Free and Cheap Wills discussion area

vegasvisitor

Hi

Wonder if anyone knows whether insurance policies are included in assets. Going by the below piece of info, we don't actually need a will right now (in Scotland) as our immediate assets fall within the below. However, we both have life insurance through our work, and an additional life policy for the mortgage. Would these be counted as assets/money?

Below is the law in Scotland:-
Prior Rights

Before any claims are made on the estate a surviving spouse has prior rights to that to that estate. If the surviving spouse lived in a property owned by the deceased then he or she is entitled to £300,000 or the entire property if it is valued at below this sum. The surviving spouse is also entitled to up to £24,000 worth of the furnishings in that property. If there are children then the surviving spouse is entitled to £42,000 of any money left in the estate, if there are no children they are entitled to £75,000

Errata

Life insurance is outwith the estate. HTH

[Deleted User]

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

£80,000 is an incentive to get married.

Indeed!!!
That's 3x my mortgage alone!!
(fortunately, I live outside London, somewhere where the air is cleaner and house prices used to be sensible, before Londoners wanted to live here...)

John_Pierpoint

Errata wrote: »

Life insurance is outwith the estate. HTH

Is this a rather "bald" statement ?

The legal estate and the taxable estate or not necessarily the same thing.

In the two life insurance examples given above it is most probably true for both.

The life insurance with the employment is most likely to be some sort of trust arrangement, where the trustees have a discretion and the employee expressed a wish?

For the policy pledged to the mortgage company its effect will be to reduce/remove the debt, thus boosting the net value of the real estate?

On the tax front here is the HMRC list of common "misunderstandings".

https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/agents/toolkits/iht.pdf

BASBAL

elektra wrote: »

I don't want to take this thread too far off topic but I don't understand how a seven figure sum went out of the family. As previously stated by John_pierpoint there is a limit to how much the spouse can inherit under intestacy laws, especially if surviving children.

elektra wrote: »

or do you mean it was a combination of the 2 intestacy cases that made it a seven figure sum ?

Hi. The 7 figure sum was an accumulation of 3 estates. My parent's estate was pretty big and the spouse left behind (my step parent) got it all, because it was in joint names and any left that was not jointly owned was below the financial threshold. The Probate Office only required a submission for tax purposes and is satisfied that all legal requirements were met. When the estate passed through a will to my step sibling that person got both parents' (step and blood) estates and they already had that of their deceased spouse through their will. It was on the death of my step sibling that the estate became worth so much. Because I am not a blood relative and there are step children and a possible distant (and previously unknown but unconfirmed so far - records destroyed in WW2) relative of my step sibling I am out of the running for any of the 7 figure sum. The Judge has already ruled that I am not eligible. My parent did not adopt their step child. It is all perfectly in line with the law of the country concerned and there is nothing I can do. Good lawyers in the country have advised me so. This whole affair has been going on for some time, shows no sign of an early conclusion and has raised many nasty ghosts for many of us.
See how complicated it all is and how necessary it is to make a Will?
Don't want to take this any further but it is worth remembering as this didn't happen in the UK it is not realistic to try to apply UK legislation to an overseas case!!

sarahemmm

I thought I would post my recent experience, since there seem to be so many questions here about the annual "free" will scheme.

Like so many of us, I had been meaning to do my will for many years. A couple of years ago I got so far as to sign up with Will Aid (https://www.willaid.org.uk), who will send you an email reminder when the next year's scheme is starting. All the money raised from the scheme goes to charities, which are listed on the main page.

Last year the reminder they sent me managed to spur me into action, and I located a local solicitor from the list on the site and booked a meeting with her. I did happily make the suggested donation, as I thought it was both a good thing to do and also far cheaper than paying normal solicitors' fees.

I mentioned when booking the appointment that I also wanted to discuss powers of attorney. Having agreed what my will should contain, the solictor explained that poas are more complex - her fee for both was £300. In addition, there is a charge of £120 (less if you are on low income) to register each poa, so the total cost was £540.

