Wills, life insurance and savings accounts

[itallhappensforareason]

My husband and I are due our first born next week so are starting to think about the boring financial things....

Wills - I am not sure if we need to draw up a will. As we are married, in the event that one of us died wouldn't everything automatically go to the living spouse anyway? If we do draw up wills I would prefer to do so online - are there any particular websites that anyone would recommend?

Life insurance - I already have life insurance that I took out when we got our mortgage. At the moment I am the only named person on the mortgage as my husband is self employed and at the time didn't have the required accounts behind him. I would now like my husband to take out out a life insurance policy so that I know if anything happened to him baby and I would be financially OK. As he is self employed, we are thinking it makes sense to also have an income protection policy so that if he falls ill or becomes injured and cannot work for any reason he will not lose out on income. Is there a provider that provides this as a bundled policy, or would it likely be covered under a life insurance policy anyway? I had a little Google yesterday but got a bit confused. Any recommendations?

Savings account - We would like to open a savings account for baby that he can access when he is 18. Again, any recommendations or things we should consider?

Thank you in advance.

I am sure others will give advice but -

Wills - yes you should definitely get wills, its not only about your money but also you can name who you would like as a guardian of your child should you both die. You can also name beneficiaries if you all die together. Also, if you die without a will, the spouse doesn't get all the assets, some of them go to children. Look up Marlow Wills on here, it is a mumsnetter who comes highly recommended.

Life insurance and income protection are two separate things - you may be able to get them jointly, but we have never had IP so wouldn't know.

Savings - well given you have a minimum of 18 years, I would go with a stocks and shares ISA. Drip feed money in monthly, across say two general funds eg a Uk fund and a European one, and it should grow nicely by the time he is 18. Yes S & S are riskier than cash, but by drip feeding monthly you will iron out the peaks and troughs of the market and over that many years, you will also iron out larger dips. It is also not accessible until they are 18, so no temptation to dip into into early. But if you dont want it locked away for 18yrs, then maybe look at other options.

We use an online stockbroker called Hargreaves Lansdown, but they aren't the cheapest by any means. Have a look on the investments section of MN and read a few threads for other suggested online brokers.

A comment on savings.

I think it is a really bad idea to put too much into a child's name, that they then automatically gain access to at 18. You have no idea how your 18yo will be.

Yes there can be tax advantages to having stuff in the child's name, but the potential for a wayward teen to blow money on drugs / unsuitable girl/boyfriend, drink, whatever is there too.

It also means you can't (shouldn't) access the savings if you need to (e.g. if your DH's income dried up).

Nothing to stop you mentally designating something for the DC though.

My DC have an account for birthday money etc, but 'bigger savings' are not in their name. (And for eldest it would have been potentially disasterous if she had had access to 10k at 18)