Advice
Excluding someone from your Will should be relatively straightforward if you live in England or Wales. Unlike many other countries, there is no forced heirship here. But it needs to be done properly. Otherwise claims may be made in court. It’s best to include a clause in your Will specifically naming the person you wish…
Messy business – divorce. The Office for National Statistics reckons 42% of all marriages end in court. But there is some good news. The 90,871 divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2018 was the lowest since 1971. Still sad, though. So what happens to your Will when the Decree Absolute drops through your letterbox? Funnily enough,…
While you may envisage endless years of gazing dreamily into each other’s eyes, there are practicalities around marriage that should be addressed. One that’s often bottom of the to-do list is updating your Will. When you get married, any Will is revoked. Like Monty Python’s parrot, it is no more, it has ceased to be.…
Anyone can be named as a beneficiary in your will – as long as you live in England. Many other countries have different laws, often referred to as forced heirship. As you might expect, the rules can change as you cross borders. In Scotland, your immediate family has legal rights even if they are not…
Legal stuff may be hard to read and even harder to understand. But a lot of it is actually based on good old common sense. Take witnessing the signing of a will, for example. If the will is contested in court, the two independent witnesses may also be called to testify that everything was done…
What happens to your personal belongings after your death is entirely up to you – as long as you have made a will. You may want your diaries and fading love letters piled on a bonfire to save embarrassment. You may want your bits and bobs given to charity. You may want everything sold and…
Online applications for grants of probate should be processed within eight weeks, the government now says. But don’t forget that a huge amount of work has to be completed beforehand. The estate must be valued. That means contacting the deceased person’s bank, building society and any other financial institutions to discover their work at time…
Probate is the official proving of a will – which probably leaves you none the wiser. In layman’s terms, probate is the whole process of dealing with the estate of someone who has died. Many people believe that as long as they are named as an executor in a will, they can just plough on…
We’ve previously explained that you can’t leave money in your will to your cat or dog as pets are classed as personal possessions. But what you can do is leave money to a friend or family member so they can care for them. If you are bequeathing your pets to a named person in your…
Reserves are vital when running the Bank of England or managing a football team or choosing executors. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street must be able to handle runs on sterling and Pep Guardiola needs to have a handful of multi-million-pound stars on the bench in case of injury. And yet many people pick only…