will/welfare poa for unmarried couple

[scotswoman]

DP and I are not married and don't have children and intend to stay that way. We jointly own our home and both have life insurance policies. We would like to sort out our wills and also living wills but I have some questions I would love some help with

Should these be the same document/written by the same person?

Do we need mirror wills or to each have our own? We would want the other to own the property and be the recipient of life insurance policies in the event of death. We would both like to leave something to our nieces/nephews in the event of our individual deaths. If we both died at the same time his full share would go to his nieces/nephews and my share would be split 50/50 with my childless sibling getting half and the children of my married sibling getting the other half shared equally.

I'm sure there were other questions but I can't think now and these seem like the biggies to start finding someone to write them for us.

You each need a separate will although they can be similar wills. You can probably use the same solicitor as it does not sound as if you have huge conflicts between you.

Do you know if you own your house as tenants in common (which means you can leave your share to whom you like) or "joint tenants" which means it goes to the other one of you? If joint tenants then now you need to "sever the joint tenancy" which is easily done.

I don't know the value of the home or life policies but if over the inheritance tax limit to ensure the state does not take 40% on death you should put the life policies in trust for the person who would inherit under them eg your siblings or your partner. That is done by a simple form from the life company. You might want to do that anyway even if IHT is not currently an issue.

Thanks for that. I'm almost certain that the property paperwork states if either dies it automatically wholly belongs to the other. We want this to happen, it's only in the event of both of us dying at the same time that we would bequeath the property to family members. Do we still need to sever the joint tenancy?

Inheritance tax should not be an issue yet though may be in a few years as we intend on buying further property.

I should have said I'm in Scotland too, sorry!

Do you know about living wills? We would like to give each other the authority to make medical decisions in the event of one of us being unable to do so for ourselves.