As far as the will was concerned, the solicitor was quite happy that my beneficiaries should also be the executors. She also worked out how to word a bequest that I wanted to be 'index-linked' (as the value I stipulated could be far different in a few years' time). She also offered to hold the will for me, but I decided that it would be simpler and easier to lodge it with the Probate Office. I phoned my local office, who sent me a leaflet with instructions and an envelope which you have to sign and have witnessed. You then send it off, with a cheque for £20, and they send you a receipt. I informed the executors that I had done this, so they will not have to search for the will when I die.

At our second meeting, I signed the prepared will and we discussed the requirements for my powers of attorney. When you read the documents, you can see that these could get very complex, though mine are not - the only difficulty is that my siblings, who are the people I have granted powers to, all live abroad, so it takes time to get their signatures back. You also have to nominate someone who knows you, who will sign to say that you are not signing these powers under duress, and that you are making them because you wish to do so. I asked my neighbour, who is a retired probation officer, and she was happy to do this for me. We are still waiting for a final signature to be returned, then my neighbour will be sent the form to sign, then finally the poas can be registered.

I have to say, it is a huge relief to have done all this! The only thing left that I should do is to list my assets to make things easier for my executors. Its remarkably easy to lose track of old pensions, life insurances on mortgages, etc.

cepheus

Hi could someone remind me if it is necessary to use any free based third party at all for probate.

Some years ago I used a standard template for writing a will for my Mother who has unfortunately just died. I can't remember where I obtained it from, possibly MSE or a book. I am executor and part beneficiary in the will.

The assets are purely financial (bank) and split between me and my only brother 50/50, there is no property, not large enough for IHT and there are no potential contestors. Essentially the same as if she died intestate. So it should be very straighforward.

Savvy_Sue

cepheus wrote: »

Hi could someone remind me if it is necessary to use any free based third party at all for probate.

I presume you mean 'fee' based, but the answer is that apart from the fees at the probate office, and the recommended advert in the London Gazette and local paper so that any creditors can come out of the woodwork, no, you don't have to pay anyone anything, you can do all the work yourself.

Get yourself the 'Which' guide to wills and probate from the library if they've got the latest edition, and you'll be away.

cepheus wrote: »

The assets are purely financial (bank) and split between me and my only brother 50/50, there is no property, not large enough for IHT and there are no potential contestors. Essentially the same as if she died intestate. So it should be very straighforward.

Then it shouldn't be hard. Take your time, be methodical, there is no need to rush - although clearing her property may need to be a priority as the landlord will (obviously) charge until you've done that. May be worth checking what their policy is: some insist on a month's notice - which dead people find very difficult to comply with! - and others will stop charging as soon as it's empty, pretty much.

YesWillMan

How much is involved? If it all is at a couple of banks then you may find tbey will let you have the money just with the will and a signed indemnity. Each Bank has its own limit over which you have to get Probate.
Was there any pension other than State Pension? If any tax was paid the HMRC insist on a final Tax return, although this usually results in a tax refund.

As mentioned make sure you do the Notice to Creditors as this protects YOU the Executor. For instance if you collected all the assets and paid the whole estate out and then a bill came to light later and you had NOT put in such a Notice then YOU as Executor would be personally liable for such bill and any other beneficiary does NOT legally have to repay any money already paid to them.

cepheus

Yes finishing of all the bills and giving notice is a little tricky, I am actually using the council bungalow as a base to sort things out since I live a long way away. The house will be used as the start of point for the funeral, probably late next week, so I don't wish to be kicked out immediately. In addition my Brother wants an opportunity to sell furniture & remove private appliances such as washing m/c which may take up to a month.

Regarding bills, Sky was quite good, they just agreed to cut off the services from the day I called, allowed us to keep the box, and not bill us for the month since Mum was in hospital. Still to contact the others. Undertakers are happy to wait for payment until probate and Brother agreed to pay half of that afterwards.

I will have to find more about the probate office fees and letters to creditors. It may well have been the Which book I used to draw up the will.

Total estate is around 50k including a personal investment plan. All of it is in the Halifax.