Single, married or co-habiting? Infant children? Own a property or have savings/investments?
Whatever your position in life everyone should consider having a will to make it clear how you want your affairs dealt with after death.
Our top 10 tips for writing a will are:
- Make a list of all your assets and any debts that you have so that you have a reasonable idea of what you ‘estate’ will be worth. Sometimes this can be a lot more than you think… you may even find that your assets will be worth more than the inheritance tax (IHT) limit of £325,000 which means IHT might be payable. How will this affect the amount you are able to leave?
- Revoke any previous wills you have made.
- Decide who you want as your executors. They are the people who will be responsible for sorting out your affairs and administering your estate. Make sure you ask them if they would be willing and able to act.
- Think about guardians for your children. Who do you want to bring your children up if you are no longer around? The guardians will assume ‘parental responsibility’ for your children. They will have to decide where they live; where they go to school; what (if any) religious upbringing they receive; what medical treatment they can have.
- What about trustees? If you do not want your children to inherit any money until they reach 18 or 21 but you still want your money to be used to look after them until they reach that age you will have to create a ‘trust’.
- Any specific legacies? You might want particular people to have particular items for sentimental or financial reasons. Make a list of what items you want to go to which people. Or you might want to leave a sum of money to an individual or to a favourite charity.
- It is very important to have a residue clause. The ‘residue’ is everything that is left once all your debts, funeral expenses and any specific legacies have been paid. You need to decide who you want to receive the residue. This can be one person or a number of people (or charities) it can be divided equally or unequally or calculated in percentage shares.
- Make sure the will has been signed. There are very particular rules to signing a will and the will is not valid until properly signed.
- Keep your will somewhere safe and fireproof. Make sure that your executors know where to find it.
- Review your will every 3 to 5 years or after a major ‘life’ event such as a marriage or divorce or a significant change in your financial circumstances.
At Lewis Nedas Law we have fully qualified solicitors who can help you with the will writing process to ensure that your will properly reflects your wishes.
