If you choose not to construct a last will and testament, then who decides who receives what? Things will not proceed how you would have liked. To be positive your wishes are followed, you need to make a last will and testament.
If you die without without leaving your will in trust it’s the crown that decides how your assets is divided. The intestacy rules are applied and it will not be how you’d have expected or wished.
If you are legally married or have a civil partner but are without offspring and your assets is valued at a predefined threshold or less then your civil partner would get the total of the estate including any life insurance cover . If the assets is worth greater than this amount and you have existing family, your partner will still get this figure, in addition to 50% of the excess. There exists an priority in which relatives will inherit, with surviving parents situated at the head of the list, followed by brothers and sisters and so on.
Should you have a spouse and children then your spouse will gain the predefined amount as above and half of the surplus. The children would receive 50% of the amount over the threshold immediately and the other half on the passing of your partner.
Should you have offspring but no lawful spouse, then your children would divide the inheritance. This may not be as you would have wanted. You might have a partner who relies on you and who you would have wanted to obtain at least a proportion of your property, who would get nothing.
To avoid all possible worry about your estate, regardless of how basic it may appear, you should construct a last will and testament. There are several ways to do this. You may construct it yourself or use a professional will agent or a solicitor.
Often people draw up their own will, generally using a template which can obtain from stationers. Be wary if you proceed along this route – it’s surprisingly simple to make a mistake and you could even make it void. The cost of having a will drawn up, particularly a comparatively straightforward one, is not prohibitive and you can be assured that your desires will be realised.
A professional will writer or a solicitor will be experienced with handling all forms of queries and will be able to help you. You might have enquiries regarding setting up trusts and maybe inheritance tax.
Now you’ve made your last will and testament, it’s a prudent decision to reassess it on occasion, as circumstances change. If you decide to amend it, then it is sensible to nullify your earlier one and have it re-written. If the amendments are small, it could be easier to construct a codicil to form a part of the last will and testament and to be used in partnership with it. Any codicil will have to be constructed in the same way as the will in relevance signatures and witnesses.
Please be aware that any health insurance will terminate on the death of the will holder and no value will be attributed to It in the will.