Do we need to revise an old will?

[DuesToTheDirt]

I keep thinking the answer is yes, though I'm not sure what we would change.

DH and I have a joint will that is about 20 years old, made when our children were young. If we updated it, the provisions would be basically the same - leave money to each other, or if we both go at once then split it between the kids. We're better off now than 20 years ago, but would/should there be anything we now need to reconsider in a will?

If it’s just the amounts that have changed probably not.

You don’t need to if nothing has changed. Horrible question, but if one of you died tomorrow would you be ok with the arrangements?
if you mention specific amounts of money (rather than percentages), they might have changed?
Or any arrangements for care of children / money in trust that aren’t relevant if your kids are 20 years older now? Although those clauses would presumably just be null & void if not needed now.

@DuesToTheDirt
We updated ours because we updated executors. One we had named before, a very good friend, would have actually caused huge problems. Cannot make decisions. If DH and me weren’t alive we would not want indecision for years about money. And there’s lots of it. So now Dc are grown up, they are executors and inherit. Only got to decide who has the jewelry and bags now!

Or any arrangements for care of children / money in trust that aren’t relevant if your kids are 20 years older now? Although those clauses would presumably just be null & void if not needed now.

Yes, we have that in our will but I guess it would just be ignored now.

We updated ours because we updated executors.

Good point, and something I have been considering. Our executives are our 2 brothers, who both live at some distance, which could perhaps be an issue. I don't really want our daughters to have to do it though, so I don't know, other than using a solicitor.

I've left my half of the house in trust to my son so it's not counted as assets for care fees etc.. So has my husband. If he remarried without a will I wouldn't want it to go to his new wife

We need to update ours to change the worst case paragraph about who we leave money to if dh, ds and I all die

Round here you get awful care homes if you don’t pay. Most dc like their parents to have a good old age. I would always discuss with Dc about provisions for you. I have no issues getting DDs to be executors. They live in London and one is a family barrister. I would not pay a solicitor. My aunt did and it was ££££ to be the executor. It’s clear our DDs are getting 50:50, and we are giving large amounts away to beat the 7 year rule, we still have complicated financial affairs. But they will manage! Giving everything away to avoid care home charges is difficult.

I would review if the "being better off now" would mean that you need to consider inheritance tax planning.

If nothing has changed and the provision you want to make will also remain the same then you don't need to do anything. You may want to take legal advice on how to set it up to minimise exposure to inheritance tax (financial adviser helpful there) and residential care fees though.

Also, if/when grandchildren start to arrive you may decide to make an adjustment to make a bequest to them if you so wish.

Otherwise, I would leave it as it is.

It would be good advice generally to look at your Wills every five years or so, just to make sure they still do what you want. No obligation to change anything unless for example, there are now grandchildren, or your children can be executors instead of friends or siblings.

When MIL died, it turned out her Will was nearly 50 years old, no mention of grandchildren and DH was the sole executor because he had been the only DC over 18 back in 1972! Not good.

Have you done Lasting Powers of Attorney?

If your children are over, say, 21 OP then I suggest that you appoint them as your executors (because they have a vested interest in making sure that the administration of your estate is dealt with reasonably quickly!). If you don't feel that they're mature enough to deal with that by themselves, I suggest that you appoint at least one older person too, to guide them through and share the burden.

You should also check that the wills don't contain Nil Rate Band discretionary trusts as they are no longer tax efficient (the spousal exemption rules mean that if all of the estate passes to the surviving spouse, no IHT is payable until the second death, by which point the survivor may have made some lifetime gifts to reduce the value of the estate)

We've just updated ours due to circumstances changing since we last did it.
Our property is owned as joint tenants. Solicitors advised us to make a trust will which leaves 50% of the property to the surviving spouse on 1st death and the other 50% held in trust but with lifetime benefit to the living spouse. This means that should surviving spouse remarry, the 50%in trust is preserved for our DS and also cannot be touched to pay for care home fees (as the law stands now).

