If you don’t have a Will, the Government has one for you – but it’s unlikely to do what you want!
Dying without a Will means giving up your rights to say how your assets are distributed. Our services simplify the complexity of protecting your personal and business assets.
At Heir Tight Wills, we don’t write lazily generic ‘one size fits all’ Wills. We provide Wills and supporting documents tailored to your specific circumstances, to ensure your wishes are carried out. We also advise on business succession planning and review your company documents to ensure they won’t cause problems in relation how you wish to leave your business after your death.
Make sure your Will is ‘heir-tight’
Our Estate Planning Assessment will give you valuable insights into the concepts and provisions that might be applicable for your situation.
Alternatively, you can contact us by phone or email.
Bespoke Will writing services
The first step in our service is a free telephone consultation to discuss your situation and objectives, to understand your wishes for your estate and your loved ones. We will take time to advise you of the potential solutions to fulfil your objectives and answer your questions – in plain English not legal jargon.
We then summarise our conversation in writing, with our recommendations for your provisions and the corresponding pricing. On confirmation you wish to proceed with our services, we will send you the ‘things to consider and prepare’, for our meeting – in person or via video consultation – to fully discuss your provisions and finalise your instructions.
After summarising your finalised provisions in writing, we then draft your individually tailored Will along with any supporting documents needed to fully protect your assets and your loved ones’ inheritances after your death.
Typical situations
There is no such thing as a ‘generic situation’, everyone’s situation is individual to them – so there should be no such thing as a generic Will. Some of the typical situations we provide tailored solutions for include:
- complex and blended families
- married couples/civil partnerships or unmarried partnerships
- children under 18
- property ownership and/or ownership of significant assets
- business ownership
- vulnerable or disabled beneficiaries
- the possibility that a surviving spouse or partner might remarry or go into care
- the possibility that a child may get divorced or suffer personal or financial issues
Business owners
If you are a business owner with a company intended to survive you, you must put the right provisions in your Will to ensure it does.
All your assets – including your business – are frozen on your death until Probate is granted, which might take over a year. It’s unlikely your business would survive that long without the correct provisions and authorities detailed in your Will.
Even with a suitable Will in place your company documents may also need amending if their provisions conflict with those of your Will, as your Articles of Association or a Shareholder or Partnership Agreement will take preference over your Will.
Our services bring simplicity to these complex situations.
Why do I need a Will?
Everyone over 18 with assets of any sort that are important to them (including children and pets!) should have a Will – it’s that simple.
What differs is the complexity of each individual’s situation and the ways in which their assets could be at risk after their death.
Without a Will or, worse, with a poorly drafted or invalid Will in place, all your planning and asset building could have been for nothing as far as your loved ones are concerned.
Find out more in our free guides:
We decided to appoint Rachael to advise on and prepare our Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Expression of Wishes Letters after discussions with various solicitors, including large local solicitor firms.
We found Rachael to be the most up to date on Wills and inheritance matters, which made us confident that we were getting a Will which was fit for purpose. We would have no hesitation in recommending her services to friends, members of our family and others, and in fact would put her at the top of our list for inheritance matters.
Dying without a Will
The 2023 National Wills Report by the National Will Register found that ~66% of people die without a Will. The majority of those that have Wills are over 55, with 2/3 of the age group having made a Will.
Sadly, only 30% of people under 55 have made a Will. This is the age group most likely to have young children for whom they need to appoint guardians and make financial provision for until they are capable (and sensible!) enough to manage their own finances.
Dying without a Will is referred to as dying ‘Intestate’ and your assets will be distributed according to the Government’s Rules of Intestacy, with no reference whatsoever to your wishes.
Under the Intestacy Rules, your spouse might be forced to sell the family home to provide your children’s entitlement, or your unmarried partner may have no option but to take your estate to court for provision under your estate. Tragically, loved ones are all too often left struggling financially for months, or even years, until the estate is settled.
Dying with an invalid Will
Even if you’ve made a Will, 28% (over a quarter) are found to be invalid upon death. Common reasons for invalid Wills include:
- it was poorly or incorrectly drafted
- it was not properly signed and witnessed
- it was revoked by a subsequent marriage
- the Will was not updated after significant changes
- it was damaged or marked or partially destroyed
This leads to all the problems of dying without a Will.
FAQs
Make a list of your financial assets with approximate values, including property, savings, investments, pensions and life insurance, in addition to any liabilities, including mortgages and loans.
