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Almost 70% of adults don’t have a Will. There are numerous reasons for this including being unable to make decisions on executors, beneficiaries or guardians, not finding someone they can trust with sufficient knowledge or empathy to understand their concerns, or by making a Will it will somehow hasten their own demise.
Without a valid Will in place you have no way of guaranteeing the answers to the following questions:
If you have a Will in place you will have appointed an executor who will apply for a Grant of Probate and follow the government guidelines which involves filling out various forms and reporting all the deceased’s assets and liabilities and if necessary paying any Inheritance tax that may be due before assets are liquidated from the estate.
If no Will is in place then under the Intestacy rules a spouse or family members can apply for a Grant of Letters of Administration instead of a Grant of Probate.
If there is a Will and the executors have passed away or unable to act then whoever is entitled under the Intestacy rules can apply for a Grant of Letters of Administration with the Will.
Being an executor or a person who was appointed by the court is a big obligation to collect in assets and distribute them according to the Will and if any mistakes are made that person is held accountable financially.
If you have made a Will appointing a Guardian for your children then that is who will look after them. However, if no Will is in place then the children become the responsibility of the Court and until the Court appoints a suitable person to be the Guardian the children may be taken into care in the meantime.
Ensuring that your children are looked after by people you choose and that your spouse/partner and children and other rightful beneficiaries will inherit the wealth you have created, regardless of what the future may hold. Making sure that the value of the family home is protected from hostile creditors or unnecessary Inheritance Tax.
Without professional guidance, much of your hard-earned money might end up in the wrong hands or be lost completely.
Taking professional advice on the drafting of your Will and updating it as your circumstances change, is the only way to be sure that your final wishes will be known and your family fully safeguarded.
We at GKP Legal and Wealth will take the time to understand your personal circumstances, your concerns and your requirements. We will listen and guide you through the process of creating a valid Will that meets your specific needs – whether something simple or a more comprehensive solution. Our Estate Planning Consultants are Society of Will Writers qualified so you know you’re in safe hands.
There are 3 common myths surrounding what happens if you don’t have a Will.
My spouse or Civil Partner will inherit everything
Not true. It depends on asset values and ownership of your assets.
Your spouse/Civil Partner will inherit the joint assets. The distribution of the rest of the estate is governed by the laws of intestacy and these are different depending on whether you have children or don’t have children,and this could trigger an unnecessary Inheritance Tax bill because you haven’t fully utilised your tax exemptions.
My partner will inherit my estate as we’ve been together for over two years
Not true. Partners will only inherit the joint assets. They inherit nothing else – common law or otherwise – regardless of how long you’ve been together. Refer to the laws of intestacy for single/unmarried people.
My children will go to my family
Not necessarily true. It will probably be decided by the Family Court in consultation with Social Services. They might be made wards of court. See the page on the importance of appointing guardians in your Will.
Without professional guidance, much of your hard-earned money might end up in the wrong hands or be lost completely.
Taking professional advice on the drafting of your Will and updating it as your circumstances change, is the only way to be sure that your final wishes will be known and your family fully safeguarded.
We at GKP Legal and Wealth will take the time to understand your personal circumstances, your concerns and your requirements. We will listen and guide you through the process of creating a valid Will that meets your specific needs – whether something simple or a more comprehensive solution. Our Estate Planning Consultants are Society of Will Writers qualified so you know you’re in safe hands.
The reasons why you need to write a Will
Years of hard work and prudence have built a fund of money that will provide security for your family should anything happen to you. Or will it? If you haven’t yet made a Will, the people you thought would benefit from your life savings could lose out in the long term or suffer stress and financial hardship while your affairs are resolved. By making a legally valid Will – the foundation of your financial planning – you ensure that your wishes are followed and that your family’s future is safeguarded.
Determine who inherits
Without a Will the government decide who should inherit your possessions, property and money through the Laws of Intestacy. Depending on the size of your estate, your spouse may have to split the assets with your children or parents, possibly forcing them to sell the family home. If you are unmarried or have step-children, your partner or any step-children do not automatically inherit anything from your estate.
