Wills - and savings accounts.

B0bbyEwing

Something I was wondering this week. How does this work in this day & age when we're all chopping & changing our accounts every other week for the extra 0.01%?

So you have your accounts, however many you have, yet you want account XYZ to go to little Timmy on your death & so want to put that in your will so that it's carried out.

But over the course of the next 6 months, 10 savings accounts just surpassed the account you referenced when it comes to interest rates & you keep moving your money around.

So how does the money get identified? Do you have to keep contacting your solicitor every other week or do you have to leave it in the account you referenced?
Or can you not name an account in this way at all?

GrumpyDil

I wouldn't specify a specific account. If you want little Timmy to get an inheritance state that in the will as a fixed amount or percentage or if you really have to the balance of all my savings accounts etc. As soon as you start naming specific accounts you run the risk of the gifts failing.

Oh and asking your solicitor to update the will every time you change accounts would start getting rather expensive. 

p00hsticks

As far as I'm aware it's usually best to avoid mentioning specific items such as particular named properties, shares, savings accounts in wills, for the very reason you mention. The intention at the time of writing may be to distribute the the estate in a certain proportion across the named beneficiaries, but if one or more of those assets is subsequently disposed of prior to the death it can result in the distribution being entirely different to what the deceased intended. 
It's particularly problematic if the bulk of the estate consists of a named property which ends up having to be sold when  the inhabitant goes into care. 

Better to simply say a fixed monetary amount and / or percentage of the estate and leave it to the executors to decide exactly how the bequest is met. 

maman

I'd agree that you shouldn't specify accounts in your will.

9 What you do need to do is leave an up to date list of current banks/accounts with your paperwork so that executors don't have to waste time finding where your assets are. 

I keep a file where all the statements are for open valid accounts and mark any paperwork for closed accounts accordingly (although I periodically shred those after an appropriate amount of time ). 

B0bbyEwing

Thanks for the responses.

The basis of this question stems from learning that if we put money in to a childs name and anything happens to that child, as much as we may not want the money to find its way to the father, it'd be out of our hands & that's the way it seems it would go (as others on MSE have responded to my question).

So the obvious one in such a case is to invest the money in our own name to hand over at a later date.

But then my wondering was should I get hit by a bus tomorrow & kick the bucket sort of thing - how I could say I wanted what was in account XYZ to go to person ABC. For my sudden death, I wouldn't be able to declare the amount or the percentage of my worth. It'd just be whatever it is.

That's where I was coming from with this question.

Brie

of course anything that is joint will go to the other individual if that's what is set up.  Difficult to organise if you're chopping and changing but at least that something you can specify if you're got a number of people you want to automatically have access to £££.

msb1234

why not just buy premium bonds for the children and in your will you can specify ‘all my premium bonds to be divided between my grandchildren who are alive at my death. Where a grandchild predeceased me, their share to be shared between the remaining grandchildren’. That way, you’re not chopping and changing accounts, it’s clear what inheritance the grandchildren get, and if one of them predeceased you, their share is ringfenced.

Keep_pedalling

It’s all a matter of balancing risks, the chances that a healthy child won’t make their 18th birthday are very low, and if the worse did happen half their assets going to parent you would not want it to go to is a very minor concern compared to the agony of loosing a child. 

RAS

One of the major banks specialised in wills which left the named house and bank accounts to the spouse with all their stocks and shares, or saving accounts to the children. Then one or other got sold, depleted, or moved into a joint account with spouse and the other party got tuppence instead of a useful inheritance. 

There were several threads here from disgruntled beneficiaries who found the planned inheritance was very depleted.

It's not a good idea. If your want something to go to a grandchild, you always risk the other parent getting a share unless you specify what happens when the grandchild dies first. And you risk the will failing if you name accounts

Newly_retired

Many years ago my solicitor advised against naming any specific accounts in my will. This was long before I started switching accounts around. So glad I took his advice.

B0bbyEwing

Keep_pedalling said:

It’s all a matter of balancing risks, the chances that a healthy child won’t make their 18th birthday are very low, and if the worse did happen half their assets going to parent you would not want it to go to is a very minor concern compared to the agony of loosing a child. 

While I agree the chances are very low, many of us would've said the same about a couple relatives contesting another relatives will but it happened (& got messy). 

I don't agree with your closing line though as in it's not a way of thinking I subscribe to. It reminds me too much of when someone complains online (because I rarely ever see this response said in person) & others chime in that there's more serious things in life.

So where tgeb do you draw the line? Anything less than the most extreme of annoyances can't be complained about because X isn't as bad as Y. 

We'll have to decide one way or another though.