Do I need a will?

[TheABC]

I am married with one DS and any assets worth speaking of (car, house) are jointly owned. Should I die first, the life insurance and pension will pay out to DH. I have no savings at present. Savings for DS are already in his name (junior isa). I know DH will take care of DS. Under these circumstances, do I need a will?

[ChilledCat]

What you really need to think about is what would happen if you both died?? God forbid, but not impossible! If you both die without a will things will have to go through probate, and there would need to be a court decision about holding whatever value of your estate in trust (and selling property etc) until your children reach the age of 18 as they would count as next of kin. The court would also need to decide on suitable carers for your children. The whole thing would be a nasty mess (and expensive) for surviving relatives and a needless situation when a will is so cheap and easy to do. The same goes if one of you dies, as although in most cases the surviving partner would be counted as next of kin (but only if you have actually been married/civil partnership), it still involves probate (largely for tax reasons) that can be complicated and costly in legal fees.

Besides anything else, a will gives you the chance to decide on things like care of dependence and allocation of personal items so you know things are sorted, and it saves on things going to probate which should be avoided at all costs!

I'm sure my mother has recently added to her will things to do with end of life care, she does not wish to be resuscitate and will never have a peg feed.

[TortoiseUpATreeAgain]

Agree with ChilledCat -- if the "normal" sort of death happened (you die and your DH survives, while your circumstances are much as they are now) then the rules on intestacy would deal with everything basically according to your wishes. But if your DH and you both die at the same time, or you die shortly after coming into money, or something else unexpected happens, then you'd want to have had a will.

[TheABC]

Hmmm. Good point. I had better see a solicitor!

[Greengrow]

Yes and also dealing with guardians for the children if you both die.

People should be aware that the rules on who gets what if you don't have a will are changing substantially or are about to change - yet another reason to make a will.

[gobbin]

If you are in a union see if they offer a free simple will writing service. We've just done simple mirror wills (i.e. we leave everything to each other and son gets the lot when we both go) and it cost us nothing, but all drawn up properly.