Why wills are rubbish

WELLSIANA1962

It is normally time for Martin to promote "WILL WEEK" so although i have many instances here is two for you to ponder why wills are a waste of time and money which are actually connected to me .
1 . My mum did a Mirror Will with her Husband and my stepfather of 25 years , she did a silly thing and died first , big no no if you have a will of this type , He took 1 year 4 months , to revoke her will , revoke Her children from the will and leave everything to his sole Daughter , because he revoked her i do not even own my Mums grave , which he is now cosy laid in beside the woman he shafted , Nothing can be done , so that will was a waste to her .
2 . My wifes Dad left a will when he died almost 3 years ago , naming all 4 of his children as executors and basically to sell up and divide equal , going well so far , until the two oldest decided to lock the will inside the cabinet in the house , change the locks and keys , put his daughter into the house to pay rent to cover another siblings costs and scrub the will or probate , 3 years in an unmarked grave for that will dear boy , and one daughter does not even have a key to the house she basically quarter owns .
So wills are a pathetic excuse for peace of mind in life , but in death where there is a will there will be a war , and no law will bother with the dead , so spend your money as someone else will.

Twopints

Sounds more like "Some people are rubbish", and some wills are badly written.

Rubik

WELLSIANA1962 wrote: »

It is normally time for Martin to promote "WILL WEEK" so although i have many instances here is two for you to ponder why wills are a waste of time and money which are actually connected to me .
1 . My mum did a Mirror Will with her Husband and my stepfather of 25 years , she did a silly thing and died first , big no no if you have a will of this type , He took 1 year 4 months , to revoke her will , revoke Her children from the will and leave everything to his sole Daughter , because he revoked her i do not even own my Mums grave , which he is now cosy laid in beside the woman he shafted , Nothing can be done , so that will was a waste to her .
2 . My wifes Dad left a will when he died almost 3 years ago , naming all 4 of his children as executors and basically to sell up and divide equal , going well so far , until the two oldest decided to lock the will inside the cabinet in the house , change the locks and keys , put his daughter into the house to pay rent to cover another siblings costs and scrub the will or probate , 3 years in an unmarked grave for that will dear boy , and one daughter does not even have a key to the house she basically quarter owns .
So wills are a pathetic excuse for peace of mind in life , but in death where there is a will there will be a war , and no law will bother with the dead , so spend your money as someone else will.

The Wills aren't the issue in the situations you've described, people are.

Not leaving a Will often creates an unholy mess for everyone else to sort out, and can often lead to family feuds as people pick over the bones of the dead person's estate, arguing about who should have what (and ignoring the Rules of Intestacy).

You will need to better to convince people that Wills are a "waste of time".

SeniorSam

Far more problems are caused by not having a Will. The execution of the Will by executors has to be agreed by all and if changes are to be made then all beneficiaries have to agree those changes. Somewhere along the line you failed to stand up and be counted but if changes were made by agreement by others correctly, then it is correct.

NEVER put off making a Will as soon as you can.

Yorkshireman99

WELLSIANA1962 wrote: »

It is normally time for Martin to promote "WILL WEEK" so although i have many instances here is two for you to ponder why wills are a waste of time and money which are actually connected to me .
1 . My mum did a Mirror Will with her Husband and my stepfather of 25 years , she did a silly thing and died first , big no no if you have a will of this type , He took 1 year 4 months , to revoke her will , revoke Her children from the will and leave everything to his sole Daughter , because he revoked her i do not even own my Mums grave , which he is now cosy laid in beside the woman he shafted , Nothing can be done , so that will was a waste to her .
2 . My wifes Dad left a will when he died almost 3 years ago , naming all 4 of his children as executors and basically to sell up and divide equal , going well so far , until the two oldest decided to lock the will inside the cabinet in the house , change the locks and keys , put his daughter into the house to pay rent to cover another siblings costs and scrub the will or probate , 3 years in an unmarked grave for that will dear boy , and one daughter does not even have a key to the house she basically quarter owns .
So wills are a pathetic excuse for peace of mind in life , but in death where there is a will there will be a war , and no law will bother with the dead , so spend your money as someone else will.

In neither case is the fact that the will was made the problem. In the first case what the solicitor should have done was draw up wills that prevent this happening. In the second case the situation could have been avoided ny using a professional executor. In any case the beneficiariews could have taken the rogue executors to court. Why did they no do this?

PasturesNew

My parents had mirror Wills, dad went first and reading the Will he'd left everything to himself as the solicitors had used a Find/Replace and not done it right. It left him intestate, which would've cut out my step-sister.

We were lucky in that there was nothing overly complex in the Will and we were all "sane people", so the correct outcome, as he intended, was reached without too much bother ...

