What is the point of a will in this scenario?

[WillConfusion]

I'm sorry I'm a bit naive about all this and will obviously speak with a solicitor about it.

I am 28, don't have a will yet. I am married with one DC, my husband has 2 older children as well. We own our home.

If I were to make a will now, what would I even put in it?!

Our house is owned as joint tenants so that means I can't leave a "share" of it to anyone in particular as it passed to DH on my death, we don't have any substantial savings.

I guess the only thing is I would like to make sure if if I ever do have any of my own assets, that they will go to my DC and not be split between all 3 children. The only thing I can think of is that I will receive an inheritance from my parents, in the form of both funds and a property which is in trust and worth quite a lot (I know about the trust because I needed to sign the paperwork). My DC is covered in the trust so if I die before my parents, it transfers to them.

Can you make a will for future assets? How would I even separate it anyway, our accounts are joint so any money I did inherit from parents or the property would go into a joint account anyway. Or would you make a solo savings account with this in mind to be used one day for this?

Sorry it's all a bit daunting, I've never done anything like this before. The only asset I really have now is our house, which DH would get anyway on my death.

What happens if god forbid you die together? Who looks after your DC?

If you die first are you happy for your half share in the home to be split between all children equally (including those who are not yours) upon your DH death or would you be better as tenants in common and your half is held in Trust for your own child/children so upon the death of their father they get your half (assuming that DH splits his half equally between all his children so your children get a share of that too)?

Any trinkets/jewellery can be written into your will. As can your funeral wishes.

It's really good that you are thinking about this. You need one for many reasons - two which spring to mind immediately...

1. What's your back up plan e.g. if you and DH were to die together in a car crash?
2. Dealing with the aftermath of a death, executing an estate etc is so much quicker and easier if there is a will to be followed. It's unfair on those left behind not to have good plans in place

I would prefer, if we died together, that my DC got my half solely. I guess we'd be better as tenants in common then. Can you change it after you've already bought the house?

What if you both die together?
You can state in your will who you would prefer to look after your children in the event of your death. Although I’m not sure it’s actually legally binding and would be reviewed at the time.
The point of a will I suppose is that you’ve put the measures in place for the future because no one knows When they are Going to die. So ok if you die now your husband gets the house. But what if he died, and you were so traumatised and never goT round to changing the will and in many many years to come with perhaps a new child from a new relationship you hadn’t specified that the new partner gets a share of the house?

Your DH should make one to protect his older children, you may as well make one at the same time as you will be discussing everything then anyway.

I wouldn’t leave it to Dh personally. I would leave my half in trust for the children. What happens if remarries and then dies? New wife gets everything and his children nothing. Plus handy if both die. We don’t have property but we still have a plan for the children.

@MindyStClaire I was going to say it is really important that the DH makes a will too to protect his older children.

Having a will just makes everything easier for those left behind having to deal with everything at what will be a very stressful and upsetting time, even if your financial affairs are really simple.

Putting guardians in your will is not legally binding but will be indicative of your wishes. Also useful to sometime have a provision as to what happens to finances to help guardians pay for your DC upkeep.

Do you and your DH have life insurance ( if not why not?) who are the beneficiaries of your life insurance.

Do you have personal items, eg jewellery , that you would like to leave to specific family members or friends.

As others have said, what if you die together in an accident, who inherits, and when, if you have young children, who looks after your children?

A properly written will makes applying for probate a much smoother and quicker process than dying intestate. All sorts of issues can arise eg having bank accounts frozen for months on end.

Sit down with your DH one evening and sort out all these little things, making decisions between you now will be a huge help to whoever is left making decisions and second guessing your wishes.

As others have said, very important to make a will making provisions for minor children in the event of you and your DH both dieing - should cover things like financial provision and trusteeship as well as who you want to be their guardians - e.g. if there's an insurance payout and/or the house to be sold to pay for their upbringing who will look after this for them.

As there are step children in the equation it does seem to me to make sense to hold the house as tenants in common, each having an equal share so that that way you can each leave your share to your own children with a life interest to the surviving spouse, this also covers remarriage issues. However there may be a reason you were not advised to do this when you first bought the house so do discuss with a solicitor.

