Making your Will is probably something that you have been putting off for quite some time. I know I did, for years. I know the importance of making a will but I was always too busy; it took Covid to galvanise me into action and I can tell you it is a huge relief not to have to worry about this task anymore.
Let’s face it, it is a task and when you have children, grandchildren or elderly relatives to look after your own needs are often placed on the back burner. So, I thought I would give you some help to get started. When a client makes an appointment with us at Emmersons Solicitors, we send them a questionnaire in advance of the appointment. The point of this is to save time, you can give some thought to the questions asked and you can gather the information required.
You will need an Executor
It is always better to have two, especially if you own your own home. The job of the Executor is to manage your estate after your death. It is a position that comes with a lot of responsibility, which includes working out taxes due and sending complex forms to the Inland Revenue stating that everything is correct. How do they know this, what if you gave away large sums of money which should be taken into account for Inheritance Tax purposes? They have to make sure that all bills are paid, some accounts might be online, some bills come in annually. They must account to the Department of Work and pensions for any overpaid benefits.
An Executor is expected to undertake a huge amount of work. Do you want your family and friends to be lumbered with all that this would entail? Is it fair to appoint someone as Executor if they aren’t going to benefit from your estate? Are they going to be running about for the benefit of people they might have never met, such as your cousins or your nieces and nephews?
Many of our clients appoint us as Executors. We then get on with everything. But how much does this cost? It very much depends if you have your paperwork in order, or if you have still got bills going back twenty years. Have you listed all of your assets including that old policy that you had forgotten about?
We can often actually make money for an estate by doing the job right, such as cleaning a house out quickly so that there is no rotten food, checking the property to avoid leaks, checking through all paperwork for old forgotten policies, clearing out a house and having it professionally cleaned. If effort is put into this type of thing then we can often obtain a far greater sale price. In one case recently we obtained £55,000 more than the original valuation.
How much is your estate worth?
This is important because it will help us determine if you will need to pay inheritance tax, if we can help you avoid paying so much and to plan ahead to leave money to your family instead of it all being spent on care home fees. We aim to find a balance between losing all of your money to care home fees and leaving you with enough to be able to afford a decent care home. Why not look at this list which will help you, these are typical assets that make up an estate:
-Your home and any other property you own.
-Savings in bank and building society accounts.
-National Savings, such as premium bonds.
-Insurance, such as life assurance or an endowment policy.
-Pension funds that include a lump sum payment on death.
-Investments, such as stocks and shares or investment trusts.
-Motor vehicles.
-Jewellery, antiques and other personal belongings.
-Furniture and other household contents.
To whom are you going to leave your estate?
This is a very important issue. Many of our clients want to leave some of their estate to friends and neighbours. A typical situation may be that you have an estate worth £250,000 but you wish to leave £10,000 to your helpful neighbour.
What if your estate is only worth £20,000 at the date of your death? If you have a spouse and two children, they are then likely to receive less money than your neighbour. Also, if you have already made a will please review it regularly. Frequently my clients go into care homes and never see their helpful and friendly neighbour again. I have had cases where a person has not been visited by beneficiaries for over four years. Is it time to change your beneficiaries? In one very sad case the beneficiaries said to me, oh, we thought he had died years ago.
When you have chosen your beneficiaries please obtain their full names, dates of birth and full addresses with postcodes. It can be very difficult to track people down sometimes as they might move out of the area or even out of the country. At least if we have their date of birth it narrows down the search.
