Making a Will Service

Making a Will is one of the most fundamental aspects of estate planning, yet many people do not appreciate its importance. We have experience in many aspects of estate planning and can advise on strategies to help minimise the tax bill. It is an essential means of ensuring that your assets are distributed in accordance with your wishes. You will thus be assured that you have made proper provision for all those you feel should benefit. And you choose the executors and trustees who will carry out your wishes.

It is also an opportunity to plan the distribution in a tax-efficient manner, particularly with regard to inheritance tax (IHT). A Will can also appoint guardians of infant children, besides making appropriate financial provision for them.

In the absence of a Will, for a family with children, the new intestacy rules provide for the surviving spouse (or civil partner):

• A statutory legacy of £322,000
• The personal chattels (whatever their value)
• One half of the residue of the estate outright

Any children are entitled to the other half of the residue in equal shares once they reach eighteen. If any children have already died, then their children will inherit in their parent’s place.

If there are no children the surviving spouse receives the whole estate.

If there is no surviving spouse, the estate would be distributed amongst the children, or if there are no children, amongst the other relatives (there is a strict order of precedence). If there are no surviving relatives, the estate passes to the Crown! Find out what would happen, try our intestacy tool here.

If your children are sufficiently well provided for, you may consider providing for grandchildren, present and future. This will ensure that property reaching the grandchildren will avoid at least one charge to IHT that would otherwise have arisen on the death of their parent(s).

To preserve flexibility, you may consider leaving the decisions to trustees nominated by you. They can consider the circumstances following your death and allocate property in a fair and tax-efficient way. The trustees will usually be guided by a (non-binding) letter of wishes.

Your signed Will should be lodged safely so that it can be readily retrieved after your death. All those who need to know should be told where it is. It will also assist your executors greatly if you produce a simple summary of your financial affairs.

You should review the contents of your Will regularly, particularly following significant tax changes or changes in your personal or family circumstances. You should also update your financial data sheet, preferably once a year.

It is often important that the proceeds of life policies should be written in trust for the benefit of named relatives rather than form part of your own estate.