Importance of a Will
Posted on 5th August 2024 at 11:29
Why Bother?
Importance of a Will
With two thirds of the UK without a Will, ‘Why bother?’ seems like a pertinent question. Finding the time, having the desire to discuss death and wanting to spend money on estate planning seem to cover the main reasons people do not bother instructing a Will. And our mortal wish is to live a long life, therefore many of us easily push it down the priority list and do not seek the answers to why it is important that we do not die intestate. The easy eye-opener is often how much cheaper it is to put a Basic Will in place and ensure your simple death wishes and guardianship of your children are made legal. Once you begin to discuss the laws of intestacy and the way dying without a Will leaves your estate - possessions, property, all assets and children - to chance, it seems like a reasonable way to spend a couple of hours of your time and a small portion of your income.
Intestacy in brief
To die without a Will is known as dying ‘intestate’, as opposed to ‘testate’ - to die with a Will. Two tiny letters added to the start of the word makes a huge difference to how the law acts upon a person passing away. Without the legal instruction of a Will, the distribution of a person’s estate follows a prescribed path of inheritance, initially to a spouse or civil partner up to the amount of £322,000 and all chattells (with anything over this being split 50/50 between children and spouse/civil partner). And if neither of these inheritors exist, the estate will be given to the next living person down an exact order of the bloodline. It may seem logical, and for some the path they would choose. But for many, it is not, and a chance to express their wishes would be lost without a Will.
Those left behind
Forgetting that Wills are about our wishes for death, it is important to see instructing one as a step taken when alive as an act of responsibility to those who will continue to live, and who will have the job of administering our estate, working through our possessions and managing the probate process. Not an easy job, particularly when bereaved and wishing you were still here to just ask.
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