Urgent, possibly. Should I make a will now?

[Spidermama]

Forgive my ignorance. I know nothing ....

I'm having a general anaesthetic on Monday and I have not written a will.
Given that I have no money to speak of, does it really matter? Will all my stuff go to my dh automatically or is there some kind of situation where the government helps itself unless otherwise stipulated?

Should I write a will and if so how do I do this?

(I know the chance of my dying is small but I thought it would be better to deal with all possible outcomes).

you can buy a DIY will kit from sainsburys/tesco etc.
costs about £5 and you simply fill in the blanks.
if you and your DP are married then i dont think it relaly matters as everything will go to him automatically anyway.

not that there is anychance of anything happening to you of course.

Thanls fats. I'll see if I can add a will to the online sainsbury shop I have just done.
It would be handy wouldn't it?

If you are married, have less than £125000 in your estate, or don't hit Inheritence Tax threshholds, you'd be better with NO will rather a DIY will.

Here is the latter part of DH's article, which was written for MN:

If you do not make a will before you die, the state will decide answers to these questions on your behalf. In most cases, savings and property will go to your husband or wife and eventually to your children, provided you have a relatively small estate. In circumstances where you have no immediate relatives, your estate will pass to your nearest blood relative, which could be distant cousins. If there are no family members, it will go to the state!

Not married?

If you are not married to your partner the law does not recognise you as a beneficiary, regardless of how many years you have cohabited. For the partner to benefit they would have to enter into complex litigation to establish their interest in the estate.

Estate worth more than £125,000?

When your estate is worth more than £125,000 the law determines that it will be split between your spouse and your children. Any residue above £125,000 will be divided into two equal shares. One share for your children and the remaining share in trust to give the spouse an income for the rest of his or her life. Upon their death it will revert back to the children. If your children are not adults this will mean a large proportion of the estate can be tied up in trust.

Can you make your own Will?

It is possible to make your own Will, but unfortunately they have become known as the ?Solicitors friend'. Solicitors make more money administering the estates of those who have prepared their own Wills rather than those prepared by a solicitor.

Inheritance Tax

Inheritance Tax or ?death duties' means that estates worth more than £263,000 will pay tax at a flat rate of 40%. The value of your estate will include the value of your home; savings, insurance policies and possibly benefits payable under pension schemes ? which can all, add up.
There are such things as spousal or charitable exemptions but without a carefully drafted will, these may get overlooked.

Spidermama, I've read recently that the first £125,000 of your estate goes to your dh, the rest is split between the dcs. Your dh doesn't pay inheritance tax at all but the dcs pay 40% over a certain amount (£250,000?). I think if you're married and don't have a huge amount of money that's purely yours (not joint with dh) then there's no need to worry too much.

Guardianship of your children is not legally binding regardless of it is any form of will. It will be taken into consideration by the state, but it does not mean they will always follow your wishes on this matter.

X posts with Hula - she knows more than me - listen to her!!!

Which bit makes you dinosaur?

The courts will always go for what is tin the best interests of the child. You can give your wishes through the guardianship bit. The courts will take this into account if it gets that far. It only gets this far if someone contests or objects - be that family, SS, etc.

From DH's article:

If you have children, who will be appointed as their guardians?

Guardians are responsible for the welfare of children and are usually the people who will physically look after them. Their appointment is not legally binding but if their appointment was ever challenged in the courts, this provision would be very persuasive.

DH thinks that deaths often bring out the very worst in some families. He has had so many families arguing and almost fighting in his office over who was left what is a will, etc.

Thanks Hula. Brilliant.

Hmm me & dp are not married we have 2 kids what the hell happens if myself or both of us ever died? what happens to our children?

Worth putting some thought into scoobs.

You really could do with a properly written will.

Oh God, dh is harping on today about doing a will. I know he is right and it's got to be done.

The bit I'm struggling with is the guardianship bit - how on earth do you get someone to agree to take on 3 boys (or do you do it like my SIL and not ask, just put them in - that's us by the way, she didn't ask us ).

Just having to even think about leaving my children behind fills me with complete horror - I don't want to imagine it and there's pretty much only one place I'd want my children to go (yep, that's you JT ). I could think about my brothers but they don't have families yet so who knows what their circumstances would be in the future?? HEEEEEELP!

This thread's a timely reminder for me - dh and I must, must, really must make our wills. Particularly in view of the situation with my family. I'll make us sit down and do it when we're back from our holiday.

Will be thinking of you on Mon Spidermama.

Any will is better than no will
The beneficiares can rewrite it after your death to avoid tax if necessary
Of course a solicitor would be anti-DIY wills - it loses them business
You also don't need a solicitor sort it all out afterwards either

The Blonde - I am telling the honest truth when I say that DH makes far more money from sorting out DIY wills and will maker wills than he does from writing a proper will in the first place. A DIY will in not a probate lawyers enemy - it is his friend for the very reason they make money out of it!

I would say in the OP's circumstances from what is wirtten NO will is actual better than a DIY will that could be construed in many different ways. In wills ordinary grammer, etc is not applied - it has to be written ina way where they can be no more than one way of reading what it means.

Tax planning is also better done before a death occurs.

However, yes DIY wills exist. Use them if you wish, so long as you are aware of their problems.

I believe you hulababy
Not everyone makes a hash out of a DIY will though and they have saved my family a lot of cash over the years

I really must get around to this but can say that after reading my parents will it is full of unusual legal termes such as stirpes (sp) and lots of ways of wording things that we had to look up.

Unless you literally want to say I leave absolutely everything I own to one person I would go see someone proper. Even then you have to account for what happens if they die before you or at the same time as you.

We are looking into updating our wills at the mo and the current inheritance tax threshold is £285,000 - just for info. Why, oh why the government won't increase that to a more realistic figure is beyond me (well not really - they get a nice hefty chunk 40%). Let's face it there are a lot of people out there whose homes alone are worth more than £285k these days!!