Should I get a will?

fannyanna

I keep thinking about whether I should arrange a will. Each time I think about it I come to the conclusion that any will would probably follow the intestacy rules and maybe I don’t need a will and probate will be sufficient. But I’m wondering if I’ve missed something and there is some reason that I’m yet to uncover that would highlight the benefits of having a will.

I’m married and we own our (mortgaged) house jointly and our savings are held jointly. We do not (and will not) have children. I understand that if I were to die the house and savings would all pass to my husband automatically and wouldn’t even be considered as part of my estate for probate purposes. And then say I did at some point have savings in my own name this would then be considered my estate and the rules of intestacy would dictate who the money went to.

The only benefit I can see in having a will is setting out how to deal with our estate if we were both to die around the same time, perhaps a car accident. From what I understand, the remaining family of whoever was last to die would inherit the estate. So, if we’re in an accident and I die immediately but my husband died a few days later, his family would inherit everything as part of the intestacy rules and my family wouldn’t. I don’t know if a situation like this could be covered by a will i.e. if we both die within a certain timeframe, our estate would be split equally between the two families.

Oher than that example, I don’t see much benefit to a will. But am I missing something? 

p00hsticks

fannyanna said:

 I don’t know if a situation like this could be covered by a will i.e. if we both die within a certain timeframe, our estate would be split equally between the two families.

Yes, it's quite common for a proffesionally drawn up will to contain somthing along the lines of 'I leave everything to X as long as they survive me by 28 days (or however long you wish) otherwise it is to be divided equally betwwen Y and Z

Brie

I need to get a will as well and so does the other half.  I keep looking into it and then delay mostly due to the fact that the OH is very superstitious and dealing with things like this freaks them out.  

I don't know if it matters to you and would happy to be corrected on this but I was told at some point that if both of us were considered to have died at the same time (car accident or whatever) that everything would go to OH's family and nothing to mine as I am the older of the two of us.  So potentially a bunch of random cousins in law would get the lot ahead of my siblings. 

sevenhills

Is there no one other than your husband that you want to leave some money to, a close friend or a person that has helped you?

Would you like a remembrance bench, buried or cremated, what music would you like to be played at your funeral, what if your husband goes first, who should have your inheritance, a dog or cats home, or maybe leave some money to those looking after your pets, the neighbour?

Keep_pedalling

Not only do you need wills, you should both make lasting powers of attorney as well. I know you said everything is joint but that might not always be the case ( ISAs can’t be joint) and there might be circumstances where you both need to be able to sign off on something (house move or a change of mortgage for instance) and you would be stuck if one of you was incapacitated through accident or illness.

Stubod

..in a simple answer to your question....yes...

Mojisola

fannyanna said:

I keep thinking about whether I should arrange a will. Each time I think about it I come to the conclusion that any will would probably follow the intestacy rules and maybe I don’t need a will

Wouldn't you prefer to nominate your executor/s so that you know who is going to be sorting through all your belongings after you've died?  Some people would prefer a close friend did this rather than a relative (perhaps one you don't know all that well).

theoretica

Also, are you happy with what would happen to your own estate under intestacy if you were to die after your husband?  When you are bereaved you will have many things on your mind, and writing a will is unlikely to be a priority.