Another problem with a Will potentially is finding it ... and whoever finds it having the opportunity to deny there ever was one as there's not been a central Will repository where all Wills are kept safe. You take them home - and then anything could happen... over the years. We were given ours pre-death, so knew it existed and where it was tucked away... but when we read it it didn't seem to match things we'd been told over the years, such as leaving something to a specific charity - and dad's sister mentioning he'd told her he'd "see she was all right" (odd that, she's loaded! he wasn't). None of that was there.... I even visited every local solicitor to see if there'd been another one written since, that they had .... but nothing. Anybody being "promised" something must've felt we shafted them.

Browntoa

People often make the assumption that with joint property that "asset" is part of the estate but unless it's drawn up correctly any property transfers to the surviving spouse.

Assets on death can end up solely being cash in bank accounts , savings and life insurance.

pattycake

WELLSIANA1962 wrote: »

It is normally time for Martin to promote "WILL WEEK" so although i have many instances here is two for you to ponder why wills are a waste of time and money which are actually connected to me .
1 . My mum did a Mirror Will with her Husband and my stepfather of 25 years , she did a silly thing and died first , big no no if you have a will of this type , He took 1 year 4 months , to revoke her will , revoke Her children from the will and leave everything to his sole Daughter , because he revoked her i do not even own my Mums grave , which he is now cosy laid in beside the woman he shafted , Nothing can be done , so that will was a waste to her .
2 . My wifes Dad left a will when he died almost 3 years ago , naming all 4 of his children as executors and basically to sell up and divide equal , going well so far , until the two oldest decided to lock the will inside the cabinet in the house , change the locks and keys , put his daughter into the house to pay rent to cover another siblings costs and scrub the will or probate , 3 years in an unmarked grave for that will dear boy , and one daughter does not even have a key to the house she basically quarter owns .
So wills are a pathetic excuse for peace of mind in life , but in death where there is a will there will be a war , and no law will bother with the dead , so spend your money as someone else will.

I’m certainly no expert, but in England in your first example, wouldn’t the outcome have been the same if your mother died intestate. That is, the husband would have inherited and could then will everything to his daughter. I know there is some provision for children after a certain figure but the house could easily have gone outright to the husband.

I have mirror wills with my husband and we have joked about me going first and him being snapped up by another woman and denying our children their inheritance. I have a best friend who is tasked with ensuring that if that happens, he makes another will including our kids! I don’t lose any sleep over it though as I cannot control things from the grave!

troubleinparadise

pattycake wrote: »

I’m certainly no expert, but in England in your first example, wouldn’t the outcome have been the same if your mother died intestate. That is, the husband would have inherited and could then will everything to his daughter. I know there is some provision for children after a certain figure but the house could easily have gone outright to the husband.

I have mirror wills with my husband and we have joked about me going first and him being snapped up by another woman and denying our children their inheritance. I have a best friend who is tasked with ensuring that if that happens, he makes another will including our kids! I don’t lose any sleep over it though as I cannot control things from the grave!

And just how will your friend achieve that?

March an adult with capacity to a solicitor, then tell the solicitor what he wants changing, and it’ll all work out as you’d like?

You should lose a little sleep over the fact that you have not ensured what you would like for your own children actually happens. However lovely, honest and loyal your husband is, life events can change circumstances so that the best of intentions cannot be achieved.

Perhaps take some legal advice to see if there is a better way you can achieve your wishes rather than just crossed fingers.

Keep_pedalling

Mirror wills are fine and dandy for people like us, who have only been married once, but for more complex situations like your mother and step father were in then they are not sufficient, you need to build in things like life interest trusts so the interests of both sets of children.

The issue with your FIL is nothing to do with the will but the disfunctional family issues.

SevenOfNine

PasturesNew a will can be stored here, a central place. We did a search there when we could not find one for my Aunt. Like any sort of storage though, if family don't know, finding it will be hard. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-deposit-a-will-with-the-probate-service-a-guide-for-people-who-want-to-deposit-a-will-for-safekeeping-pa7 I'm afraid your father signed a will he had not read.

We, like pattycake, have mirror wills. There's a difference having one when the offspring are both of yours as opposed to step-children. When there's a family mix like that people need to be MUCH more careful how their wills are written.

No, it doesn't bother me if I die & my husband remarries, we've discussed it fully. Though we'd both like the survivor to have a new will to leave some of what WE have spent our lives earning to our son & grandsons, but at the end of the day what we have accumulated was all gained jointly by the 2 of us.

While he is alive what's his is mine & what's mine is my own. When either of us dies what's his is mine & what's mine is his. Inheritance is a lovely gift of love but our son is well aware we do not want our spending curbed in later years because one of us died & gave away to him some of what the other may need themselves.