To ask if you have a will?

Yes. We had wills before we married too, so that the surviving person kept the house rather than the deceased’s half going to their parents.

After having children our wills also said who we would like their guardians to be and how we’d like them raised e.g. schooling.

Now our children are 18 and 21 they also have wills as they’ve inherited some money from my husband’s parents and have CTFs. Their wills weren’t drawn up by a solicitor since they are very straightforward and they have no dependents.

It’s important to have a will, even if you have no family, unless you don’t mind everything going to the government. My in-laws will said that if we all died before them then all their money would go to the RNLI. Ours leaves ours to be divided amongst my siblings/their children (husband is an only child with no living relatives).

However, you do not need to have a solicitor to draw up your will (although I’d recommend seeking legal advice), so if you haven’t one it’s worth writing a simple one yourself and getting your signature witnessed, just so there’s something. It makes life easier for those sorting out your estate.

We also have a ‘death’ file, which is updated every year, giving details of where our original will is kept, what accounts/investments etc. we have and a letter of wishes regarding jewellery/paintings etc.

Possibly unusual? Our wills have also included our wishes about who we want to look after our dogs and a ring-fenced sum of money to ensure that looking after them won’t be a financial burden.

I have one.

At the moment I've left more to some of my kids than others.

I have adult dc and younger dc, so I've left more to the younger ones to help raise them to adulthood (it will be the older dc raising them anyways).

Aside from that, nothing controversial (although if anyone wants two gorgeous dogs in the event of my untimely death, let me know, I dont think my sons could cope with my daughters and 2 dogs).

I’ve got one. I’m a sole parent and I had to. It says I’d prefer custody of my children to go to my mum instead of their estranged father. But I know he’d solely want them to try and get access to my money. So it also says, all my money (shares/sale of house etc) is to go into a trust (managed by my sister) regardless of who gets custody. My children will only get direct access to it when they’re 21 years old. My bastard of an ex doesn’t even pay me child maintenance and there’s no way he’s getting my kids money to piss away on gambling and holidays for himself and his latest girlfriend.

Yes. Quite simple, everything shared equally between ds and dd. The reason we chose to do it was we were worried in the event of our deaths that mil would try to get custody of our kids, so we wanted to appoint guardians, and back up guardians!

Yep. Straightforward - mirror will with my husband, each leaving everything to the other whom failing any living children at the time of death, and per stirpes to their descendants. It advises that if we both died we would want my husband’s parents or my sister and BIL to have care of our child (which I know is advisory not binding).

We also each have a power of attorney for each other.

I highly recommend everyone who has any assets at all have a will. It is so much easier for your family when you die if you do.

Yes I've had one since I was 35...I'm 30 years older now. I review it every 5 years

If you live in the UK .. that is just not a thing !

No, but it weighs on me and I intend to do it very soon. A friend of a friend collapsed and died aged 42 for no apparent reason. Puts everything into perspective.

Ours is quite straight forward. We both own a house each, so if I die, it all goes to him, if he dies, it all goes to me.

If we both die, my mum is named as guardian of the kids, or my best friend if mum happens to be with us and dies. If we've both passed, mum has access to the funds to raise the children and the remainder is protected until the kids are 21.

Yes we both have a will. Minor differences with gifts to friends. Everything else to DS (adult). He also has a house and he has written a will (after extensive encouragement) because otherwise it will go to a random cousin/s that he doesn't know.
When he was younger we had guardians for him included in the will.

Not yet, I haven't anything to leave.

We were advised to become tenants in common rather than joint owners of our house. That way, my half of the house will always go my children if I die first. If I'd die first under joint ownership, my husband would get the house and if he married again his new wife would inherit everything. There are a lot of "ifs" but both my husband and I have seen it happen too often to friends' parents!

Of course. I'm a lone parent.
Going to do my power of attorney this year as DS hits 18.

We need to do ours as keep saying we need to and never getting around to it. We have 2 older teens that live with us and DH has an older DC from an earlier relationship so it’s slightly more complex

Yes but it's very outdated so need to write a new one. Nothing unusual.

Yes. My husband or my nephews might bump me off because I am worth more dead than alive at the mo! (Lighhthearted, I hope)

I live in my overdraft. No assets to argue over, and no one to argue over them.

But a lack of will makes everything more complicated and time consuming for those left behind to deal with your assets.

"Mine is a mirror one with DH but says our house must go to our DS on death of us both (in case I go first and DH gets infatuated with someone new and significantly younger"
If you go first, DH could change his will the next day. If he were to marry again any existing will is immediately invalidated. He would have to make a new one. Hopefully new wife would not persuade him to leave everything to her. If he doesn't make a new one and then dies intestate, everything will go to new wife.
The only way you can ensure that your house can go to your child/children is if you put it into trust. Perhaps you have done that, but you didn't say that in your OP.

I wont have any.

Yes, made one when I started to buy a house. A relative died without one, whose wishes were never in dispute (had said them verbally and death was not unexpected) but it still was time consuming because of the lack of a will.

No, but I have no kids or anything.

Yes, we've a trust will in place so that it's protected for dd if one of us goes first.