Help writing my will
Discussion
I need to write a will - does anybody on PH provide this service? Drop me a line if you do (obviously I'm paying, I don't want a freebie)! The online ones seem rubbish.
Also, a few questions:
I have a life insurance 'thing' with work - 4x my salary is paid when I croak, but I have to fill in an expression of wishes form which states where is goes. Is this outside my will and not part of my estate to be split up?
I have a watch collection which I'd like splitting between a few people, but I may well have sold/traded/changed individual watches as I do chop and change a bit. How would you deal with this? I thought about listing the people I wanted to have things, then giving an order they can choose them in - would this work?
I have some extra life insurance, which is linked to my flat and will pay that off. Hopefully its just a case of leaving my flat to whoever I want, rather than mentioning the insurance policy?
My pension - I have a bit tucked away in a couple of pensions. When I kick the bucket, can this amount be passed on? would it be passed on as cash or as pensions?
Thanks all. Cheerfully, I am worth substantially more dead than alive, which is nice
Also, a few questions:
I have a life insurance 'thing' with work - 4x my salary is paid when I croak, but I have to fill in an expression of wishes form which states where is goes. Is this outside my will and not part of my estate to be split up?
I have a watch collection which I'd like splitting between a few people, but I may well have sold/traded/changed individual watches as I do chop and change a bit. How would you deal with this? I thought about listing the people I wanted to have things, then giving an order they can choose them in - would this work?
I have some extra life insurance, which is linked to my flat and will pay that off. Hopefully its just a case of leaving my flat to whoever I want, rather than mentioning the insurance policy?
My pension - I have a bit tucked away in a couple of pensions. When I kick the bucket, can this amount be passed on? would it be passed on as cash or as pensions?
Thanks all. Cheerfully, I am worth substantially more dead than alive, which is nice
I'll respond to some of the issues that you have raised.
1. Regarding your company provided life cover, this will only be in place for so long as you are employed by them. It will end when you leave their employment. The life cover is a lump sum death in service benefit and it is written under a formal discretionary trust. This means that in the event of your death the life cover is first in the hands of the trustees. They must then make appropriate enquires as to your circumstances AS AT THE TIME OF YOUR DEATH and then they must decide how to distribute the life cover among the wide class of beneficiairies as set out in the trust deed. Usually, this means the life cover will be paid to your dependents. The trustees can pay all of it to one dependent, or split it up and pay several dependents different amounts, as they so decide. So, the trustees apply their disretion as to who will receive the life cover and also how much of it each person will receive. You have been asked to fill in an expression of wish form. Should you die the trustees will seek this document as it gives them AN INDICATION of what you'd like to happen. Note that this indication will be at the time that you complete the form, not at the time you die, so the trustees can only use it as a guide. It's essential that if your circumstances change, or you wish to change what you previously indicated, that you complete a new expression of wish form. Note that the expression of wish form is only a guide and is in no way binding on the trustees. Why have in place what seems to be a cumbersome system? Easy answer: by making payments in this way direct to the beneficiaries and outside your estate, inheritence tax is avoided and payments can be made speedily. All of this is typical practice, by the way.
2. I too have a small watch collection. In my Will I have itemsised each watch and to whom I wish it to be passed on. I expect my executors to follow my directions, as they are legally required to do. In fact, you can do this within a Will with any item. If you change your collection you will need to change your Will. Of course, you could not mention these items in your Will if you are prepared to accept the uncertainty that comes with this.
3. The life cover linked to your flat sounds like a regular term assurance policy maybe with a decreasing sum assured. If so, the aim is to have a lump sum provided when you die such lump sum being about the same as the outstanding amount of the mortgage. Whatever it is, in law the destination of the life cover and the destination of the ownership of the flat will need to be separated as they are separate items.
4. Regarding the other pensions, what happens on death will depend on what features are associated with these pensions. If they are simply pots of money it may be the case that the pot will be dealt with in a similar way to the life cover in 1. above. It could be that there's associated widow's pension rights with these pots and that they come into force on your death, meaning some form of benefit will be paid to your surviving wife. There's a number of possibilities so you'll need to look at the features of each pot.
Hope this helps.
R.
