Writing a Will

glittermonster

Its on my todo list to get done over the next 2 months so its all in place.

I don't have a clue where to start - has everyone done theirs through a solicitor? I know that you can 'write your own' and get it witnessed.

Also how do things like life insurances/mortgage insurance etc come into effect should the worst happen.... do you have to put contact details in the Will?

If anything happens to me I want to leave the house to the baby rather than my OH.

Do I have to put a name in my will for LO or can I just be general and put any children so it will have longetivity rather than need changing if we have baby #2 -

Is there anything else I need to consider?

hayleythedaisy

I don't have a clue where to start - has everyone done theirs through a solicitor? I know that you can 'write your own' and get it witnessed. We've done ours through a solicitor, although I did look at Which Wills - if you open an account with them and don't finish it in 2 weeks they send you a code for 50% off. Worth looking at because it's cheaper than alot of solicitors, and unlike the LawPack wills you can ring up if you need help. I would avoid LawPack etc for you unless you're really confident because you've got specific wishes as opposed to just leaving it to your OH.

Also how do things like life insurances/mortgage insurance etc come into effect should the worst happen.... do you have to put contact details in the Will?
We didn't need to when we wrote ours, I have written a list of everything though and will ask the solicitor to put it with the wills in storage, also a "letter of wishes" which contains sentimental things and who I'd like them to go to, but it's not as official as a will so you don't need to pay to revise your will if you want to add something to it.

If anything happens to me I want to leave the house to the baby rather than my OH.
This is ok, except until your LO is 18 (maybe 16 I'm not sure) it will need to be placed in trust, so you will need to appoint trustees, and guardians for your LO - they can be the same person/people.
Do I have to put a name in my will for LO or can I just be general and put any children so it will have longetivity rather than need changing if we have baby #2 -
You can state any children of mine, or any children of us, or name them.

Is there anything else I need to consider?
Guardians for your LO, if you die and also if both you and your partner dies.
Trustees if estate is going to little ones and they're not 18. (You can place the estate into trust until they reach any age, and if the trustees think they are sensible enough to have some or all of it early they can make that decision.)
Who would inherit if you and your LO(s) were to die. (Sorry couldn;t find a not blunt way to write it)
Where the rest of your estate would go (house to LO but who would get life insurance and any monies over the value of the mortgage assuming you've got one)

This is only what I've picked up on from doing ours recently. Sorry if any of it offends you, I've tried to write it as plainly as possible but it might seem like I'm being insensitive.

Good luck, and if you can afford it you're probably better going through a reputable solicitor.

DUTR

glittermonster wrote: »

Its on my todo list to get done over the next 2 months so its all in place.

I don't have a clue where to start - has everyone done theirs through a solicitor? I know that you can 'write your own' and get it witnessed.

Also how do things like life insurances/mortgage insurance etc come into effect should the worst happen.... do you have to put contact details in the Will?

If anything happens to me I want to leave the house to the baby rather than my OH.

Do I have to put a name in my will for LO or can I just be general and put any children so it will have longetivity rather than need changing if we have baby #2 -

Is there anything else I need to consider?

The rules of intestacy would follow if you don't have a valid will, but your whole setup you will have to think through, for instance if the worst happened to you now, who would look after the child(ren) ? If you are not married then the estate would not automatically go to the spouse, I'm confused though as to why want children with whoever you are with but want to leave them without if the time to meet your maker comes before you had hoped.

Mojisola

DUTR wrote: »

I'm confused though as to why want children with whoever you are with but want to leave them without if the time to meet your maker comes before you had hoped.

There can be good reasons for this. If the OH already owns another property or has a lot of savings, it can be done this way to avoid paying IHT in the future. If the OH inherits and remarries, there is no guarantee that the OP's estate will get passed on to his/her children.

RAS

This is more complex than the general will so you do need a recognised will write, either a solicitor who specialise in wills and probate (one who does criminal or conveyancing is not much use) or a STEP representative.

glittermonster wrote: »

I don't have a clue where to start - has everyone done theirs through a solicitor? I know that you can 'write your own' and get it witnessed.

