Do we need wills?

[CultureAlienationBoredomandDespair]

Me and DH have never had a will as we’ve never had anything to leave! We’re now in the process of buying our first home and wondering if we should.

The house will be purchased after DH inherited money and the whole process seems to have been made more complicated due to a will as everything has had to go through executors.

We would like to leave everything to each other and then 50/50 to our children (2 DC). In that case is it worth it or will it just slow things down?

Yes. If you have children make a will....

If there hadn't been a will then someone would have had to apply for letters of administration and the estate would then have gone through exactly the same process, so it would have been essentially the same, except in instead of a formally named executor it would require someone to step forward to volunteer to deal with the estate.

how are you intending to hold the house - as joint tenants or as tenants in common ? How much is the house worth ?

Yes. You need a will. You need to protect yourself and your DC.

what if you were to divorce and your DH remarry? how would that affect your DC‘s inheritance?

what if you were to die and your DH remarry? What happens if he were to die intestate? How would his second wife factor into this?

These questions aren’t particularly uplifting but you and your DH need to know the answer. And you need a will to protect yourself and your DC.

A will with executors appointed makes things much easier to sort out after you die. As PP says, you will probably need to change your will as the children get older.

Consider doing power of attorney too.

Yes I’m aware it would have been the same process but DH and DSIL could have dealt with it themselves rather than the extra layer of executor.

Joint tenancy.

I agree that those are important questions but in the event of any of those things we would make a will as the situation would be more complicated, but as things stand they’re quite straightforward. My will couldn’t stop DH doing any of those things if I’d passed.

Power of attorney definitely but how does having an executor make things easier? I’ve dealt with two estates (my DF and DMIL) both were straightforward everything 50/50 split between 2 children and the one with the will was far more complicated and drawn out.

Sorry forgot a question- house to be worth around £270k.

Yes. You needed a will the moment the children were born. You need to state your wishes in respect of the care of your children in the event that (god forbid) you both die.

We have a will and were able to access a will writing service through our work. You’ve got to consider if one of you dies and the other remarries what will happen in the event of their death. There’s a chance the new spouse will inherit and your children will receive nothing.

I don’t know where you live. But a shared will (or testamental contract) is the solution to this where I’m at. It binds both parties. There are also solutions like entailments, divorcing legal ownership from use (life interest, usufructuary), etc.

the legal system of wherever you happen to live will have found legal solutions to these issues. Probably not the same legal solutions we happen to have where I live. But there absolutely will be solutions.

“we would make a will in the event of any of those things“

That is a spectacularly bad idea. You could have a car accident tomorrow (you most likely won’t but you could).
Estate planning during a divorce is spectacularly difficult as well.

The whole point of estate planning is planning / preparing in advance. Which means that you need to prepare for several outcomes and scenarios before they arise.

Yes. Also power of attorney and a guardian for the children.

DH and SIL could have been names as executors though. It doesn;t have to impose an 'extra layer' if you just name the people that you'd want to deal with the estate anyway.

From what you say, with the house being held as joint tenants and being under the current IHT allowance, wills aren't going to make a bif difference to the finances.

But the one thing that I missed in my original post is that you have children. If they are still under age, then you need wills to name who you would want to look after them and be their guardians if both you and your DH died at the same time - unlikely but it does happen.

Yes you should have a will whether or not you own a property. The executors can still be each other too - it doesn't have to be a solicitor.

Yes you need a will. Just name each other as sole executors. My husband just died and having a will has made a lot of the admin simpler (even just closing an account with a few pounds in). I’m not using a solicitor or applying for probate but having a will just makes a lot of the forms easier to fill in.

Yes it can. You could each leave your share of your home in a life interest trust to your children with your surviving spouse having the right to live in it, but no right to pass their half share to anyone else, i.e. a future new wife! If your spouse gets your half of the home if you die, then they can leave it to whoever they want (or it could pass automatically to any new wife under intestacy as his original will becomes invalid if he remarries!) so your children may never see the benefit of it when they're older.

This is absolutely right - I'd be less bothered about the house specifically, and more bothered about making provision for your children if you and DH both die.

It would be best practice to have a will anyway. It's really only going to make a difference though if the total estate is over the threshold (something like £325k?) As the intestacy rules are that anything under that goes to the spouse automatically and only over the threshold do children get a share. Once over the threshold it may be better to have a will that leaves everything to the spouse and the survivor then leaves everything to the children.

Although the house is under that value it will likely appreciate. It might be awkward as the surviving spouse to realise under the intestate rules your children are owed a chunk and it's hard to divvy up the estate without leaving yourself short.

I understand it's also a better use of the IHT bands for the children to inherit after the death of the surviving spouse rather than from the first one to pass.

You can also express your wishes for a funeral and care of your children and make any other specific requests i.e. donating an artwork to a friend who always loved it etc.

Thank you everyone. We do have documentation stating what guardians we’d want for the DC but I see the benefit of a will. I was under the impression that a beneficiary couldn’t be the executor but I assume this isn’t correct?

Yes. I’m executor and beneficiary for my parents’ wills.

This! Spare your children the pain of seeing their parent‘s house be inherited by their stepmother‘s grandchild… (for example.)

Don’t forget that in addition to the value of the house, any savings, pensions, investments etc will be added to the value of your estate. Also if either or both or you are employed, you may have a death in service benefit which can be substantial (4 x salary is fairly usual, up to 10 x salary in some industries), and any life assurance too, unless these are specifically set up in trust will also be added.

Yes, the executor can also be the beneficiary. But re. the children, you will want to add in an alternative executor in case you and DH both die. It's not just about who looks after your children, but also who looks after their inheritance until they're old enough to have it. In my and DP's wills, we are each other's executors, but if we both die, then it's our siblings (one each) because we want them to be trustees of our DCs' inheritance as well as deciding between them who is most appropriate for the children to live with. We've also added the solicitor who drew up the will as an additional executor/trustee because we don't want the siblings to have the extra burden of doing all the admin unless they want to. And you can also specify the age at which you want the children to have control of their inheritance (I think we went for 25).

Is a Will from one of those revolving stands in WHSmith valid? Do you need to fill it in and take it to a solicitor to get it stamped?

If you make a Will you decide how your estate is divided.
if you die intestate the law decides how your estate is divided.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80ded640f0b62302695f7d/choice-not-chance-flow-chart.pdf