We have had a flurry of clients recently, who have been given “advice” about Wills, Trusts and Probate by individuals who are not solicitors or indeed any other qualified professional with knowledge and experience of the law around these important issues.
This leads us to ask, where are you getting your information from about these very important matters? From social media? From friends? From your bank? If the advice you receive is from anyone other than a specialist in Wills and Probate Law, then we advise you to be very cautious about following such advice. It may not be correct, or could be incomplete.
Who can best advise me on Wills, Trusts, and Probate matters?
Anyone can advise you, and you can of course get your information from whatever source you choose. However, if the person you are taking advice from is not a qualified solicitor, or other qualified legal professional with experience of Wills and Probate, then you should ask yourself why are they the person you have chosen to seek or accept advice from as opposed to a professional.
Where have they got their information from? Did they get the information from a reliable source with sufficient expertise?
Two recent examples of clients being incorrectly told they either do, or do not, need Wills are:
EXAMPLE 1: Single man, one sister, two nieces and a nephew. His friends told him, very authoritatively, that he needed a Will because he wasn’t married and didn’t have children so the government would get his estate when he died.
This advice is incorrect. Depending on who is alive at the time of his death, his estate will go either to his sister or his nieces and nephew, or their children. The list of people who are entitled to inherit someone’s estate when they die without a Will is a long one and the estate only goes to the Crown in very rare circumstances.
EXAMPLE 2: Couple, with children and grandchildren. Told by an employee at their bank that they don’t need Wills because their accounts at that bank are joint accounts.
Whilst it may be the case that these joint bank accounts will pass to the survivor on the first death, this “advice” does not consider any of the couple’s other assets, Inheritance Tax issues, or what they want to happen on the second death. It may be that after one of them dies, the survivor then makes a Will – but what if they have lost capacity in the meantime? The employee at the bank has no legal qualifications or experience and should not be advising clients on legal matters.
In both cases, the information that the clients have been given was incorrect or incomplete and so they were proceeding on the basis of the wrong advice.
Do I need a Will?
If you are over 18 years old and own anything at all, then in short, yes you do! It is possible that the Intestacy Rules will do exactly what you would want, but this is very rare and, in any event, do you know for sure what happens to your estate if you die without a Will?
Although generally speaking you must be age 18 and over to make a Will, there is an exception for those who enter the Armed Forces. It is essential for those who enter the Armed Forces, irrespective of age, for the service personnel and their spouse to have a Will in place. This means that you can have a Will at age 16 and 17 if you are in the Armed Forces.
What are the Rules of Intestacy?
I’m going to start by saying how important it is to ensure that you have a Will in place. Unfortunately, sometimes our loved ones put this off, believing it to be onerous, or not appreciating that the inevitable is sooner than they thought.
We would always advise carrying out a Will search before assuming an estate is intestate. This can be done by undertaking a search of the National Wills Register.
If you are certain that there is no valid Will, that persons estate will fall under the Rules of Intestacy. This is the law that dictates who is to inherit and indeed, who is entitled to administer the estate.
A blog by Melita Roberts, Associate Solicitor.
What happens if I don’t have a Will?
The main risk of taking advice about your Will from someone who is not qualified to give that advice, is that your wishes won’t be met when you die.
If you do not have a Will in place, which is valid and up to date, then when you die the Intestacy Rules, or an old Will that no longer meets your wishes, will decide what happens to your estate after your death.
This means that either the people you want to inherit might miss out, or those you do not want to inherit might get everything. Why leave this up to chance?
Are Wills complicated?
This entirely depends on your circumstances and wishes.
For many people, a straightforward Will that sets out their chosen Executors (the people who will deal with the estate), funeral wishes and beneficiaries is sufficient to meet with their wishes.
Sometimes, you may want a Trust, advice on business assets, to leave a large number of gifts, or divide your estate in a complex way. Whilst these Wills are more complicated, your solicitor should explain everything to you in terms you understand before you sign the Will.
Whether or not you need a more complex Will is something that your solicitor can discuss with you, but don’t let concern about this stop you from making that first appointment to talk about your Will!
Contact us
☎️ Call our Wakefield office on 01924 290 029
☎️ Call our Garforth office on 0113 246 4423
☎️ Call our Sherburn in Elmet office on 01977 350 500
☎️ Call our Mapplewell office on 01226 339 009
☎️ Call our Ossett office on 01924 586 466
The content of this blog post is for information only and does not constitute formal legal advice and should not be relied upon as advice. Thornton Jones Solicitors Limited accepts no liability for any such reliance upon this content. Where the post includes links to external websites, Thornton Jones Solicitors Limited accepts no responsibility for the content of such sites. Any link to a third-party website should not be construed as endorsement by Thornton Jones Solicitors Limited of any content, products or services which are outside our direct control.
