To think making a Will is pointless if yoyu have no assets?

Seems you’ve made your decision not to have one until you inherit, so what was the point of this post?

You won’t care because you’ll be dead though.

What would be much more useful is saying “direct cremation please and then go to the pub, there’s £1500 in my bank account for that”.

Dealing with your corpse still requires decisions and money so make it easy for them.

Right.

So write it down then?

Free wills via MacmillanFree wills via Macmillan

go to the website here and select your area and Macmillan will link you to a solicitor who will do a simple will for you for free. You’ll be asked if you want to leave Macmillan a donation but it’s not expected. For anyone not just people with cancer.

Ok, so you've been told why you should but you're committed to not so crack on I guess!

It doesn’t have to cost anything, write down a plan for what you do have listings any pensions, insurance etc and beneficiaries then you need to sign it in the presence of others who countersign and date it, download the template online

I speak from bitter, bitter experience here.

Even if you think your kids would just happily deal with your belongings, save them the aggro of deciding it all and explicitly dictate what you want to happen. Doesn't matter if your jewellery is worth a fiver or five million. Tell them exactly what you want - who is to have what, What's to be binned. What you want for a send off and how to pay for it.

I cannot tell you the heartache you could leave behind if you don't.

@FunPartyIdeasI'd still put a will together so that you can declare who you'd like to deal with all matters and to make it clear who you want to have your wedding rings.

Me pondering who to leave my ford fiesta to 😄

All of these are your wishes though!

Definitely cremation as cheapest
My daughter would have our wedding rings
my eldest would be happy to sort the practicalities
I don't want a funeral
All furniture second hand so could just be chucked. Clothes - cheap so again, just chuck. No sentimental items I can think of.
It would be free for my son to do, no problem at all. But if anything changes we will of course look into this as, even though he is well off, no way would I want him to incur any expenses.

OK some of them are more "Letter of Wishes" than Will, but the point remains. You are expecting your grieving family to just... know all of this at the most difficult time of their life, and be able to be 100% sure they are fulfilling your wishes and all that? What if your son gets engaged and would like to use your wedding rings? Who decides? What if the well-off son WANTS to give you a lavish funeral from his own money? What if the local women's refuge wants your furniture? Who decides? Who decides who decides?

I just don't understand why you are so AGAINST a Will at all, when you can DIY it for no cost and save a lot of potential heartache. It all feels rather cutting your nose off to spite your face. I say all this as the daughter of a recently deceased parent and they had a Will. It was still very difficult to take action given the emotion of the time.

The likelihood is that you will outlive your parents so thinking about not writing a will now is a bit premature.

That being said, my parents don’t have a formal will but they have verbalised their wishes in terms of cremation and evenly split assets.

I managed this without a will, all in a timely fashion

My dad died intestate and I just registered his death and got a death certificate, same as I did with my mum that did have a will, there was no arguing that he was dead and who I was.

Haven’t you or your partner got any inheritance coming from either sets of parents or have they already passed?

Make a Will. Choose an executor. Detail your wishes. Even if you don't have a funeral, there are costs involved. Someone will need to register the death. Copies of the Certificate need to be paid for. You need at least one certificate to close down accounts/utilities or transfer them to the remaining partner. The Executor uses the Will and Certificate to prove they can legally do this. Don't make a hard situation even more difficult for your children/remaining spouse. Yes, the rules on intestacy are clear, but those left behind will be second guessing themselves with every decision they have to make.

It’s not about it being “obvious and informally agreed between us who gets what”. Legally, it is clearly dictated by the rules of intestacy. Literally the only difference in the process with or without a will if the person is happy with the laws of intestacy is that their next of kin will have to apply for Letters of Administration, which involves submitting a form.

None of that second paragraph is will related either. We have documents that list all our accounts and assets, so that paragraph is entirely irrelevant and unrelated to whether we have wills.

You genuinely have 0p after rent and bills?

I might be wrong but I think you can write a letter of intent if you don't want to write a will (or see no point) but want to declare any wishes for dc to have specific items or to make specific arrangements. It isn't legally binding but should be taken into account.

I'm going to do something like this because I don't have many relatives and don't have assets but I want my ashes scattered with my dog's and I want to write what I'd like to happen to certain very old items.