral and what you would like to happen to items of personal or sentimental value.
Mirror Wills
Mirror Wills are designed for couples who have the same wishes. There are in fact two documents produced, one for each person, but each Will ‘mirrors’ the other. In a Mirror Will the estate is distributed as follows:
- When one spouse dies, the whole estate is passed to the surviving spouse.
- When they die the estate is distributed according to what is laid out in the will.
In a Mirror Will, it is possible to make requests such as funeral arrangements or make personal gifts of sentimental items such as jewellery, photographs and other items.
One thing to be aware of with a Mirror Will is that there is an element of trust involved and there is no guarantee your estate will be passed on to your loved ones. The surviving spouse they are entirely within their rights to change their Will and distribute it however they wish, even cutting out children and other loved ones and leaving it all to their cat if they decide too.
This could be a problem if you have children from a previous marriage or your spouse remarries. There have been sad instances of surviving spouses cutting out step-children from wills and leaving their estate to their own children, or changing their Will to benefit their new spouse.
Another issue is that while the documents are drawn up at the same time, either partner can change their Will and there is no legal requirement to inform the other partner that this has happened.
To prevent this ring-fencing parts for beneficiaries of your estate using a Will Trust is the better option.
What happens if I don’t have a Will?
If you die without writing a will in England and Wales, your property and money will be shared out according to a legal default, rather than your own expressed wishes. It doesn’t matter how close you are to certain relatives; if no will is made before you die, your assets and money will be allocated according to the same intestacy rules as anyone else.