1. Regarding your company provided life cover, this will only be in place for so long as you are employed by them. It will end when you leave their employment. The life cover is a lump sum death in service benefit and it is written under a formal discretionary trust. This means that in the event of your death the life cover is first in the hands of the trustees. They must then make appropriate enquires as to your circumstances AS AT THE TIME OF YOUR DEATH and then they must decide how to distribute the life cover among the wide class of beneficiairies as set out in the trust deed. Usually, this means the life cover will be paid to your dependents. The trustees can pay all of it to one dependent, or split it up and pay several dependents different amounts, as they so decide. So, the trustees apply their disretion as to who will receive the life cover and also how much of it each person will receive. You have been asked to fill in an expression of wish form. Should you die the trustees will seek this document as it gives them AN INDICATION of what you'd like to happen. Note that this indication will be at the time that you complete the form, not at the time you die, so the trustees can only use it as a guide. It's essential that if your circumstances change, or you wish to change what you previously indicated, that you complete a new expression of wish form. Note that the expression of wish form is only a guide and is in no way binding on the trustees. Why have in place what seems to be a cumbersome system? Easy answer: by making payments in this way direct to the beneficiaries and outside your estate, inheritence tax is avoided and payments can be made speedily. All of this is typical practice, by the way.
2. I too have a small watch collection. In my Will I have itemsised each watch and to whom I wish it to be passed on. I expect my executors to follow my directions, as they are legally required to do. In fact, you can do this within a Will with any item. If you change your collection you will need to change your Will. Of course, you could not mention these items in your Will if you are prepared to accept the uncertainty that comes with this.
3. The life cover linked to your flat sounds like a regular term assurance policy maybe with a decreasing sum assured. If so, the aim is to have a lump sum provided when you die such lump sum being about the same as the outstanding amount of the mortgage. Whatever it is, in law the destination of the life cover and the destination of the ownership of the flat will need to be separated as they are separate items.
4. Regarding the other pensions, what happens on death will depend on what features are associated with these pensions. If they are simply pots of money it may be the case that the pot will be dealt with in a similar way to the life cover in 1. above. It could be that there's associated widow's pension rights with these pots and that they come into force on your death, meaning some form of benefit will be paid to your surviving wife. There's a number of possibilities so you'll need to look at the features of each pot.
Hope this helps.
R.
Maxf said:
I need to write a will - does anybody on PH provide this service? Drop me a line if you do (obviously I'm paying, I don't want a freebie)! The online ones seem rubbish.
Also, a few questions:
I have a life insurance 'thing' with work - 4x my salary is paid when I croak, but I have to fill in an expression of wishes form which states where is goes. Is this outside my will and not part of my estate to be split up?
I have a watch collection which I'd like splitting between a few people, but I may well have sold/traded/changed individual watches as I do chop and change a bit. How would you deal with this? I thought about listing the people I wanted to have things, then giving an order they can choose them in - would this work?
I have some extra life insurance, which is linked to my flat and will pay that off. Hopefully its just a case of leaving my flat to whoever I want, rather than mentioning the insurance policy?
My pension - I have a bit tucked away in a couple of pensions. When I kick the bucket, can this amount be passed on? would it be passed on as cash or as pensions?
Thanks all. Cheerfully, I am worth substantially more dead than alive, which is nice
Good responses from the leaper.Also, a few questions:
I have a life insurance 'thing' with work - 4x my salary is paid when I croak, but I have to fill in an expression of wishes form which states where is goes. Is this outside my will and not part of my estate to be split up?
I have a watch collection which I'd like splitting between a few people, but I may well have sold/traded/changed individual watches as I do chop and change a bit. How would you deal with this? I thought about listing the people I wanted to have things, then giving an order they can choose them in - would this work?
I have some extra life insurance, which is linked to my flat and will pay that off. Hopefully its just a case of leaving my flat to whoever I want, rather than mentioning the insurance policy?
My pension - I have a bit tucked away in a couple of pensions. When I kick the bucket, can this amount be passed on? would it be passed on as cash or as pensions?
Thanks all. Cheerfully, I am worth substantially more dead than alive, which is nice
First of all, i'm not a financial adviser but would like to clarify a couple of points.
With the life cover linked to your flat it depends if the cover is in trust or not as to whether it will form part of your estate. I think that it could be argued that it should be in trust and therefore it should go to whoever is named in the trust rather than your will. You need to check if it's in trust or not.
With your pensions the answer is it depends. If they are defined contribution pensions which from how you've described them they sound like they are (rather than a final salary pension) then you will again have completed an expression of wishes form stating what you'd like to happen to them. Very generally speaking, if you die before taking benefits then they will be passed on as a tax free lump sum outside of your estate. Again, what it states in your will is not likely to matter. However, once you take the benefits then what happens then depends on what you chose at that time. An annuity or drawdown are two common options.
I hope that helps.
Newc said:
On the watch thing, you can structure your will to have an appendix page which sets out who gets which watch. You can change the appendix whenever you like without changing the will itself. Can't remember the exact legal term for this but your solicitor will sort it.
Its called an Expression of WishesSteve
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