A Will is important. I cannot stress how important this legal document is. It is relatively inexpensive and does not take a long time to have drafted. A properly drafted Will can only be drafted upon taking your detailed instructions. My advice is to ensure you only seek such an important document from a qualified Solicitor. Will making is not a reserved activity. Therefore, anyone can draft your Will. The problem is though, there are many unqualified people out there offering wills for as little as £20.00.
This is your life’s wealth, your children’s inheritance, should you really entrust the drafting of this to someone who has no legal qualifications?
It is estimated 80% of the adult population in the UK do not have a will. This leads to cases as below where wealth is argued over by the family once you have passed away. The reality of such a situation is that a large part of the Estate will be swallowed up in legal fees.
If you can do one useful thing today, make a call to your local solicitor and have a Will drafted. Protect yourself, protect your children and protect your wealth.
It is a fact of life that no one knows which day will be their last, but that is no good reason for putting off making a will. In one case, an 84-year-old man’s failure to make an appointment with a lawyer consigned his two children to a decade-long struggle over his estate.
The pensioner, although apparently in good health, died suddenly in 2005 from a stroke without making a will. His estate, which was worth about £550,000, would normally have been split equally between his children. However, his son claimed that he had promised him that he would inherit everything and that he would sign a will to that effect before death intervened.
The son argued that, in reliance on his father’s word, he had devoted his life to working in the family business, caring for his parents and improving their home, in which he still lived. His sister, however, pointed out that he had received lifetime gifts from their father worth £470,000 and accused him of being greedy.
The High Court found that the son had not been given an assurance that he would inherit the whole of his father’s estate. He was, however, entitled to 20 per cent of the equity in the family home to reflect the money and effort he had put into constructing a self-contained flat within it. He would have to share the remainder of the estate equally with his sister.
The Court noted that inheritance tax, and the costs of the prolonged proceedings and the administration of the estate, meant that the son would have to move out of the family home in any event so that it could be sold. He was given two weeks in which to vacate the property.
