Advice Needed

beccauk

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on MSE. I need some advice on my mum's will, and mine (which I'll need to make fairly urgently).

My mum was diagnosed with very advanced cancer, completely out of the blue, last month. She was given a matter of days to live. Her will at the time left everything to me, but I wasn't executor as I was under 18 when she created it. I contacted the solicitors who stored it, and they created another one and emailed it over, which I printed out and she executed. Thinking she only had days left, we didn't do anything further.

As it stands, she's still here, and her symptoms have been controlled very well. What concerns me slightly is that her signature on the will was quite scrawly, as she was in a hospital bed at the time and unable to sit up, and the will isn't bound (although the pages are numbered). Would it be a good idea to redo the will and have it bound, or would it make no difference? I'm only in my twenties, and she's my last surviving family member, so I'm completely on my own when she passes away. She wants to make things as easy as possible for me, so if it's likely the will requires clarification because of these things, if we can prevent that, we will.

Second, I now need to make a will fairly promptly. Previously, the intestacy rules would have sent my (fairly small) assets to my mum. Now, I'm set to inherit my mum's estate, and if anything were to happen to me now, neither me or my mum are particularly happy with where things would go under the rules. I should be able to DIY the will, especially as I can use my mum's as a template, but I'm wondering of the viability of what I'm considering. I can either:

- Leave everything to my best friend
- Leave a signficant share to my best friend, with smaller amounts left to a small number of other friends
- Leave a significant share to my best friend, with smaller amounts divided among a large number of friends (anywhere from 20-50)

I'm leaning towards option three, but I'm aware I could be causing a huge headache for the executors if they had to track down that many people. Practically, is this a bad idea? The other issue with this is most of my friends are university students in their early twenties, some of whom are international students, so it's very difficult to approach them and say I want to name them in my will and ask for their current home addresses - it would be incredibly awkward and make them feel very uncomfortable, as I'm in a position that most people my age can't even imagine. So if I did do this, I'd rather do it secretly. Can I get away with just listing their names, dates of birth, and how I met them?

And if all of that is practical and realistic, would I be foolish to DIY it? I don't really want to pay a large amount to a solicitor when, in a few years, I might be more settled and can create a simpler will.

Thanks in advance.

G6JNS

beccauk wrote: »

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on MSE. I need some advice on my mum's will, and mine (which I'll need to make fairly urgently).

My mum was diagnosed with very advanced cancer, completely out of the blue, last month. She was given a matter of days to live. Her will at the time left everything to me, but I wasn't executor as I was under 18 when she created it. I contacted the solicitors who stored it, and they created another one and emailed it over, which I printed out and she executed. Thinking she only had days left, we didn't do anything further.

As it stands, she's still here, and her symptoms have been controlled very well. What concerns me slightly is that her signature on the will was quite scrawly, as she was in a hospital bed at the time and unable to sit up, and the will isn't bound (although the pages are numbered). Would it be a good idea to redo the will and have it bound, or would it make no difference? I'm only in my twenties, and she's my last surviving family member, so I'm completely on my own when she passes away. She wants to make things as easy as possible for me, so if it's likely the will requires clarification because of these things, if we can prevent that, we will.

Second, I now need to make a will fairly promptly. Previously, the intestacy rules would have sent my (fairly small) assets to my mum. Now, I'm set to inherit my mum's estate, and if anything were to happen to me now, neither me or my mum are particularly happy with where things would go under the rules. I should be able to DIY the will, especially as I can use my mum's as a template, but I'm wondering of the viability of what I'm considering. I can either:

- Leave everything to my best friend
- Leave a signficant share to my best friend, with smaller amounts left to a small number of other friends
- Leave a significant share to my best friend, with smaller amounts divided among a large number of friends (anywhere from 20-50)

I'm leaning towards option three, but I'm aware I could be causing a huge headache for the executors if they had to track down that many people. Practically, is this a bad idea? The other issue with this is most of my friends are university students in their early twenties, some of whom are international students, so it's very difficult to approach them and say I want to name them in my will and ask for their current home addresses - it would be incredibly awkward and make them feel very uncomfortable, as I'm in a position that most people my age can't even imagine. So if I did do this, I'd rather do it secretly. Can I get away with just listing their names, dates of birth, and how I met them?

