WILLS

Will writing services for you

• Wills
• Will trusts
• Codicils (making minor adjustments to your existing will)
• Appointment of guardians
• Severance of joint tenancies

With the Right Will you can:

• ensure that the Crown (i.e. government) does not inherit your estate, if you have no close family
• appoint those (executors) whom you trust and are capable to wind up your estate and distribute it according to your wishes, reducing the risk of disputes
• set out those (beneficiaries) whom you want to inherit your estate, in what order and in what proportions
• appoint suitable guardians to bring up your children until they are 18 (rather than leaving the decision to the courts or social services)
• ensure pets are cared for
• set up maintenance trusts for your children to protect their inheritance until an age specified by you
• ensure your children, step-children and/or grandchildren inherit
• ensure provision is made for your children of a previous relationship
• ensure the inheritance of your children or other beneficiaries if the surviving spouse (or civil partner) re-marries
• ensure a disabled child or family member receives financial support from your estate without it being used to reduce means tested benefits or pay for care costs
• give a partner, child, or parent who lives with you the right to continue living in your home after your death
• make specific gifts of money or belongings to family, a friend, charity or club that you support,.
• ensure that family heirlooms are passed down as you choose
• ensure your (unmarried) partner inherits such part of your estate that you want them to receive. (Unmarried partners are not entitled to any part of your estate if you don’t say so in a Will)
• exclude specific members of your family, if you don’t want them to inherit
• ensure your business passes to whom you choose
• extend the executors’ powers, e.g. of investment, maintenance for any children
• make your funeral wishes known
• make any other provisions that you want
• make the process of winding up and distributing your estate much easier and quicker
• rest peace of mind knowing that your affairs are taken care of as you wish them to be.

You can also:

• help to protect your family home and/or savings from being used to fund long term residential care costs (by using a Protective Property Trust in your Will)
• help reduce Inheritance Tax (at 40%) payable on any excess of your estate over £325,000
• ensure your spouse or civil partner fully benefits from your estate if you wish them to inherit in excess of the current 'intestacy threshold' of £250,000.
• if you have no children and the value of each of your estates exceeds the current 'intestacy threshold' of £400,000 and you want the whole of your estate to go to the survivor of you
• ensure that your joint estates are shared between both your families on a quick succession of deaths (e.g. in a road accident where you and your family are killed).

When it is particularly advisable to use an experienced Will Writer:

• you jointly own property with someone who is not your spouse or civil partner
• you want to make provision for a dependent who is not to care for themselves
• there are family members who may make a claim on your estate, e.g. a second spouse or civil partner or children from another relationship
• you own a business
• your permanent home is not in England or Wales
• you are resident here but own property abroad
• you are not a British citizen.