Probably less important but you can also use your will (or a letter of wishes attached to the will more commonly) to set out your wishes for funeral (cremation vs burial, religious or non religious ceremony etc), this is such a common cause of strife and grief for the next of kin especially for an unexpected or sudden death, all sorts of relatives/friends can pop up with strong (and conflicting!) views on what the deceased 'would have wanted' so having it down in black and white is really helpful. Also to note down what you want to happen to any sentimental or family hierloom type items, even if not worth anything, just a note to say you'd like your DD to have your handbags or your DS to have your grandfather's watch or whatever, again sadly death brings out the worst in many people and I've witnessed far too many family fallouts over things which have very little monetary value but which everyone is convinced they ought to have/dear old Great Aunt Edith always 'said they could have'...

Re the inheritance, yes absolutely you can ask the solicitor to draft the will in expectation of having that before you actually get it. Wills generally (not always!) are written more abstractly, so it's not 'I leave the £51.20 in my Natwest account to my DH and the £250 I got from selling my car that's in the biscuit tin to my DD', it's more like 'I leave 50% of my estate to each of my 2 DC' or 'I leave £1000 to my DH and the remainder to be split 50:50 between my DC'. So it can be written so that it doesn't matter exactly how much there is or in which bank accounts/properties - 50% is 50% whether it's 50p or £5 million. Doubtless the £5 million estate will be more complicated to administer but the will doesn't necessarily have to be.

It would certainly be wise to think through now (and discuss wth your DH) what you would like to happen to this inheritance money if it's a substantial sum, apart from anything else you weren't planning on leaving it sitting in a current account were you? Fine if you want to keep it in joint names (although often for investment purposes it's better to have it in sole names, more tax efficient and you may be best off putting it into a pension or ISA or similar which usually have to be sole ownership) but please do take some proper financial advice on a good investment vehicle so it earns some interest...

So can you not leave a share of a house in trust unless you're tennants in common?

My (limited) understanding is that you have to be tenants in common but this can be changed easily (I know because we did it after buying our house when we did estate planning including wills and trusts).

Also can be written with the provision that you may have more children so there is wording to cover any future kids.

@cleckheatonwanderer

So can you not leave a share of a house in trust unless you're tennants in common?

I mean this is a gross oversimplication but essentially no, when you own a home as joint beneficial tenants (in England, may be different in Scotland or elsewhere) you don't each own 50% of the house, you both jointly own the whole house, so when one partner dies, the other automatically inherits the whole thing, you can't ring fence part of the house for children or similar. This has some benefits to it, e.g. if the partner who dies has unsecured debts the creditors can't take the house if they can't be settled out of the remaining estate, as they would (potentially) be able to if the house was owned as tenants in common. You can make 'mirror wills', so if both partners agree they want the house to go to the DC (or the donkey sanctuary or whatever) after they both die, they can make wills to that effect, but the trouble is wills can always be changed, situations change particularly in the event of a remarriage so it isn't guaranteed that the wishes of the first one to die will be followed.

If you specifically want to make sure your 'share' of/interest in a property goes to a specific person that isn't the other joint owner, tenants in common is better as you can then leave your share how you like (giving a life interest to your spouse if you don't want them to have to sell up the property when you die). You can use a trust mechanism for this is you like, particularly if the person is a minor... Always, always take legal advice, of course!

If you both die together in an accident I believe that the older person is treated as having died first. If no will everything will go to their child. I saw a case in the news where an elderly couple were found dead in their home. I think it was a combination of the house being freezing and natural causes. They both had a child from their first marriages and no will. The child of the younger partner got the lot and the older disputed it in court I think. Also as someone says your husband could survive you. His second wife could have three children and little money and insist the house is split among all six kids when the time comes.

Our lawyer pointed out that a will is not something you write once, you should review it every time any circumstances change, and update if required.

I know of a few cases where updated wills would have been a very good idea.

I have changed mine to tenants in common after owning as joint tenants for years, so that my share goes to our DC instead of split across my step children too.

My friend's parents died as a result of a car accident. They had mirror wills but because her dad died at the scene and mum died in hospital hours later it changed everything. The estate passed from spouse to spouse then to children. It had huge implications.

We’re tenants in common. We both have a life interest in the property which means that our respective sons will not inherit immediately (other than that which we have individually willed to them) and the surviving soil use gets to stay in the property for life. If the surviving spouse sells the house half the equity immediately passes to the deceased spouse’s child.