We have appointed DS as Executor but he can ask a solicitor to do some or all of the work at the time if he doesn't choose to do it himself.

We have updated ours several times since DC were born.
At the last re-write we removed some trusts we had put in as the DC were now over 18 and we deemed them unnecessary. We also looked at IHT implications.

Why would you not have your adult children as execs?
You should ideally have each other as executors and we have put both DC down as executors as well. Never a solicitor unless the estate is very large and complex.

Solicitors advised us to make a trust will which leaves 50% of the property to the surviving spouse on 1st death and the other 50% held in trust but with lifetime benefit to the living spouse. This means that should surviving spouse remarry, the 50%in trust is preserved for our DS and also cannot be touched to pay for care home fees (as the law stands now).

Same here.

We changed ours from when our Sons were children, as the Executors have now died and we’ve appointed our Sons. There was also provision as to who would look after Sons and these Grandparents are also no longer living. When my MIL died, she had 2 siblings that were Executors along with my DH, her siblings died before her and we had to get original copies of their Death Certificates, which was a bit of hassle.

Thanks all, some good advice here.

Our daughters are early 20's and I don't think they are mature enough to deal with this, at what would be a traumatic time for them.

No grandchildren on the horizon.

Inheritance tax is one to think about.

DH and I are mid-50s so I'm not concerned about care homes, POA etc. at the moment, though I suppose putting some in trust is a possibility. I'm not sure about this from a moral point of view mind you, as I think people should pay for themselves if they can, rather than hang onto their money while the taxpayer pays for them.

Sad to see so many people trying to avoid care home fees. Who do they expect to pay?

Please consider getting power of attorney. Being in your mid 50s doesn't make you immune from parkinson's or other debilitating illnesses, or having an accident rendering you unable to make decisions about your health, or wealth.

Morbid though it may sound I come across this a lot in my job and it really should be discussed more.

Agree about POA. We set ours up when my father died. Did one for mum and it made sense to do it for us as well.
We put our DC down as execs when they were early 20s. They can always get legal advice but if they are not even named as executors that removes choice.

I won't be avoiding care home fees as I'll be dead! Im just leaving my house to my son instead of my husband.

@MrsCat1 It's not necessarily about avoiding care home fees. It's about protecting part of the assets for your DCs in the event that the surviving spouse remarries. The mechanism for doing this just happens to also exclude the asset being taken into account for care fees - as the law stands at the moment.
I think we've read enough threads on Mumsnet about the "wicked step mother" inheriting what the DCs think is 'rightly theirs ' to know how important this type if provision is to people.

I would definitely name your two daughters as joint executors. Doing so doesn’t stop them from getting help/advice from their uncles or a solicitor should it be needed.

I think it’s a big ask to appoint siblings once your children are adults as there can be a lot of work involved. Unless of course your siblings are also beneficiaries. Also consider what happens if your executors die before you. You will have to appoint someone else at that point anyway. Hopefully this is less likely to happen if you appoint your children in the first place.

Mid 50’s is exactly the time to get POA’s done. We have ours set up for DH and I in the first instance then it passes to the children (25 and 18). Similarly with our wills we are each others executor then it’s the children.

@DuesToTheDirt you are never too young for a Lasting Power of Attorney.

My ultra marathon runner DH had a heart attack 8 weeks ago and was in an induced coma for 24h. My LPA wasn't needed but could have been. No one knows what is round the corner!

@bigbluebus Does the trust avoid IHT? Or can the £350,000 exempt amount still be passed to DH as well? It’s also fair to say some step mothers are wonderful. My friend had a fabulous step mum and she loves her very much. She helped her dad enjoy his mid life and older age. The wicked tales are not universal.

@TizerorFizz I'm not sure how the trust works for IHT as we aren't rich enough to reach the threshold as long as we're only passing property to spouse and child under current IHT allowances. Solicitor definitely said we didn't need to worry unless we exceeded £1 million - we live in a relatively cheap area so our property and assets doesn't put us in that league even though we're not poor!