Appoint guardians for your children
Without a Will you have no control over your children’s future. Should anything happen to you, it becomes a matter for the courts who appoint someone on your behalf – someone you might not have chosen yourself.
Protect your estate from other claims to your wealth
Once you’ve gone you would hope that your intended beneficiaries will inherit all of your wealth. However, this may not always be the case. There could be claims against your beneficiaries such as long term care costs, remarriage, divorce, creditors or bankruptcy which could leave your children, grandchildren or other beneficiaries with little or none of your estate.
Make gifts to individuals and charities
You can stipulate sums of money you want to leave to people outside your close family circle or to a charity that you support. Note that gifts to UK charities are exempt from Inheritance Tax.
Appoint executors and trustees of your choice
You want to appoint someone you trust to ensure your wishes are adhered to and that your affairs are settled quickly and efficiently.
Ensure that your business is administered appropriately
You want to ensure that your business can continue trading after your death by giving your executors the necessary powers (powers that they might not ordinarily have) and also that any Business Property Relief you have today is preserved after your death.
How to appoint a Lasting Power of Attorney and what they can do for you
Dealing with money and paperwork can be difficult if you become unable to manage your own affairs for any reason, and in ill health, it may be impossible.
Before that happens it might be easier to appoint a trusted representative – known as an Attorney – who can look after your finances and welfare for you should the situation arise. The Lasting Power of Attorney or LPA is a legal document which allows you to do this.
A Property and Financial Affairs LPA allows your Attorney to make decisions about your personal affairs including collecting your income and benefits, paying your bills and selling your home if necessary.
A Health and Welfare LPA allows your Attorney to give or refuse consent to medical treatment and to decide where you live. These decisions can only be taken on your behalf when you are unable to make them for yourself, for example, if you are ill, unconscious, or suffering from a condition like dementia.
If you become incapable of making decisions for yourself and have not appointed another person as an attorney, your personal affairs would become the responsibility of the Office of the Public Guardian and it may be necessary for the Court of Protection to become involved. The Court will appoint a person, (called a Deputy) to make decisions on your behalf. The major disadvantages of not having a Lasting Power of Attorney in place are firstly the possible delay in dealing with your affairs and secondly the cost of making a Deputyship application, which is likely to be much more expensive than making a Lasting Power of Attorney and registering it and there are on-going yearly costs payable to the Court of Protection. Note that it is highly unlikely that the Court will appoint a Deputy to manage your Health & Welfare affairs!
A Health and Welfare LPA allows your Attorney to give or refuse consent to medical treatment and to decide where you live. These decisions can only be taken on your behalf when you are unable to make them for yourself, for example, if you are ill, unconscious, or suffering from a condition like dementia.
Most of us will be fortunate enough to live long lives, but we may not always be able to manage our own affairs. If you were to suffer physical or mental incapacity, an LPA could make your life much easier and less stressful for your loved ones, as well as protecting your interests.
A Health and Welfare LPA allows your Attorney to give or refuse consent to medical treatment and to decide where you live. These decisions can only be taken on your behalf when you are unable to make them for yourself, for example, if you are ill, unconscious, or suffering from a condition like dementia.
You can give the Attorney general authority to manage all your finances, including paying your bills, signing cheques, dealing with your bank and buying or selling property and making decisions on medical treatment. However, you are free to restrict the Attorney’s powers if you wish. For example, a business owner might wish for different attorneys for their personal affairs and business affairs.
An LPA must be certified and then registered with the Court of Protection before you can receive help from the Attorney. You can continue to handle your own financial affairs if you wish, even after a Property and Affairs LPA has been signed. With a Personal Welfare, LPA decisions can only be made on your behalf when you are unable to do so yourself.
Will Trusts and Life Planning Solutions
All of us would hope that all our wealth would be available to be enjoyed for many years by our family and loved ones and for the generations beyond.