In this case no, but what you need to do is have the embaressing conversations with OH and others and write down what you want to happen. Then instruct the will writer to make it happen.

glittermonster wrote: »

Also how do things like life insurances/mortgage insurance etc come into effect should the worst happen.... do you have to put contact details in the Will??

It makes sense to ensure that these insurance policy pay out to the person/body you want to benefit - the mortgage to the mortgage provider, the life insurance to your child and or OH. That way they do not form part of your estate.

glittermonster wrote: »

If anything happens to me I want to leave the house to the baby rather than my OH.?

In whose name(s) is the house held? If it is in both names is it a joint tenancy or tenants in common. This afffects what you can do.

glittermonster wrote: »

Do I have to put a name in my will for LO or can I just be general and put any children so it will have longetivity rather than need changing if we have baby #2

The will writer can phrase it to something like all my suviving children who are alive 12 months after my death. This means that if your family is in a car crash (HF) and you die, and later one child, they do not die intestate and possibly affect your intentions.

glittermonster wrote: »

Is there anything else I need to consider?

Do you have joint accounts with OH? If so on your death, the contents of these automatically become the sole property of the survivor and are excluded from the estate.

So you need to list everything for which you have sole ownership as these form your estate, ignore any joint property.

Who are the executors going to be? if you are excluding OH from the will in many ways, do you want him to execute the estate. And preferably you need two executors so that if one is incapacitated, the other can act. Do not use a solicitor because of their high feees. If the executors need a solicitor, they can ask one to act in specific issues.

glittermonster

Thank you everyone for your time and your helpful replies.

I hadn't thought of executors or trustees.

I don't want OH to get the flat cos it is all in my name and he has some creditors i don't want them to get their hands on it.

Once we have (if/when) a joint mortgage then this would be changed so it would go to OH if something happened to me.

We have a guardian in mind, just need to ask them so I guess if something happened to both of us the money would go to them, if something happened to just me (as the main earner) then the monies would go to my OH??

Thanks again.

Plans_all_plans

The solicitor will be able to explain all these things to you and tell you all the varying ways you can set things out in your will.

Don't worry too much about *how* you'll do things, as long as you go into the solicitor with an idea of what you'd like to happen, they'll be able to tell you the legal way to sort it.

One more thing, ask around at your/your husband's workplaces as some employers operate a free will scheme (both of ours do, so instead of around £100, it was 100% free)

glittermonster

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

One more thing, ask around at your/your husband's workplaces as some employers operate a free will scheme (both of ours do, so instead of around £100, it was 100% free)

Thanks - I'm employed privately but just text my OH to see if his employer does

glittermonster

hayleythedaisy wrote: »

I don't have a clue where to start - has everyone done theirs through a solicitor? I know that you can 'write your own' and get it witnessed. We've done ours through a solicitor, although I did look at Which Wills - if you open an account with them and don't finish it in 2 weeks they send you a code for 50% off. Worth looking at because it's cheaper than alot of solicitors, and unlike the LawPack wills you can ring up if you need help. I would avoid LawPack etc for you unless you're really confident because you've got specific wishes as opposed to just leaving it to your OH.

Do you have a link for this Which Wills?

Thanks.

Sammy85_2

We had our wills written by a solicitor using Will aid. It happens in November and solicitors will write your will in exchange for a donation to the Will Aid charity - http://www.willaid.org.uk/ Its £85 for a will and £125 for a pair of wills i think.

We left our estates to each other should one of us die, all insurances, property, money etc. If both should die before we have any children we split everything equally between the two sets of parents. If we have children then our parents have joint custody of the children and any money is to be held in trust for the children and specifically used to support and maintain them until they all reach 18. If anything is left by the time they have all reached 18 then its to be split equally between all children.

The solicitor said it was important to state that money was to be used to support and maintain the children (if that was our wish) otherwise it would go into trust until they were 18 and the grandparents would have to go to court in order to release money to pay for their upkeep. We wouldnt want the grandparents to have to deal with that or be out of pocket anymore than necessary to look after our kids if we died.

scottishchick27

There's a similar scheme in Scotland http://www.willreliefscotland.co.uk/index.html and the money goes to Scottish charities.