Writing a will

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Unfortunately my husband passed away in December. Soon I will receive his Death in Service money which will be a significant amount of money. I've never had assets before so have no experience of writing a will.

I currently have no children and I am living in rented property. With the money I'm hoping to either buy a house outright or one with a small mortgage. This won't be immediately so I would like to write a will in case anything happens to me in the meantime.

I would like to leave any assets split between my sister and my BIL however I would like to leave some money for the upkeep of my dog. I need to speak to PIL to see whether they would be willing to take her on (I think they will they have a good bond with her already) but I wanted to know if it's possible to leave money specifically for her upkeep (insurance/food)?

I know that a dog classes as property so I could gift her but that requires them to be willing to take her and I can't leave money to her. I did read about a Trust for her upkeep and then once she passes the money is passed on but I don't know whether this applies in England.

Bump

B

I'm so sorry for your loss

As far as I know, you can leave your dog in your will as she will be classed as a chattel (ie. an item). You can then leave money to whoever you have left your dog to and request that it is used for looking after your dog. Yes trust provisions can apply in England but can be quite complex, particularly the tax rules, so I would recommend going to see a solicitor to discuss it all. High street firms will probably charge a couple of hundred quid for a relatively straightforward Will.

How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? Some firms run free wills schemes either at certain times of the year, some do it in November, or they run charity schemes like the Cancer Research UK one (where Cancer Research will pay for your Will in the hope that you will leave them something in the Will, although there's no obligation to do so).

Disclaimer - I'm not a Wills and probate lawyer any more and it's been 5 years or so since I've done it, so apologies if the free Wills schemes don't run any more.

Thank you. I'm 27, I know I will have to keep it regularly updated obviously but I'd like to do it right the first time so it's simple revisions if I have children/nieces/nephews. My cousin has actually recently qualified as a solicitor so I could ask her for recommendations for a wills and probate lawyer although she lives around 3 hours away.

Sorry, the short answer is yes you can leave money specifically for her upkeep.

Whether you choose to do that as an outright gift to whoever takes her on (eg. £x to whoever takes her on and then express the wish that it is to be used towards her living expenses but actually they can do what they like with the money) or as a trust (eg. Your sis and BIL control a set amount of money under a trust which is paid out to your PIL for things solely relating to DDog and then when DDog dies the money is distributed to whoever you have previously decided) is up to you but the trust stuff can be tricky so do take proper legal advice on this.

If you don’t want to have to rewrite your will every time your family changes, you can put an order of people who will benefit from your will. For example, I wrote my will before I had children or nieces/nephews, but my will included my children first and then if there were no children then my nieces and nephews.

One thing to bear in mind if you write a will like that is that wills are automatically revoked if you get married.

Okay so basically a Trust is possible but is complicated and isn't necessarily the best idea for the upkeep of ddog especially when I trust them to look after her I have no reasons not to trust them with a lump sum of money.

Sorry last question, is it better to leave a fixed sum ie. £2000 or is it possible to leave a % like 48% to Sister, 48% to BIL and 4% to PIL for upkeep of ddog. Obviously with a % it would account for any financial changes.

I'm so sorry again for the loss of your DH

You'd be too young for the free Wills schemes - most are 50/55/60 or over.

Yes absolutely you will need to keep it updated as the years go by, but you can write provisions into your Will at the outset that cover what you want to happen should you have children/nieces/nephews.

Most firms will want to have at least one face to face meeting with you - at the very least they will want you to sign it in front of them so that they can check it's been properly witnessed and is valid.

If you contact the law society they may be able to help with firm in your area. Firms that are members of STEP (society of trusts and estate practitioners) usually know their stuff pretty well. The funeral directors you engaged for your DH's funeral may also be able to recommend someone - a lot of firms have connections with funeral directors and they will usually be very good at managing things sensitively.

Thank you Panda. Because I am widowed I would ring fence any money/property if I remarried anyway particularly because I hope to do ivf with my husbands sperm so I would want to protect any children as a priority.

Yes a percentage is often easier as it accounts for changes in circumstances.

If you leave a lump sum then that will be taken out of your estate first. So eg. If you leave PIL £2k but your estate is worth £5k, they would get the £2k before the rest of the estate (the residuary estate) is distributed.

Yes panda is right - your will would be automatically revoked in the event you married again. In order to ensure money was ring fenced for any children you would need to make a new Will as soon as you were married (or before married, provided the Will was stated to be made in expectation of your marriage to X - but that's getting a bit too far into the nitty gritty of it all).

Thank you both. To be honest I'm more worried about getting an initial will sorted as it's a fair amount of money and it would I think automatically go to my parents. They would never be unfair with it but I'd rather not put them in that position. DH would definitely approve of the money helping our siblings if I passed too (as do I).

We had our wills done by mumblechum as recommended on MN. Two phone conversations and we were all done

Look out in the commercial ads. thread. Or PM my for contact details. Really brilliant

Yes it would be your parents who would inherit while you have no children, if you don't have a Will.

I hope you are able to get it all sorted as stress-free as possible.

Thank you both. Hopefully I can get it sorted in the next few weeks.

% can be useful. My grandparents wanted to leave my mum 25% if the value of their house, so wrote in their wills that’s she should get £10k (25% at the time of writing). By the time they died it was worth £200k, so my mum massively lost out.

Like FinallyHere, I’d also recommend Marlow Wills, mumsnetter mumblechum0 did our wills last year and was excellent. She has an ad running at the moment.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/small_business_ads/3123898-Still-havent-made-your-will-Marlow-Wills-January-Special-Offer

Panda that's partly what I'm worried about although I'm also worried the amount will lessen and I would end up causing more problems leaving a specific amount.

Thank you Rusty I'll get in touch with them it looks good!

Another recommendation for mumblechum from me. She made everything seem straight forward and everything was sorted quickly.

thanks everyone for the recommendations.

Niffler I’m very sorry for your loss.

When putting in pets clauses, I generally include an expression of wishes that the Trustees make gifts to the person with care of any animals, at their discretion. They can also make a charitable donation to a rehoming charity if it turns out that the intended recipient of the pet can’t look after it after all.

It’s better to leave this aspect to the discretion of the trustees because you don’t know whether you’ll even own any pets when you die, or whether they’ll need expensive veterinary care etc.

Hope this helps.

Also, just to clarify, the will will cover all of your assets at your death, whatever they happen to be, so you don't need to make a new will when you buy the house.

Thank you mumble. That makes more sense. I think I'll sit down with my family next week to outline general wishes and then get on with sorting a will.

Good move. And once it's done you can tick it off the list of Things You'd Rather Not Think About and get on with living your life.

Another vote for mumblechum. She did ours a few years ago at a very stressful time of our lives.
Endlessly patient and super-efficient.

Oh thank you NotThe1Parrot, glad to be of service!