Solicitor said "You have to keep him" about the fiancé in the Will.

Lord_Frugal12

A question about Wills and the most up to date laws and regulations concerning cohabitation.   

A female friend is trying to have her Will written professionally by a solicitor. She has been living with a man for over five years. They are not married. But, the male describes her as a 'fiancé'. But the male has rejected all plans to get married. 

So, when it came to reading the first draft of the Will, my female friend was surprised to see the male cohabitant's name appear in the first paragraph of the Will. It reads as follows: 

"This Will is made in contemplation of marriage to my partner FRED BLOGS and I confirm that the Will is valid if I am married to him at the date of death and if I am not married to him at the date of my death."

Here are our questions: 

1. My female friend told the solicitor that she wants this paragraph deleted. To this request, the solicitor has said "That has to stay." 

 We are confused as to the reasons. I thought a woman has no legal rights in England if she were not married to the man.  Am I correct?

2. The client has to right to request what she wants and what she does not want in her Will. So, can a solicitor adamantly insist that "That has to stay." 

 We also spotted a lot of red flags with this solicitor. For example, every important name on the Will, (including the client's name) has been misspelt! And it cannot be a typing error as the same mistakes appear in many places.  It is reasonable to expect a solicitor to be meticulous instead of careless as slapdash as this solicitor has been with this Will. 

 The other issue is that fees have already been taken. And the process is dragging on even thought the Will is just  two pages!   

 We look forward to hearing from anyone who might have had  similar issues with solicitors in England.        
 

 

Devongardener

Of course a women has  exactly the same legal rights as a man, married or not!  She certainly has the right to put whatever she wants to in a will, and doesn’t need to included any potential marriage!   I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous!  It sounds like a cultural interpretation.

Your friend needs to find another solicitor, one that understands the UK legal requirements.

Cloth_of_Gold

If someone makes a will and then marries or enters into a CP the will becomes invalid, unless it says that it is written in contemplation of a marriage/CP. It saves making a new will after the marriage/CP. If your friend doesn't intend to leave her partner anything then it is is incorrect.

We had dealings with a solicitor regarding an inheritance and he spelled a name incorrectly on more than one occasion, and got the post code wrong, iirc, so maybe it's not uncommon.

Emmia

How does she refer to him? Did she say the man was her fiancé to the solicitor? If so, I can see how the paragraph came to be inserted - but it doesn't need to be there at all, she'd just need to make another will if they got married.

Why would a woman have no legal rights unless she was married? That's utter rubbish. women have the same legal rights as men in the UK.

bobster2

Lord_Frugal12 said:

A question about Wills and the most up to date laws and regulations concerning cohabitation.   

A female friend is trying to have her Will written professionally by a solicitor. She has been living with a man for over five years. They are not married. But, the male describes her as a 'fiancé'. But the male has rejected all plans to get married. 

So, when it came to reading the first draft of the Will, my female friend was surprised to see the male cohabitant's name appear in the first paragraph of the Will. It reads as follows: 

"This Will is made in contemplation of marriage to my partner FRED BLOGS and I confirm that the Will is valid if I am married to him at the date of death and if I am not married to him at the date of my death."
     

This is simply so that the will remains valid IF she marries Fred Blogs. As others have said - marriage normally automatically revokes a will.

It's actually a way of ensuring her current wishes continue to be adhered to after marriage - and a way of saving her a bit of money as she won't need to write a new will immediately after marriage.

However, this clause should only really be used if the marriage is imminent...

https://estplan.co.uk/contemplation-of-marriage-in-a-will

BooJewels

My interpretation of what you've posted is that it has been included to ensure that her wishes are carried out, regardless of her marital status - should that change. As others have said, marriage usually invalidates a will. 

If, by way of an example, the couple currently live in a house that she owns - that he'd moved in with her - she might want the house or proceeds (or anything else in her estate) to be left to a sibling, other family member, or friend - and not the cohabiting bloke.  If this is outlined in her will, but she then marries him, her will no longer applies and in the absence of writing a new one, the rules of intestacy would apply and in this example, her estate would go to him - as her husband - not to who she perhaps intended.

So it perhaps depends on what the rest of the will states as to whether that paragraph is pertinent or not.  If she's not happy at its inclusion or that the solicitor is interpreting her wishes correctly - she should perhaps find another solicitor that understands her intentions better.

Keep_pedalling

It’s a standard clause for people who are engaged , it’s not the solicitors fault if people use the term fiancé when they are not.

badmemory

There is apparently no actual anticipation of marriage.  Does the solicitor know the "fiance" by any chance.

Sea_Shell

Solicitor is missing a trick...

If you didn't have the clause, but then DID get married, you'd need a new will (assuming intestacy wouldn't work for you) and so they're potentially diddling themselves out of another fee for a new will.  


But it doesn't HAVE to stay in, just than in most cases it's probably a good idea to have it, to save time, money and hassle should you decide to marry.


On the flip side to this, when we bought our first house together as an engaged couple, we got a solicitor to do our wills and he DIDN'T put the clause in, or even mention it.     We didn't know, for years and years, that our marriage had invalidated our wills.   

bobster2

badmemory said:

There is apparently no actual anticipation of marriage.  Does the solicitor know the "fiance" by any chance.

This clause doesn't necessarily advantage the "fiancé" - it may do quite the opposite. Say OP wants to write a will leaving everything to a local charity - the will expressing this wish would normally be revoked by marriage. But the validity of the will could be preserved by the clause - i.e. disadvantaging the "fiancé" who, after marriage would normally acquire the right to inherit from the estate as a husband.

badmemory

bobster2 said:

badmemory said:

There is apparently no actual anticipation of marriage.  Does the solicitor know the "fiance" by any chance.

This clause doesn't necessarily advantage the "fiancé" - it may do quite the opposite. Say OP wants to write a will leaving everything to a local charity - the will expressing this wish would normally be revoked by marriage. But the validity of the will could be preserved by the clause - i.e. disadvantaging the "fiancé" who, after marriage would normally acquire the right to inherit from the estate as a husband.

Good point.  One thing I was wondering about is the possibility of the will being challenged if he could claim that she was supporting him in any way & the fiance thing would help this.