Will and Estate protection advice

flopstocks

Hello, we recently purchased a cheap Will deal from Groupon with Carterwestwood.  We have no doubt they are reputable company.  

Initially we were just looking at a standard Will, but the Estate planner have informed us of the benefits of trust etc.  For £600 we can have a mirrored Will and the property etc protected by Trust.  I thought this sounded like a good purchase.  Just wanted a second option really.  Is there anything that should be avoided?  

Here is the jargon in the email  

Essentially the main ones for you both are as follows;

- protection against care fees.
- protection against divorce for both of your children.
- protection against new partners/spouses inheriting ahead of your children.
- protection against inheritance tax for any monies that you leave to your children.

The cost is £250 each plus vat to do and includes the conveyancing work required to change the ownership of your property to tenants in common. All in all you would be looking at £600 inclusive of VAT for you both but this could potentially save tens of thousands for both of you as well as the children in future.

Emmia

So, my husband and I did mirror wills in London, with a solicitor for less than £500 for both - £600 doesn't sound like a good deal to me. 

Also, trusts are full of minefields - not least deprivation of assets type issues (you're presumably trying to avoid care fees, but do you want the type of LA care you're likely to get if you need it as a result?)

If one of you dies, the other can remarry which would revoke previous wills, or one of you could remake their will regardless, including if both of you are still alive.

Savvy_Sue

Bad news. They may be reputable, but what they're offering is at best unnecessary, and at worst a can of worms which won't do what they say it will, which is fine because some of what they're scaremongering about is wrong.

Did you know you can leave up to £1m to you spouse / direct descendants before IHT becomes an issue? If your estate is in that kind of territory, get better advice and a proper solicitor involved. 

Savvy_Sue

PS, no actual 'conveyancing' is needed to change joint tenants to TIC. They're using fancy words to bamboozle you.

Emmia

And, personally I wouldn't touch a firm that does wowcher and groupon deals for something so important with a 100ft bargepole

They don't appear to be a properly registered solicitors either - no SRA / Law Society details that I can see on the site.

Keep_pedalling

Please don’t use unregulated will writers find a local solicitor to make your wills. You don’t say what sort of trust they are talking about, but if it’s anything other than a life interest trust for the surviving spouse avoid like the plague. 

Mojisola

flopstocks said:

Initially we were just looking at a standard Will, but the Estate planner have informed us of the benefits of trust etc.  For £600 we can have a mirrored Will and the property etc protected by Trust.

You don't need a trust - if you own your home as 'tenants in common' - usually a 50/50 split - you can leave your share of the home to people other than your spouse while giving them the right to live in it until they no longer need it plus the right to use the capital to downsize - it's a standard clause in many wills now.

If you are currently 'joint tenants', you can sever the tenancy yourself - there are templates on the net.

www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/change-from-joint-tenants-to-tenants-in-common

flopstocks

OK thankyou for the advice.  Maybe we will go with just the standard Will for the minute then.  The guy did seem really genuine, informative and not pushy in any way.  But obviously he is working on commission etc. so his advise could be skewed. 

The Trustpilot reviews seem exceptional

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/carterwestwood.co.uk

This review sounds exactly like what we experienced.

We purchased 2 mirror wills from Wowcher, Lisa contacted us and she has been amazing. So amazing we have even recommended family to her. We needed life cover as we were buying a house and Lisa worked tirelessly to get us the best cover for less than we were paying. She is lovely, helpful, knowledgeable and very patient. We ended purchasing Trust Wills due to buying the house. There was no hard sell, and the process was very easy from start to finish. The communication was excellent, Lisa is just brilliant and I would recommend her. Thank you Lisa Walters you have looked after us and we will definitely using you in the future.

But I guess most of the people are not knowledgeable like me.

Emmia

flopstocks said:

OK thankyou for the advise.  Maybe we will go with just the standard Will for the minute then.  The guy did seem really genuine, informative and not pushy in any way.  But obviously he is working on commission etc. so his advise could be skewed. 

I'd avoid even that - please write this voucher off, and go to a proper solicitors for a will.

elsien

flopstocks said:

OK thankyou for the advise.  Maybe we will go with just the standard Will for the minute then.  The guy did seem really genuine, informative and not pushy in any way.  But obviously he is working on commission etc. so his advise could be skewed. 

The Trustpilot reviews seem exceptional

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/carterwestwood.co.uk

This review sounds exactly like what we experienced.

We purchased 2 mirror wills from Wowcher, Lisa contacted us and she has been amazing. So amazing we have even recommended family to her. We needed life cover as we were buying a house and Lisa worked tirelessly to get us the best cover for less than we were paying. She is lovely, helpful, knowledgeable and very patient. We ended purchasing Trust Wills due to buying the house. There was no hard sell, and the process was very easy from start to finish. The communication was excellent, Lisa is just brilliant and I would recommend her. Thank you Lisa Walters you have looked after us and we will definitely using you in the future.

But I guess most of the people are not knowledgeable like me.

The problem with this type of review it is very similar to a lot of insurance reviews. It tells you that the setting up process is very straightforward and easy. What  it doesn’t tell you is what happens at the point the trust kicks in and any problems that arise further down the line. 

It doesn’t actually tell you if it does what they wanted it to do because it’s too early to know that.

have a read of this for some of the downsides.
https://allanjanes.com/-Asset-Protection-Trusts-The-Next-Big-Mis-selling-Scandal

flopstocks

Thanks your help regarding this.  I actually work for the local council and they have recently provided a will writing service with included our benefits.

https://dm-legal.co.uk/cornwall-council/

Would this be an any improvement?