Making sure your Will is fit for purpose

Written by Sara Sheppard

What do we mean by this? It means that making sure your Will does exactly what you think it does. It is all very well thinking that your Estate is simple and that you can either write your Will yourself, or have a free Will written through one of the charity schemes (you have to be over 55 to do this, and they hope that you will leave them a big legacy – after all they are paying a solicitor to write the Will). Or you may decide to do one of the cheap Wills through an online service or buy a pack from WHSmiths and write it yourself.

However, none of these will take a good look at the size and structure of your Estate, or ask you about your family (not just your spouse and children) but also consider other relatives. None of these will necessarily consider whether additional clauses are needed to protect your business, nor will they consider Inheritance Tax implications.

At SLS Wills and More Limited, our director, Sara Sheppard, has over 34 years experience, not only in writing Wills, but also dealing with Estate once someone has passed away, and as a result, she has dealt with many difficult situations where there was no Will, or the Will was no longer fit for purpose.

When considering your Will, think about:

1. Who should be your Executors and Trustees? These should be people that you can trust 100% - they must be financially aware and if at the time of dealing with your Estate, they are bankrupt, then they cannot act as your Executor. Are they likely to be in a position of a conflict of interest? Your beneficiaries can be your Executors, but they might just want to make sure that their interest as a beneficiary is protected rather than those of anyone else. It is for this reason that some people consider appointing professional Executors. Sara can help and guide you as to the options available to you.

2. Do you need guardians for young children? If your children are under 18 when you die, and you have not appointed guardians, then the Courts will decide who gets to look after them and who will have parental responsibility. There is no automatic solution for the care of your children. According to Child Bereavement UK (https://www. childbereavementuk.org/deathbereavement-statistics) 111 children lose a parent EVERY day.

3. Do you have a business? Is it a limited company, partnership or are you a sole trader? What will happen to it if you still owned the business when you die? We need to consider whether there are other shareholders and is there a shareholders agreement in place. Will your business be entitled to

Business Property Relief (BPR) for Inheritance Tax purposes? Not every business is, and only your Accountant will be able to tell you as it not certain if your business will have BPR. Should you appoint a separate Business Executor to deal with your business or are your main Executors capable and qualified to do so?

4. Do you want to protect your family home so that it can pass to your children, even if your spouse remarried? If your spouse remarries, then the Will they would have made with you is automatically revoked on their marriage, and your children could be disinherited very easily.

5. Are you currently separated from your spouse, but not yet divorced? Did you know that your spouse is still entitled to your Estate under your Will or under the laws of intestacy if you died before the Decree Absolute is issued? We would recommend that a new Will is made upon separation, and then reconsidered on divorce. Are you doing the divorce yourself online? Are you aware that unless you have a binding agreement stamped by the Courts, your ex spouse could still be entitled to some of your Estate. An informal agreement between you does not necessarily mean that they will get nothing – particularly if they decided to challenge your

Will because you are still paying maintenance to them.

6. Are any of your beneficiaries vulnerable, or do they lack the ability to manage their finances? We do not recommend leaving them out of your Will on the basis that other family members will look after them – there is nothing to legally enforce your wishes unless there is something in your Will – we recommend considering a form of trust that will ensure that your vulnerable beneficiary will be protected.

7. Are there assets which should be placed in trust now to keep them out of your Estate for Inheritance Tax purposes? You would be surprised how many times we see clients who have not thought about making sure life policies and pensions are going to pass to their beneficiaries direct, rather than under a Will – this is quite important to consider, and as we work with a number of financial advisers we can recommend you to someone who will be able to advise on these aspects.

8. Making sure your funeral wishes are recorded is becoming more important. There are more reports of family disagreements arising due to the lack of recorded wishes, which can then cause rifts, and this is before they even start talking about money…. We can help with this, and would advise you to seriously consider a pre-paid funeral plan as well. Paying for your funeral now at today’s prices means that you have control over what happens and your family will not have to struggle to find the money – there is no guarantee that there will be enough money in the bank, that they will even release it, and that over 50’s life policy may not be enough either. Prepaid Funeral plans are set to become regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as of July 2022, so we would advise that you should only consider plans from already regulated providers. We at SLS Wills and More Limited can help guide you with some of the bigger providers who are already regulated.

9. If you have made your Will already, did you sign and date it in the presence of 2 witnesses? We have seen so many homemade Wills, where it has not been signed and witnessed properly, or amendments have been made which are not initialled properly. Do you even know where your Will is kept?

We also recommend that your Wills are reviewed every 3-5 years, or if you have a life-changing event (birth, marriage, inheritance, retiring), so for our existing clients we offer a short call just to check that nothing has changed. For others, we will review your existing Will and let you know if you should consider making a new one and will let you know how much our charges are.

Having your Will made by an Estate Planning Consultant may cost you a few hundred pounds, but you will have peace of mind that it will protect your family and your assets, and could save thousands of pounds when you die. Make sure your Consultant is either a member of Society of Will Writers, Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners or Institute of Professional Will Writers, as they will be trained and regulated to high standards.

We are more than happy to help, so please visit our website www.slswillsandmore.co.uk for more information, or call us on 01304 577998 to make an appointment.

1, Scotty worked on it (10)

2, Paid work (10)

3, Glitter with many points of light (7)

4, Accounts help with these (8)

5, Bids for work (7)

6, 86,400 seconds (3)

7, Difficulties, Dilemmas (8)

8, An Architects Designs (10)

9, Instrument panel array (8)

10, You can punch it, watch it tell it and read it (5)