If you don’t draw up a last will and testament, then who concludes who gets what? It will not proceed how you would have chosen. To make sure your desires are adhered to, you need to draw up a will.

If you perish without leaving a probate will it’s the state that dictates how your estate is divided. The intestacy laws will be applied and it may not be what you will have hoped or wanted.

If you are currently married or have a civil partner but no offspring and your property is worth a specific amount or less then your spouse would get the whole of the property including any life insurance . If the assets is valued above this amount and you have existing relatives, your partner would still get this figure, in addition to half of the remainder. There exists an order in which family would inherit, with existing parents positioned at the head of the list, followed by brothers and sisters and so on.

If you have a civil partner and children then your spouse would receive the specific amount as above and 50% of the excess. The offspring will receive half of the sum over the threshold immediately and the other 50% on the passing of your partner.

Should you have offspring but no lawful partner, then your offspring would share the estate. This could not be as you would have wished. You could have a companion who depends on you and who you might have wished to get at least a proportion of your property, who’d get nothing.

To avoid all potential anxiety about your property, regardless of how basic it may appear, it would be prudent to make a last will and testament. There are various ways to do this. You could construct it yourself or use a skilled will service or a solicitor.

Many people construct their own last will and testament, mostly using a template which you can obtain from stationers. Caution is advised should you go down this route – it’s very simple to make a mistake and you could potentially find it invalid. The price of having a will constructed, particularly a somewhat simple one, is not excessive and you can be sure that your desires will be fulfilled.

A skilled will agent or a solicitor will be used to handling all forms of queries and will be able to aid you. There could be queries about starting trust funds and maybe taxes.
Having drawn up your last will and testament, it’s a wise decision to reassess it periodically, as your situation changes. If you decide to alter it, then it is prudent to nullify your earlier one and have it re-written. If the amendments are small, it might be easier to make a codicil to form a part of the last will and testament and to be read in partnership with it. Any codicil will have to be drawn up in the same fashion as the will in relevance signatures and witnesses.

Please be aware that any health insurance cover will terminate on the death of the will holder and no value will be attributed to It in the will.