AMA as a wills and probate solicitor

[Fi16]

AMA

We are thinking of becoming tenants in common and making a will trust, the person who died first leaves their half of the estate to DC with the survivor allowed to live in the house until their death.

What sort of things do we need to consider?

And have you seen these go wrong? What happened ?

Thank you!

If you make a will and put an anticipation of marriage ( named man ) and then continue to live together for a further 10+ years before you marry is it still valid ?
Nothing has changed within it and my wishes stay the same ?

My Dad's cousin recently died, he had a signed will leaving it to all his cousins (x20) but after DUncle was his carer for the last 2 years had made steps to increase uncle's share. The solicitor drew up a will but he died before signing it. Can Uncle do anything? Seems tough for him as he put his life fully on hold for a long time

Sorry I think the wording should have been contemplation that's what is says on my will .

I need to add another executor to my will, following the death of a previous one. Can I do a (witnessed) codicil myself without any flowery legal language. Literally saying saying I'm adding an executor.

Have you ever completed a deed of variation to allow beneficiary A of a will to transfer their share of the inheritance to beneficiary B to avoid repaying the negative equity on A's former marital home which was in A's sole name, and not A's wife?
And how did this play out in the subsequent divorce? Does B have to say how much is left, and can it be "invaded" if there are insuffficient marital assets for A, and A's wife and dependent child, in the divorce?

. If DH dies first the intestacy rules would apply. All joint assets will pass to you outside of intestacy. If his sole assets excluding personal possessions exceed 322k then you will get the first 322k on intestacy. Any assets above that would be split between you 50% and his children 50% in equal shares. This may not may not be an issue depending on the value of his personal assets (bearing in mind pensions normally pass via their own rules to) If you were to die the all would pass to him if that is what your will says. The rule you are referring to is if you die in circumstances where it could not be ascertained who died first so in that case the younger survives the elder. So the elders’ estate I.e your husbands sole assets would pass via intestacy to his children if surviving. Joint assets again would pass to the younger and then as per their will or intestacy. So there are various scenarios and it depends on your assets and intended beneficiaries whether intestacy would be an issue or not. I would advise he does make a will so intentions are clear and further advice is obtained :) x

Im really sorry but im unable to answer this one as I don’t have experience of this. X

I’ve not really seen it go wrong but then again I don’t deal with cases which are contentious. However these type of trust are incredibly common and effective at protecting at least half the house form third party threats. You can also protect savings if you like it just requires a different type of trust structure. Are there any concerns you do have ? Where I work we do what is called a property protection trust where the spouse can have capital and income forwarded if need be from the trust in case of hard times. They can also move if need be. You should appoint trustees who you trust will carry out the terms of the trust. If they don’t then problems can arise but they would clearly be in breach of their duty if they did not follow the terms of the trust x

My in-laws have mirror wills leaving all their property and money to each other. PIL is terminally ill with not long left.

They have some investments with c£20k ring fenced each for the 3 grandkids. However this money remains controlled by them and cannot now be transferred into accounts in kids names as it could be seen as deprivation of capital by the LA - MIL also has care needs.

When FIL passes can MIL do a deed of variation at that point to entire the kids get the money saved for them without it being seen as deprivation? Both PILS are upset as they’ll didn’t realise this could happen.

Thank you.
I'm finding the decision-making difficult as I don't understand the different types of trust and what would be best. The trustees would be the family - our adult DC and us. I think my concern is if the 2 DC fall out. They get along well enough now, but no-one knows what the future might hold.

May I ask , if eg a parent dies and the will is clear but LPOA obviously doesn't count after the death , where there are ongoing costs eg bills , funeral costs , house clearance etc , but the bank has been informed of the death so accounts frozen , is there a way of releasing some funds to pay for costs ( with receipts etc ) to pay for these before probate is granted.

We are in the middle of this at the moment. I paid the deposit for the funeral (about £1300) and the rest was billed directly to the deceased's bank account (the bank was asked not to close the account until this bill was paid).

I don't know about the rest of the costs and whether those could be charged directly to the bank, or paid in another way.

Have you known of any successful Section 9 of the 1975 Inheritance Act claims for a minor child where there are adult siblings, no will and the deceaseds property passes to an ex spouse (but not the child’s parent) by survivorship?

Not the o/p but from experience yes, take the receipts to the bank and they will reimburse. Funeral costs definitely.

A relative is very unwell and they have two properties one of which is mortgaged (A) and the other (B) is not. They are planning on leaving property a to one set of nieces and nephews and property b to another set.

How does the estate deal with the debt and inheritance tax in this instance? I assume the mortgage gets deducted from property A’s value and then the tax gets deducted equally from property a & b? i suspect that one property will sell faster than the other so unsure if this will have a bearing on it?

thanks for this thread @Fi16 you've prompted me to get on with organising a will. Promised myself I would do it over the Christmas break but got distracted by Bailey's and nice chocolates. Have now booked an appointment with a solicitor...

Dad had secret love child. Found out adter his deathm.she is an adult now. Can she come looking for inheritance (there's none!) But wo during when my mum passes. Dad left everything to Mum

Sorry for typos. My app wont let me see wgat I gave typed until I post! 🙄

Any tips on starting the conversation with a very unwell elderly relative with no children about poa and wills etc?
I can’t think of a tactful way to bring it up plus she is housebound so I don’t know if a solicitor would do house visits.

Hi, if you get to this; if a widower died and left his whole estate (including a house) to his three children/their families in three family trusts, is it possible that probate was not required?

Like @KitchenColourandstyle I am a potential beneficiary but nothing coming up in the past year on probate search, so I’m thinking perhaps things were set up not to require probate at all.

Just to add I have now been asked for some money back.

Hi @Fi16if you do a civil partnership do you need to write new wills ?

As a trainee solicitor at a national (ie far from the most expensive) firm in 2008 I was involved in administering the estate of a lady who had no relatives. Her estate was about £500k total and involved some bank accounts, a property and a few shareholdings. The fee then was about £3000 so I don’t think £6000 almost 20 years later is unreasonable!

It’s not that unreasonable as a professional fee. I do think though that both IHT and probate are not particularly difficult to do (have done both and am just going through it again following another death) because of the incredibly high quality of the gov.uk website, an underrated jewel in the British crown imo.