Revising my will

Mojisola

Mickey666 said:

Looks good to me, with one exception.  It's a horrible thought, of course, but have you made any allowance for something catastrophic that none of you survive.   What happens in those tragedies where a whole family is killed in a car crash for example?

Our catastrophe clause divides everything up between nephews and nieces - if all of them were dead as well as us, the world would have suffered such a cataclysmic event that I doubt anyone would be sorting out our estate.

Mickey666

Yes, I know what you mean . . . there is only so much you can plan for

MoneySeeker1

Farway said:

elsien said:

I have siblings as executor but will change it to the next generation as we all get older.
Half is an equal split between the next generation. They can debate over my belongings themselves if they want them. Only made a will because if I die intestate the money will go to people who don't need it or who I'm not on good terms with. 
Half the estate to charity. The charities haven't been informed so they don't stick their oar in while probate is happening.  Might change that to a lesser percentage next time I revise it.

I was always told never use a percentage for charity donation, they are obliged to screw obtain the maximum figure, so can hold up property sales demanding a higher price

Stick to a cash sum, £XYZ to Cat's home etc

There is a huge obvious disadvantage to leaving a fixed cash sum - that being there's no allowance for inflation. You might think "Oh - I'm leaving them a generous amount of, say, £50,000" - but then the years go on and inflation impacts and it only equates to leaving them, say, £20,000 in today's money.

So, whilst it is indeed true that charities are likely to demand the highest possible price for a house, then that is, after all, what should be obtained anyway. 

EDIT: Not to forget the other disadvantage of a cash sum is the fact house prices can go down (as well as up). Most of us don't know exactly what effect the coming major Financial Crash (courtesy of Lockdown) is going to have on house prices. I'd say there's a reasonable chance they will shoot down in actual fact. That will cause problems if a house is currently worth, say, £200,000 and therefore Aunt Aggie left a fixed £100,000 to someone and then the house lost value and went down to £80,000 value and Aunt Aggie couldn't get everything she'd been left and there'd be literally nothing for anyone else to have anything they'd been left. Whereas, if Aunt Aggie gets left 50% - she'd go from having 50% of £200k to having 50% of £80k and she'd still get her percentage and other people would still get their bequests too (also correspondingly reduced by the Crash of 2021).

Mrs_Z

It took me a long time to get my will sorted, mainly because I was struggling to decide what i'd like for my estate to happen if both my OH and I happened to die together.  I have no siblings, children or god children.  When I checked, following the intestacy rules, in that event, my estate would actually end up to my auntie (if she was still alive and my parents not) and no doubt she would then leave it to her son (my cousin, that I have not seen in years) and my step daughter would not get a penny.  That spurred me into action.
I've named my OH as the executor, and as alternative, a long standing friend and my stepdaughter jointly.  They have always an option to hand it over to a solicitor.
If OH does not survive me by 28 days, then my estate will be divided between the stepdaughter, my friend and charities.
So happy to have got this finally dealt with, I can now rest in peace!

p00hsticks

MoneySeeker1 said:

There is a huge obvious disadvantage to leaving a fixed cash sum - that being there's no allowance for inflation. You might think "Oh - I'm leaving them a generous amount of, say, £50,000" - but then the years go on and inflation impacts and it only equates to leaving them, say, £20,000 in today's money.

There's also the disadvantage that you don't know how big or small your estate is going to be at the point you die. If you've spent the last few years of your life self-funding a care home place, then there could be far less that you originally envisaged when you stated that you were leaving (say) £20k to a charity and the residual estate to your dearly beloved, who could then end up with nothing instead of the majority of the estate that you intended. Or conversely if you win the lottery after writing the will, the charitable donation that seemed generous at the time appears mean and penny-pinching after your death.

That's why, as mentioned in a previous post on this thread, the OH and I have written letters to each other kept with our copy of the wills indicating our preferred charities, but are leaving it to each others judgement as the main beneficiary to decide what is a suitable amount to donate depending on the size of the estate.

missile

p00hsticks said:

OH and I have written letters to each other kept with our copy of the wills indicating our preferred charities, but are leaving it to each others judgement as the main beneficiary to decide what is a suitable amount to donate depending on the size of the estate. 

That sounds good idea. I hope you have made provision for the unfortunate scenario where you both die together.

p00hsticks

missile said:

p00hsticks said:

OH and I have written letters to each other kept with our copy of the wills indicating our preferred charities, but are leaving it to each others judgement as the main beneficiary to decide what is a suitable amount to donate depending on the size of the estate. 

That sounds good idea. I hope you have made provision for the unfortunate scenario where you both die together.

Yes, the fallback executor also has sealed copies of the letter