Old will - still valid ?

Indout96

Not sure if anyone can help but its worth asking before solicitors.

Many years ago my wife & myself made a joint will and for the first time as we were all going on holiday without our son (he had just started working) this was back in around 1992
it is a simple will which leaves everything to the surviving spouse and then 50/50 to Son / Daughter. We are still happy for this to be the case.
However as my daughter was only 12 at the time there are provisions written in to protect her (ie my son could not sell the house until she was 18 ect) which no longer apply, also if all 4 of us should die together (99% impossible now) then it named people to inherit who are no longer alive.

Are we still OK with this will as it still gets the money to the people we want to have it or do we need to make a new one as it is so old.

TIA

p00hsticks

Just to clarify....

As far as I'm aware there is no such thing (at least in England and Wales) as a 'joint will'. Do you mean that you and your wife each made separate wills that were identical but with your and her names swapped (these are referred to as 'mirror' wills. 

As far as the bequests go, then it sounds as if it all should still be valid and achieve what you want, although given the amount of time that has passed it may well be revisiting what you estate is likely to consist of and do some inheritance tax planning if necessary (estate worth over £1 million ?).  
 
One thing that might may you consider redoing or amending them - who is named as executors ? 
It is usually recommended that you have more than one executor from a younger generation ,and avoid putting solicitors unless you have no other option due to their charges.

If you have named your spouse and/or the solicitors who drafted the will, it may be sensible to reconsider whether your son and daughter could fulfil the role now they are adults (they can always get a solicitor in to help when the time comes if they felt it necessary). 

Albermarle

However as my daughter was only 12 at the time there are provisions written in to protect her (ie my son could not sell the house until she was 18 ect) which no longer apply, also if all 4 of us should die together (99% impossible now) then it named people to inherit who are no longer alive.

If the will was written correctly, then your daughter reaching 18 should not be an issue.

I would think the chances of you all four dying together is a lot less than 1%, probably a lot less than 0.01%.

Like you, we also drew up mirror wills on the off chance we both got killed at the same time. It was only later I found out how rare an occurrence this actually is ( thankfully !) 

As above you might want to update the will with new executors etc but you should not need to completely rewrite them just for that.

Indout96

Thank you both, yes they are mirror wills.

My son will be executor and has already done this for his neighbor a couple of years ago so knows more about it than us

The only way I could see us all dying together would be on a plane and as my son hates to fly that is very very unlikely (daughter is coming on holiday with us next month) as far as I can work out the only condition not still covered by the will would be us all dying together as there is no provision for the money to go anywhere else in that extremely unlikely case.

It is unlikely we will exceed £1 million but we keep a very close eye on finances so will make provisions if that becomes a possibility.

Albermarle

The chance of being killed in a plane crash is about one in eleven million during your whole lifetime.
The chance of being killed in a car crash is 200,000 times higher.
So maybe do not let your son give the rest of you a lift to the airport 

Savvy_Sue

Does it cover the - admittedly unlikely - scenario of neither child surviving you?

And it's possibly worth considering making both offspring executors: again covering the possibility of son pre-deceasing before 2nd death.

Although the survivor can change their will, it may be hard to prioritise that.