Our wealth should not just be thought of as solely our free estate which we own and can pass via our Will but also other funds that might be available to others and paid out on our death. We might consider our estate to consist of (amongst other things):
However, once you have died, factors outside of your control might mean that within one or two generations your wealth has been lost, claimed, or wasted – to people such as:
To work out if you need probate, you’ll need to find out how much the deceased person’s assets are worth. You’ll also need to find out how these assets were held – in the deceased person’s sole name, or in joint names with someone else who is still alive.
If the deceased person owned very little, it’s unlikely that probate will be needed. This is known as having a small estate. However, it’s difficult to say exactly what constitutes a small estate, as there is no set limit.
Every bank and financial institution has their own limit and their own approach to probate. Some have a threshold for probate of £5,000, while others have raised it to £50,000.
To make matters more complicated, some banks and financial institutions will say that if the overall value of the deceased person’s estate is (for example) £15,000, probate is required. Others will say that probate is only needed if there is £15,000 in the individual account.
So you’ll need to confirm with the organisations holding the deceased person’s assets as to what their threshold for probate is. This will determine whether or not probate is required
Whether or not probate will be needed to deal with a property will depend on how it’s owned. Probate will always be needed to sell a property owned in the deceased’s sole name, but it’s not always needed to transfer a property to a surviving joint owner.
Assets held in joint names can be held as joint tenants or tenants in common.
If assets are held in joint names as joint tenants with someone else, it’s likely that probate won’t be necessary, regardless of the value.
That’s because if assets are held as joint tenants with someone else who is still alive, they will automatically pass to the surviving owner. So, for example, if your husband has died and you owned a property together as joint tenants, the property will transfer into your name. You don’t need probate for this to happen.
However, if you owned a property with your husband as tenants in common, his share of the property will not automatically transfer into your name on his death. Instead, it will pass to whoever is legally entitled to inherit under his will, or by the rules of intestacy.
If someone dies who owned a property in their sole name, you’ll need to go through the probate process to sell the property or transfer it into someone else’s name.
The question of whether or not probate is needed can be a confusing one.
Sometimes it will be easy to determine – for instance, if the deceased person had a small amount of money in the bank and owned nothing else, probate is unlikely to be needed. But if the deceased owned a property in their sole name, or had multiple high value assets, probate will be required.
For many people who are dealing with the death of a loved one, further advice, guidance and support is needed, and our probate specialists can help you to find out for certain whether or not probate is needed in your circumstances.
If you find out from our probate questionnaire that you do need probate, contact us for a fixed price quote.
If probate is needed, it’s possible to deal with probate yourself, providing you’re familiar with the legal process and confident completing all the required tasks. DIY probate is time consuming and the work involved can be complex.
Dealing with probate yourself also carries a level of risk, because you can be held personally financially liable if you make any mistakes.
For these reasons, many people choose to instruct a profesional to carry out this work for them.
Before you decide if you want to deal with probate yourself, you should think carefully about whether you have the time, energy and skill set to carry out this work.
If you don’t apply for probate when it’s needed, the deceased’s assets can’t be accessed or transferred to any of the beneficiaries.
Probate gives a named person the legal authority to deal with the assets. Without this authority, they can’t do anything with the assets. This includes closing down bank accounts, selling or transferring property, transferring pensions and cashing in other investments. Essentially the assets will remain in limbo and the beneficiaries won’t be able to receive their inheritance.
Not obtaining probate when it’s needed can also cause problems for family and friends in the future. For example, someone who has lost their spouse may believe probate isn’t needed because everything was owned in joint names, but it later turns out that the house was actually owned in their spouse’s sole name. When that person dies, the people administering their estate will have to deal with the probate on their late spouse’s estate first. This could cause significant delays and increase the cost.
GKP Legal and Wealth was created after many years of building people’s wealth in financial services during which it became clear that there is a significant need for protecting your wealth for your loved ones when you pass away.