The_Phantom 11:45 Wed Jul 11
Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Any legal eagles out there can help with some advice please.
Am 50+ and never made a will and am wondering if I need to.
My situation is very straightforward - I'm married with 2 grown up kids (18 &21).
Just want to know, if me & wife died, would our house et all go automatically to our kids, which is what we would want.
Have tried Googling but cant seem to find any definitive answer to what I think should be a simple question.
cheers for any advice
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Replies - In Chronological Order ( Show Newest Messages First)
madeeasy
11:47 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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It is always easier to have one as it saves arguments when you've gone and any trouble. best thing to do is maybe share your wishes when you're alive so the kids know.
You can download and do your own will. very simple to do
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Iron Duke
11:51 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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I would go to a high street solicitor and get it done properly for £100-200.
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Hugh Jampton
11:54 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Definitely best to get one done as it saves any ambiguity or hassle later. Got mine done using Will Aid - https://www.willaid.org.uk/.
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Dr Moose
11:59 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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I'm not a legal eagle but will offer an opinion to help you.
With no will your estate will go into probate meaning the state will take ages before your kids can sell your house and split the money. Get yourself to a solicitor and make one, they usually charge £80 - £100 for their services, put in that if your wife survives you she gets the house, if not then it goes to the kids (saves making another will if your partner dies before you), you may also want to make a small provision for any Grandchildren, although don't evenly split the house between them all as my old ma was going to do till I pointed out that its not right that my inheritance is reduced by 50% because I don't have children and my sister has 2 (but enough of my whining).
Once done either keep it in your bank or in a fire proof case in your house and tell the kids where you have put it so they can crack on and sell the house.
HTH
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CR
12:17 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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It’s worth thinking about what happens if your spouse survives you and remarries. In this event your estate could eventually end up out of the hands of your children. Sometimes a living interest will is the way to go. It allows your spouse to live in the house benefit from others properties etc. but the estate will end up with your heirs.
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J.Riddle
12:32 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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As CR says get a property lawyer to advise you regards trusts depending to the amount. Trusts can protect assets left to children from divorcing partners, nursing home costs, IHT, etc.
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penners28
12:33 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Free will month is coming up (nov I think). Deffo worth getting one done. we did it recently and they bring up loads of things you dont think about...
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JonWHUFC
12:36 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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I got mine done last year. I paid about £200 I think but best money I spent as the advice I got was invaluable. I am on my own so I am leaving some to charity and some to my brother, some to my friends and some to my friends kids. The split was done in lump sums then percentages of what is left etc. I wouldn't have thought of some of the things that I was told and I also let the solicitors handle the estate and probate etc and the funeral is sorted out of the estate I leave so no cost for that. You can do it for free but why take the risk of making mistakes that may lead to tax implications or people having to make decisions for you when you are gone?
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Westside
12:56 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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As several others have said, go to a solicitor and pay for a will to be done properly.
We (me and Mrs Westside), did our some years ago,well worth doing.
if you are a cohabiting mixed sex couples ( i know you're not Phantom, but others might be) and you do your wills, re do them if you get married,as it totally changes things.
The recent court judgement that mixed couples can have a civil partnership, is yet to be enshrined in
laws, which affect wills (Inheritance Tax for example).
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BubblesCyprus
1:03 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Get yourself a Will arranged ASAP Your dependent's will go to war over whatever you leave them.Working in Financial Services was involved in to many cases of ''squabbling'' relatives all making a claim on Clients Investment Portfolio's even worse if Overseas.
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Swiss.
1:07 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Definately get one done it's a no brainer.
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Worst Case Ontario
1:11 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Phantom -
The answer to your question is YES.
If you were to die intestate (without a will) all your property will go to your wife.
If you were to die intestate after your wife died (presumably intestate so and you inherited all of her property), your property would be split between your children.
But as everyone here has said - Draft a will! With the aid of a solicitor.
I can also add - do not use a kit to draft your own will. Though to your mind things may appear simple, life, as case law shows, has a great way of throwing up strange and confounding situations which tremendously complicate estates law.
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Worst Case Ontario
1:15 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Phantom -
Addendum here.
If your estate is worth over 250,000, and you die intestate before your wife, your children will cut a portion of your estate over the 250,000.
(Sorry, in my haste I neglected to add that, probably presuming your estate isn't worth over 250,000)
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The_Phantom
2:35 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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cheers for all the advice thus far
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joe royal
7:00 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Where there's a will – there's a relative!
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Far Cough
7:03 Wed Jul 11
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Prince?
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Mr John
3:04 Thu Jul 12
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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definitely get a will done, and just as important is to get a power of attorney done as well, so your family can administer your affairs if you lose mental capacity.
It will make their lives so much easier in what will already be difficult circumstances for them.
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Spandex Sidney
4:05 Thu Jul 12
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Yes, bottom line is then YOUR wishes get carried out.
And don't go to WH Smiths for a DIY job, go to a solicitor and pay no more than a ton or so for a simple but legally watertight will.
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Russ of the BML
4:08 Thu Jul 12
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Mate, you should get this done. We recently did one for my Grandad and used a website called tenminutewill.com. So easy and cost about £35. You set up an account and they let you have so many copies for that money. They offer extra's like holding your will on a server, paying for additional copies, solicitor service etc. But that cost includes cross checking by a solicitor to make sure its all legally above board.
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DaveT
6:15 Thu Jul 12
Re: Legal Eagle question - making a will...or not. Help/advice please
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Don't know if all charities do this but cancer research will give you a list of local solicitors that do it for free. Of course they are hoping you will leave them some but you don't have to.
Whatever you do get one done. Father in law didn't and wife did everything for her and her brother. Wasn't hard but just took a while.
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