Will solicitors

An effective and appropriate Will allows you to address many issues.

• Tax and protecting assets for future generations – Preparing a Will presents you with an opportunity to address the issues of Inheritance Tax, business and property interests and helping to preserve wealth for future generations.
• Looking after loved ones – First and foremost, your Will allows you to be clear about how your estate is to be distributed and without those instructions your assets may not end up with the people that you would have chosen.
• Choosing who administers your estate – The administration and management of your estate is normally entrusted to your executors and your Will allows you to select them and therefore who you would want to oversee your wishes after you have gone.
• Protecting children – Your Will allows you to appoint guardians to look after your children aged under 18 and make financial provisions for them as they grow up. If you have had more than one marriage, then a Will can ensure children from your first marriage are able to share in your estate.
• Helping or rewarding others – You may have specific bequests such as cash or art or other possessions you wish to make to close friends, grandchildren, other individuals or causes that you wish to help or thank or just to show appreciation.
• Your funeral – It may be important for you personally to leave instructions for your funeral and final resting place.

Without a clear understanding of your wishes, the rules of intestacy apply, and they will not necessarily reflect your wishes at all. The law cannot read your mind.

You will have heard the scare stories about what can happen if you don’t make a Will, forget to update it or even if your Will was not prepared correctly. Well, often they are true and more common than you might expect.

• Your wealth may pass to relatives who do not need it and who you would not choose to leave it to, while a spouse or civil partner may not receive as much as you would have intended them to.
• Without a Will children and vulnerable family members are unlikely to receive the protection you may have wanted for them.
• The lack of a valid Will can also lead to family disputes and you will miss out on an important opportunity to put plans in place to mitigate the burden of Inheritance Tax (charged at 40%) which can have a significant and damaging impact on the value of what you leave behind.