An expert lawyer has warned the soaring popularity of free-will writing services could see families miss out on their inheritance. In recent years, many leading charities have begun offering people the chance to have a legacy drawn up without cost in exchange for leaving a sum to the organisation.
But this could leave those making these types of wills more vulnerable to their wishes going unfulfilled it has been claimed. This is because people think that all wills do the same thing so tend not to pay more to have a bespoke will prepared, however free wills tend to be basic in nature and may offer little protection from the twists and turns of modern family life.
Paul King, founder and CEO of will specialists April King Legal, said: “British people are renowned for being incredibly generous and many of us like to leave money in our wills for charities and causes close to our hearts. This is an important tradition for us to uphold, but we must be careful exactly how we do it or we can leave our families at risk of a range of problems after we die.
“A basic ‘mirror will’ leaving everything to your spouse/partner initially before the children may inadvertently end up gifting everything to a new spouse/partner of the surviving spouse/partner. This is because a remarriage would usually cancel any will the surviving spouse had previously made with the deceased spouse/partner and make the new spouse/partner next in line to inherit.
“There has been a huge rise in the number of charities offering free will-writing services in recent years, where the organisation offers to help you declare your wishes without charge in return for perhaps a donation to their cause.
“However, a will is an incredibly important legal document and if you have a house and children I would normally advise that it should only be done by lawyers who are familiar with more comprehensive wills to include bloodline trusts. A specialist estate lawyer can help you devise a bespoke will that ensures you are able to leave a suitable amount of money to your favoured charities while also ensuring your estate is laid out exactly as you want it.”
A will is a legal document that sets out your wishes for what happens to your assets such as property and money when you die. It is also used to determine what happens to your dependents if, for example, there is a need to appoint a legal guardian for an underage child.
Failing to create a will can pose a major headache for would-be beneficiaries as it can leave your estate open to claims from predatory or hostile third parties such as a child’s creditors or even an estranged son-in-law or daughter-in-law seeking to divorce and in turn secure a share of the inherited estate.
Mr King added: “There are all sorts of problems that a family can face if great care and consideration is not taken when drawing up a legacy plan, including particular focus on bloodline planning to protect the children’s inheritance from divorce or creditors.
“A basic free will may not take into account important factors such as inheritance tax, long-term care fees or what may happen if your partner remarries after you die. This could leave your family vulnerable to losing large sums of money and even spark legal battles over your estate.
“Emotions often drive the decisions we make when we are setting out our legacies, deciding who should get what and when they should get it. But such an important task should be dealt with logically, not sentimentally, as getting it wrong can leave your nearest and dearest with serious legal problems after you’ve gone.
“For example, clients often appoint just one child to be their executors because that child is local, not realising that the other child or children are then excluded from early access to developments and information when the will is needed.
“It would usually be better to appoint all the children as executors for the sake of fairness even if some of the children end up not acting or being involved at all. These are the type of conversations we have on a daily basis”.
April King Legal was established in 1991 to provide advice for clients from all walks of life on wills and other legal documents to preserve more of their assets for future generations.
