Everyone will shortly be talking about their New Year Resolutions for 2025. It is easy to get caught up in all the exciting things that you might have planned for the year ahead, but it would also be sensible to include preparing or reviewing your Will and Powers of Attorney in that list too.
Why Should I Review my Will?
We suggest that you should review your Will every 3-5 years, or sooner if your financial or family circumstances change. For example, there might have been changes to your financial circumstances, your family make up i.e. more children or grandchildren, your health or a relationship.
If you haven’t reviewed or updated your Will in the last few years, or if some of these life events have taken place for you recently, then it may be that your Will would no longer reflect what your wishes would now be.
Even if there haven’t been any significant life events for you, then you should still consider reviewing your Will, in case there are other things that you may now wish to do, such as protecting your assets for children from a previous relationship, or against a potential change in your spouse’s financial circumstances or care fees later.
Of course, if you’re unmarried but have a long-term partner then you’d also need to have a Will in place to ensure that they actually benefit from you following your death.
Preparing a Will is also an opportunity to review the level of your assets and consider whether any estate planning is required to mitigate inheritance tax.
What if I Don’t Have a Will?
If you don’t have a Will when you die, or if your Will is invalid for any reason, then you will die Intestate which means that the Intestacy Rules will determine who will deal with your estate after your death and who will inherit from you.
This could mean that wider family, or perhaps estranged family members, may inherit or must deal with your affairs. If there aren’t any family members alive at the time of your death, then your assets will pass to the Crown.
Unmarried partners and stepchildren do not inherit under the Intestacy Rules
What About Lasting Powers of Attorney?
When preparing or reviewing your Will, you should also consider Lasting Powers of Attorney.
Lasting Powers of Attorney are the legal documents required to give others authority to make decisions about your finances and your health; if there comes a time when you are unable to make these decisions for yourself.
If you do not have Lasting Powers of Attorney in place and you lose your mental capacity, then your loved ones may need to make an application to the Court of Protection to enable someone to make these decisions for you. This is time consuming and costly application, so it is generally better to make sure that you have Lasting Powers of Attorney in place.
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For further information, please contact Charlotte on freephone 0800 011 6666 or via email at legal@timms-law.com.
