To ask if you have a will?

[oneskip]

And does it say anything interesting and usual?

If you don't have one, why???

Mine is a mirror one with DH but says our house must go to our DS on death of us both (incase I go first and DH gets infatuated with someone new and significantly younger)

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. 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!

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.

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).

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.

Not true. If you buy your house as tenants in common i.e. each own 50% (or whatever %) then you can.leave your % to whoever you want. Ive left mine to my son, with husband having right to live in house until death.

So you have daughters?

Are you ok with them getting nothing?

I have life insurance and a will.

Life insurance goes to ex-husband and my condo to my son

Then what happens to husband's half if he marries again? Presumably he still owns his half, so could leave it to anyone? I know so many people who have had bad experiences with inheritance, despite thinking it was watertight.

Havent got one - The reason, i have nothing to give
Just dept and a minus bank balance

I have friends whose DD died in her 40s. They had gifted her a substantial amount of money as a deposit for the house she bought with her husband. Within a couple of years he married again. The new wife threw the teenaged DC out of the house to live with the grand parents, Husband has made a new will leaving everything to the new wife. Awful behaviour, but they can't do anything. It is really sad, but it shows what can happen. I can think of at least 10 similar scenarios in my immediate circle of friends and family.

Yes!
the only unusual thing in it though is where I want my ashes scattered

I've had one since I had DD at 23, basically future proofed it so any assets get shared equally between any offspring and left in my brother's trust until they are 25. If my DD and I both die then it all goes to my brother.
At the time of writing I didn't have any assets but I've bought property since and have some savings
There was also a section on guardianship of DD as she didn't have a relationship with her dad at the time and saw my parents daily but this has changed and she is in her mid teens, I dare say if anything happened DD would continue her once a week visits and not actually tell him anything had happened and my parents wouldn't be rushing to mention anything. Hopefully not something we/ they will actually experience

My pension goes 90% DD and 10% my brother

Yes. Ours say if we die everything to children (after each other) or grandchildren. And in case of neither of those to be split between our nieces and nephews. We got it for free after visiting a baby fayre but it’s good and everything we wanted it to say.

No, AC are all grown and left home but my house is still owned as “joint tenants” with my ex H, he paid off the mortgage but as it stands, a will can’t override the fact that on the first death, the other one of us inherits the house. Its contents are tatty and worthless, I own nothing of value and my AC will chuck everything away, there’s nothing here that they want. My SIPP is tiny and the beneficiaries are my grandkids.

I used to joke about this with my husband, he unexpectedly passed away 8 weeks ago after a very short battle with cancer. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of money that has landed my way (not bragging but genuine anxiety) at the sheer responsibility. But also I can't tell you how much I would rather be on the breadline and have him here than any amount of money. Neither of us had a will and it's made things harder which we did not forsee. It's top of my priorities now.

No I really need to get one though, it's on my to do list. I'm a single parent and there is over 200k equity in my house so I really need to sort it. Planning on having something in it which states that 50% of my estate goes in trust for the kids to access when they are 21 and the rest to go towards their living expenses until that age. Need to sort something properly though.

I don't have one because I have nothing to leave behind, unfortunately.

@oneskip and everyone who has mirror wills in case their partner is the survivor and then gets infatuated with someone else...

You do know that whichever of you dies first, there's nothing to stop the surviving partner changing their will later (or indeed at any time)?
"Mirror" wills are meaningless in law, it doesn't stop anyone being able to change their will whenever they wish.

The only way you can guarantee property etc going to the children is to leave your share to them directly, with the partner having a life interest. And putting enough safeguards around that life interest that they can't fritter it away etc.

We are doing ours next week never got round to it before and just thought everything would just got to the surviving spouse then dc but after a difficult year dbil passing away suddenly he and his second wife had mirrored wills majority goes to his dc when she dies as their dm had also passed and Dn wanting her inheritance now instructed solicitors then gave up but no longer speaks to her dads wife and my dsis financially abusing and manipulating dm who is unsure if she has recently changed her will to disinherited me I want everything sorted

on a lighter note dh other brother who is single no dc has made a will leaving everything equal to his remaining brothers and his yukka plant is to be given to his friend it is actually in his will ha ha they are more than welcome to it as it’s huge

Yes, we did proper wills about 5 years ago. Everything to be split equally between our three DDs after the last of the two of us has died.

We have also nearly finished paying for funeral plans so that nobody will have to worry about the cost of that when the time comes.

You need a will!

Just binge-watched The Inheritance. (Channel 5).

In Europe you cannot disinherit your kids - unless s/he's a junkie -

In England you can leave it to your new wife at 90, or the cats' home.

ridiculous

I have just redone mine, in my originaI I one I had become tenants in common with my husband as he was terminally ill & his 50% of the house is in trust for our children
When he passed away I made some good investments so needed to rewrite mine. Also youngest will never live independently so mine now also includes a vulnerable persons trust.
I also did power of attorney

To everyone saying mirror wills it goes to their partners & will then go to the children, if they remarry after one of you passes then this doesn't happen. The only way is to become tenants in common and to leave it to your children with your partner having a right to reside - you can even add phrasing that means they can move house etc

Yes. You can’t stop the surviving spouse from doing whatever they want with their own assets. But you can stop them (legally) doing something stupid with the deceased spouse’s share.

To make it work you do have to have everything owned by one or the other of you as jointly owned stuff (joint bank accounts, investment accounts, property owned as joint tenants) goes straight to the surviving joint owner.