What to include

When writing a Will, it is important to include the right aspects to allow successful inheritance when you pass. Your will should include the following:

 

Your Personal information

Their full name, date of birth, current address, names of any children along with their date of birth and relationship status.

 

Your estate

An estate is everything comprising the net worth of assets that the individual owns or has a controlling interest in. Legally speaking a person’s estate refers to an individual’s total assets, minus any liabilities. 

 

Joint property

If you co-own a house, please check your land registration documents for further details as the property can be shared in two ways. If you are joint tenants in equity then the property will automatically pass to the other joint owner. If you have a joint tenancy in common then you can pass your part of the property to someone else. 

 

Your beneficiaries

This is the part where you decide who you want to receive your estate when you die. This could be children, wife, partner, family etc. You may also want to include who will receive the estate if the main beneficiary dies. specific gifts to specific people are also included in this section. You will need to provide the full names and addresses of all beneficiaries. For charities, you will need to provide the charity commission reference number. 

 

Your executors

This is the person who will make sure the will is carried out to your instructions when you die. This carries a lot of responsibility. If you don’t believe there is anyone you wish to be in the role you can appoint a legal professional.

 

Your trustees

If you want to leave money for beneficiaries when they reach a certain age you will need to arrange a trust. Appointing trustees is key, they will look after the money and make sure it stays safe in the trust account.

 

Your wishes

You may wish to determine any other wishes you have for your funeral or anything else. This section can also include a letter explaining the choices you have made and stating why someone may have been excluded. This can help to prevent claims against your estate. Please note, with all wills there can be some things people miss. Inheritance tax can take a big chunk of the money you leave away from your loved ones. 

For further information on how to write your will and how to choose the right path for you visit https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/legal-issues/making-a-will/

 

How we can help

Lestons can arrange a third party to write a will for you as this is currently not a service that we offer, please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a financial brief for them. To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link.

 

Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our will writing experts and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.