If you don’t write a last will and testament, then who determines who acquires what? Things wont go the way you would have preferred. To make sure your desires are adhered to, you should to construct a last will and testament.

Should you perish without making a will it’s the law that dictates how your assets is distributed. The intestacy laws will be applied and it will not be how you will have expected or wished.

If your legally married or have a civil partner but no children and your assets is worth a set figure or less then your legal partner will get the whole of the property including any life insurance cover . If the assets is worth above this figure and you have existing family, your spouse will still receive this figure, in addition to 50% of the remainder. There is an priority in which relatives will inherit, with surviving parents positioned at the head of the list, followed by brothers and sisters and so on.

Should you have a lawful partner and offspring then your spouse will receive the specific amount as above and half of the remainder. The children would inherit 50% of the total over the threshold immediately and the other 50% on the death of your spouse.

Should you have children but no legal partner, then your offspring would divide the inheritance. This might not be at all what you’d have expected. You might have a partner who depends on you and who you would have intended to receive at least part of your belongings, who would get nothing.

To remove all potential worry about your assets, regardless of how straightforward it may seem, it would be wise to construct a will. There are various ways to do this. You may write it yourself or use a trained will agent or a solicitor.

Often people draw up their own last will and testament, mostly using a template which you can buy from stationers. Take care should you go down this path – it’s surprisingly easy to make an error and you could even make it void. The cost of having a will written, especially a somewhat basic one, is not exorbitant and you can be confident that your wishes will be realised.

A trained will company or a solicitor will be used to processing all forms of queries and will be able to assist you. There could be enquiries regarding setting up trusts and perhaps inheritance tax.
Having constructed your last will and testament, it’s a prudent decision to reassess it periodically, as circumstances change. If you conclude to change it, then it is prudent to nullify your earlier one and have it remade. If the amendments are minor, it could be more straight forward to draw up a codicil to form a part of the last will and testament and to be used in conjunction with it. Any codicil will have to be written in the same method as the will in regards to signatures and witnesses.

Please be aware that any health insurance will terminate on the death of the will holder and no value will be attributed to It in the will.