Please make a will!

margaretclare

Just a plea to everyone - make a will. Making a will is so simple, you can forget about it immediately, but it is there when needed. One thing we all know for certain - we are not here for ever.

Last evening I was talking to a friend whose husband died very suddenly at the end of November. We went to the funeral in mid-December but I hadn't heard from her since. He was in his 50s and died intestate. Coping with the death of a beloved spouse and partner is hard enough, but the hoops she has had to jump through because he left no will, are unbelievable.

What has also been worse was that he bought his little house before he married her, and although they were married for 15 years he had never thought to include her on the deeds. So there's still a mortgage for her to deal with. And a car loan.

Although he was relatively young he'd had a stroke 2 years ago. Wouldn't you think that would be a massive wake-up call, to get all these things in order? No, apparently not. He was in denial about a lot of it.

I am so glad we put all these things in order, more than 10 years ago now, and that I insisted on having my husband's name on the deeds alongside mine when we married in 2002. And our wills.

So many people just put it off, put it off, until too late.

Keep_pedalling

Thank goodness they were married otherwise things would have far worse. The last figures I saw was that around 60% of adults in their 50s have no will in place which is bonkers. Seems that around 50 of people with mortgages don't have any life cover either, obviously over half the population think they are immortal

securityguy

"What has also been worse was that he bought his little house before he married her, and although they were married for 15 years he had never thought to include her on the deeds. So there's still a mortgage for her to deal with. And a car loan. "

I'm not underestimating the problems of dealing with intestate spouses, and I made a will in my late twenties leaving, as my parents said of their wills made at a similar point in their lives, money I didn't have to children I hadn't got. But how would making a will have changed any of this? Without life insurance the mortgage would still have to be paid, and similarly it's hard to see how a car loan isn't the responsibility of the estate, will or no will. If there's ten years to run on the mortgage and she wants to stay in the house, then whether or not there was a will doesn't materially alter the situation, does it? If she had been on the deeds as a joint tenant, as married couples often are, the house wouldn't have passed to her via the estate, but there would still be ten years to run on the mortgage which would need paying.

Yorkshireman99

margaretclare wrote: »

Just a plea to everyone - make a will. Making a will is so simple, you can forget about it immediately, but it is there when needed. One thing we all know for certain - we are not here for ever.

Last evening I was talking to a friend whose husband died very suddenly at the end of November. We went to the funeral in mid-December but I hadn't heard from her since. He was in his 50s and died intestate. Coping with the death of a beloved spouse and partner is hard enough, but the hoops she has had to jump through because he left no will, are unbelievable.

What has also been worse was that he bought his little house before he married her, and although they were married for 15 years he had never thought to include her on the deeds. So there's still a mortgage for her to deal with. And a car loan.

Although he was relatively young he'd had a stroke 2 years ago. Wouldn't you think that would be a massive wake-up call, to get all these things in order? No, apparently not. He was in denial about a lot of it.

I am so glad we put all these things in order, more than 10 years ago now, and that I insisted on having my husband's name on the deeds alongside mine when we married in 2002. And our wills.

So many people just put it off, put it off, until too late.

It is not enough to just make a will and make sure you family know where it is. You need to review it at least every five years and more if you are planning to marry.

Brighton_belle

Totally agree Margaretclare re the importance of will writing - even more so if you are not married. This subject has been on my mind too since someone at work's partner died suddenly at 56, no will, not married and hadn't named her on his pension death benefits form. Complete disaster for her financially and an excruciatingly painful personal time.


But I don't entirely understand this bit:

margaretclare wrote: »

What has also been worse was that he bought his little house before he married her, and although they were married for 15 years he had never thought to include her on the deeds. So there's still a mortgage for her to deal with. And a car loan.

The only way she wouldn't have a mortgage to pay as a result of his death was if he had taken out life insurance (and after his stroke it would probably have been too late to try and get any). Likewise for the car loan.

gettingtheresometime

Oh and regularly check it to see if it's still applicable

slowpoke_rodriguez

securityguy wrote: »

" If there's ten years to run on the mortgage and she wants to stay in the house, then whether or not there was a will doesn't materially alter the situation, does it? If she had been on the deeds as a joint tenant, as married couples often are, the house wouldn't have passed to her via the estate, but there would still be ten years to run on the mortgage which would need paying.

But if she's not on the deeds would she be able to take over the mortgage, or would she need to take out a new one?

securityguy

"But if she's not on the deeds would she be able to take over the mortgage, or would she need to take out a new one?"

It wouldn't make much difference: the question would be whether she was a party to the mortgage. It's perfectly possible to have a house owned by two people, but under a mortgage in the name of only one of them. Conversely, historically it was possible to have mortgages in two names over houses held in one name (although I believe it's harder to get such mortgage now) and if upon death the house passed from one party to the mortgage to another the mortgage just continued. In a scenario where someone bought a house, then married, the issue wouldn't be the deeds so much as the mortgage itself: it's difficult to add a party to a mortgage after it's been taken out.

74jax

margaretclare wrote: »

What has also been worse was that he bought his little house before he married her, and although they were married for 15 years he had never thought to include her on the deeds. So there's still a mortgage for her to deal with. And a car loan.
.

I too don't understand this part, could someone maybe reword it so we can understand and then learn from it ?

nom_de_plume

securityguy wrote: »

In a scenario where someone bought a house, then married, the issue wouldn't be the deeds so much as the mortgage itself: it's difficult to add a party to a mortgage after it's been taken out.

It's not that hard. It's done by a transfer of equity. This would usually entail a fresh valuation and a fresh credit check to confirm the original and the additional party still meet the lenders borrowing criteria. This has the advantage in that the survivor is already on the mortgage when there's a possibility that their income alone may not be sufficient for a later application.

In the case of the OP, the wife may not be able to get a mortgage on her income (or lack of) alone.

margaretclare

Just to explain about the house, deeds etc.

What he did was similar to what my daughter did. She went to work for a Midlands blue-chip internationally-known company in 1990 and she bought a 'starter home'. So did he, that's how we got to know him.

When she died very suddenly in 2002 she had no will, nor had she thought to put her husband on the deeds - they'd married in 1993. Same sort of scenario, although she had had no warning of impending mortality. He inherited as next-of-kin, and she'd had an insurance which paid off the mortgage.

My daughter had had to make a will when she was in the Royal Naval Reserve and nearly got sent to the first Gulf War, but she'd got married after that and never made another will. I don't recall my son-in-law having all the problems that our friend has had in the present situation. He produced a death certificate and was paid from her LGPS, which she'd only joined a few weeks before. This doesn't seem to have worked for our friend, whose husband was in the company's excellent pension scheme.

Because the house was bought long before the huge hike in prices, I don't think there is so much left to pay on the mortgage. But she has had huge problems with the bureaucracy, even armed with his death certificate and letters of administration.