Gather the full names and contact details of the people you want to include in your Will, including Executors, Trustees, Business Trustees, Guardians and Beneficiaries, with any replacements you would want to step in if your original appointees were unable or unwilling to act, or die before you.
Think about who you would want to benefit from your estate, and how – such as setting an age for minor beneficiaries to receive their inheritance outright. Also consider whether there are specific gifts of personal possessions you would like to make or any payments you wish to make to the people you appoint to act for you.
It is generally recommended that you review the provisions of your Will every 3-5 years or earlier if there have been significant changes in your wishes or personal circumstances, such as;
- you are in a new unmarried partnership
- you have purchased a property
- you’ve had an inheritance, or the value of your estate has grown significantly, and you wish to add a Trust for asset protection or to mitigate inheritance tax
- you wish to make specific legacies, or equalise lifetime legacies made to some but not all of your children
- the birth of a child or another child
- your children have reached an age where you would want to appoint them to a role in your Will
- a child has married, had a child or is cohabiting
- you wish to add or remove a beneficiary
- any appointee or beneficiary in your Will has suffered mental incapacity, is vulnerable or has an addiction, has become bankrupt, or is in an unstable situation, has died or they are no longer in your life
No. Divorce proceedings can take a long time to complete. It is recommended that you make a new Will as soon as possible to avoid your estranged spouse or civil partner automatically inheriting under your current Will or via the Government’s ‘Rules of Intestacy’ if you have no Will.
You can include a Trust in your Will to safeguard your children’s future inheritance while enabling your surviving spouse/civil partner to benefit from your assets during their lifetime, but without your assets passing under their Will on their death.
We will advise you about the relevant Trust options to suit your specific needs and circumstances during our consultations.
Guardians can be a family member or friend who is over 18 at the time of your death. You should consider the guardian’s health, age (particularly in relation to the age of your child and how long they would be required to act as guardian) their lifestyle and their willingness and ability to care for your child. You should leave robust guidance in relation to how you would wish them to raise your child.
Trustees can be family, friends or a Professional Trustee if you feel nobody else is suitable. You should appoint between 2 and 4 Trustees, potentially including Replacements should any of them be unable or unwilling to act on your death.
You must be confident that your Trustees will act fairly, responsibly carry out their duties and follow your guidance you leave them in a Letter of Wishes accompanying your Will.
Not necessarily. Under the Intestacy Rules it depends on the size of your estate and whether you have children. Intestacy also causes delays and complexity. For families with children the division of assets can create co-ownership problems and an unnecessary inheritance tax liability. Making a Will protects your family from these problems.
Your Will is a very important document giving clear instructions on how you intend your assets to be managed and distributed. It needs to be kept safe and it needs to be kept in its original pristine condition, to ensure there are no complications in dealing with your estate as you intended.
If it is damaged or looks like it has been tampered with by others, or even contains a mark such as from a paperclip, your Will is likely to be invalidated. This is because it will look like something was attached to it that is now missing or something could have been amended that you didn’t intend. You will then be treated as having died intestate.
Likewise, if your Executors know that you had a Will but they can’t find it, this will also create problems at Probate. You will be treated as not having written a Will or to have deliberately destroyed it, and all your planned provisions will have been in vain as you will be deemed to have died intestate.
To ensure this does not happen, it is vital your Original Physical signed Last Will and your relevant supporting documents (such as your Letter of Wishes providing guidance for your Executors, Trustees and Guardians) are stored appropriately and securely. Your Executors must also be able to find and access them when they need to in order to meet the strict requirements of the Probate process.
We offer a secure storage service, which includes registering your Will on the National Will Register (including the details of your Executors) and providing you with Registration and Storage Certificates which can be forwarded to your Executors. This gives you the peace of mind that it really is a ‘belt and braces’ service.
On your death, even if the Registration and Storage Certificates can’t be found, your Executors can do a simple search on the National Will Register to find out where the original signed Will is stored. For extra protection at that time, they will have to provide their proof of identity and copy of your Death Certificate before your documents are released to them.
Avoid the needless suffering caused by dying without a valid Will
Start the process with valuable insights into the concepts and provisions that might be applicable for your situation.
Alternatively, Heir Tight Wills offers a free audit of your existing Will to ensure it will do what you intend it to, contact us to request a FREE Will audit. We also provide a secure document storage service to ensure your Will is not damaged, marked, destroyed or lost.