And if all of that is practical and realistic, would I be foolish to DIY it? I don't really want to pay a large amount to a solicitor when, in a few years, I might be more settled and can create a simpler will.

Thanks in advance.

It good you are thinking ahead under difficult circumstances. Keep the will simple and get it done professionally. Given your age it is almost certain that you will need to change it in the future. Keep it simple and remember that someone may need to execute the will so they will need information to do this. If you list lots of names an no detail it might make it almost impossible to do.

Mojisola

beccauk wrote: »

I contacted the solicitors who stored it, and they created another one and emailed it over, which I printed out and she executed.

As it stands, she's still here, and her symptoms have been controlled very well. What concerns me slightly is that her signature on the will was quite scrawly, as she was in a hospital bed at the time and unable to sit up, and the will isn't bound (although the pages are numbered). Would it be a good idea to redo the will and have it bound, or would it make no difference?

As you are the executor and the beneficiary of the will, who is going to challenge the signature?

Did she have two independent witnesses to her signature?

beccauk

Mojisola wrote: »

As you are the executor and the beneficiary of the will, who is going to challenge the signature?

Did she have two independent witnesses to her signature?

It's not so much challenging it, but it's whether say, at Probate, someone official looks at it and questions it. (I have no experience of these things, so I'll have to learn as I go, but I'm trying to make things as smooth as possible). The will has two witnesses as normal.

Mojisola

beccauk wrote: »

It's not so much challenging it, but it's whether say, at Probate, someone official looks at it and questions it. (I have no experience of these things, so I'll have to learn as I go, but I'm trying to make things as smooth as possible). The will has two witnesses as normal.

But you aren't one of them, I hope.

beccauk

Mojisola wrote: »

But you aren't one of them, I hope.

No - two independent people.

Mojisola

beccauk wrote: »

It's not so much challenging it, but it's whether say, at Probate, someone official looks at it and questions it. (I have no experience of these things, so I'll have to learn as I go, but I'm trying to make things as smooth as possible). The will has two witnesses as normal.

If anyone questions the signature or the circumstances, the two witnesses will be asked to confirm that they saw her signing the will but it's extremely unlikely to happen in your situation.

bouncydog1

An awful suggestion but one that should be raised - if you were to pre-decease your mum then has she made provision to ensure her estate goes to whom she wishes? Only raised because a relative wasn't brave enough to specify exactly what she wanted which has led to severe problems for Executor causing huge family rifts.

BobQ

Mojisola wrote: »

If anyone questions the signature or the circumstances, the two witnesses will be asked to confirm that they saw her signing the will but it's extremely unlikely to happen in your situation.

I agree, but another option is to keep the previous Will and so if the new one is challenged that would still be valid. It would just mean that you had to use the solicitor as executor.

But in practice that will not happen if the witnesses confirm she signed it without any pressure. Given that without a will you would still inherit the estate it does not really matter.

I agree that for your own will get it done professionally. Mistakes are all too easy to make.

While it is your call, I would not leave small sums to lots of people I happened to know at that time. In 5 years time you will probably have little contact with them. Pick your best friends.

You could also leave some to charity, particularly if the house is worth close to the IHT threshold.

getmore4less

Get forms PA1 and IHT205 and start a dry run(for both of you), you can then ask mum any info and get a full details of the assets and start thinking about the more complex stuff if any.

How big an estate are we looking at do you need to start thinking about cash flow for IHT or transferable nil rate band.

Don't DIY yours, as has been mentioned there is still the risk of order of death.

Another strategy to look at is mum liquidating assets and gifting now, might be a bit premature but can make some things a lot easier/quicker if LPA is not in place and asset management is needed

joerugby

If I were you I'd try to focus on enjoying Mum's last days with her, supporting her, listening to her, chatting, asking her questions about the family, talking about my and her favourite memories etc etc

All the other stuff might seem important but in the whole scheme of things it is less important and can wait