Will, Marriage or both?

mar7t1n

Having watched the ML show this week we're reminded we really should get a Will. We're not married, no children and financially independent but not equally split (one of us owns the house). We know if one of us dies we want the other to have everything. If we both die together then we're not so sure what to do which has always been the stalling point. But know there's a risk as it stands that the money will disappear to distant relatives we rarely see. What's the pros and cons of just getting married / civial partnership  for tax purposes (not interested in the whole ceremony thing). Do we even need a will if we did that, other than for the point we can't decide on which is how to share out the entire estate when we're both gone. Knowing that marriage nullifies a will just want to be clear on what's the most appropriate longer term financial setup.

DancingBadger

Even if you are married, if you die intestate (without a will) your spouse will only automatically inherit £270,000 of your estate.  I'll leave the rest of your questions to other, better-informed, contributors here.

gwynlas

It is not only finances affected if you marry or enter into civil partnership but decisions  regarding health and social care should you have a stroke or suffer some other catastrophe.

Keep_pedalling

You defiantly need a will and if either of you has assets over £325k then marriage or a civil partnership is advisable to avoid IHT on the first death. If you have different ideas about where your estate goes on the second death then it is worth talking this through with a solicitor as part of drafting up individual wills.

p00hsticks

I'd also recommend marriage / civil partnership if either of you have pensions, especially Defined Benefits ones, and want them to pay out to your other half in the event of your death. 

After nearly 30 years 'living in sin', we got married a few years ago for precisely this reason, as I have an old-fashioned DB pension which only a spouse could claim after my death. Total cost was £80 for the registrar - most register offices have a day set aside where they'll do simply ceremonies with no guests present. You''ll have to get two other people involved  as witnesses, as apparently you can't just drag people in off the street any more, but apart from them (and the people reading this) to this day no-one other than the relevant pension companies actually know that we're married. 

poppystar

I wouldn’t let not being sure how to share the estate if you both go put you off. Wills aren’t once in a lifetime documents and can (should probably) be updated in the future. So put something down for now that you both feel ok with, then change in the future if you get a better idea and/or financial circumstances change. Hopefully you won’t both die together or soon anyway! My first Will was done primarily to stop the laws of intestacy distributing my estate to relatives who’d never shown any interest in my life and who were mostly better off than me anyway. It took me a while to realise something was better than nothing. Ditto executor, I felt I needed to find the ‘right’ person, but again better to have a Will with someone willing as executor than no Will.

Sarahspangles

If you do decide to marry and have a ‘bit of a do’, which implies it’s a few months away, this need not hold up making wills.  The solicitor can insert some wording that says that you’re contemplating marriage and then this means the wills don’t become invalid once you marry.

mar7t1n

Thanks all. Checking the £270k intestate - I think it applies only when children are involved, but with house prices on the up and a freeze in IHT threshold till 2028, I was prompted to look and found an IHT calculator which suggest a different way more than an £80 marrage licene . https://pages.mazars.co.uk/inheritance-tax-calculator

The question it raises is, that we've always kept our finances separate, and why change is my motto. If we later decide to part ways (unlikely I'd been 20 years) can and how do we ensure a fair split which returns us both back where we were before, or is that something you do when / if ever the time comes.

cymruchris

If the absolute worst happened, and you both went together, married/partnered or not, you mention that your stalling point has been where to send your assets once you're gone. You also mentioned about distant relatives you'd rather not benefit as well - so this would be a good time to decide where you want things to go in a worst case scenario (Or when the second one passes after the first).

Had you considered naming a local solicitor as an executor of your (soon to be produced) will? And then naming a handful of local charities in it that the estate could be distributed amongst?

I've nominated a charity in my own will, that if for any reason it doesn't exist at the time of my own passing, it's written that the executor can make the choice of an alternative charity that had similar aims to the one that I chose, so there's no risk of the money ever going to the state.

In your case - if you're not worried about marriage or partnership as such - then get a decent pair of wills between you both so that at least if something happens to one of you, the other of you will benefit as you both want. It can just be fairly straightforward - whatever I have becomes theirs (both ways).

The only risk I can see, would be to the non-property owner - if the property owner changed their will at a later date - and they died first - if they'd written in their later will that the house be given to Mr Smith at number 23, then the non-property owner would get nothing. (It's an unlikely scenario - but people have been known to change wills for quite bizarre reasons).

mar7t1n

I like the template that p00hsticks has. Nobody knows, nobody needs to know. We're not religious, don't want a party, and just want things to carry on, but knowing the other one will be ok if anything happens. So on that basis what is the difference between marriage and civil partnership other than the label on the certificate?

Sarahspangles

I believe where people have opted for civil partnership they’re trying to involve the centuries of ‘baggage’ that come with the term ‘marriage’.  But otherwise I believe the only difference is which box is ticked on forms.