Wills & Estates
Making a will yourself, and when not to
Home-made and online wills are valid in principle and they are where most of the disputes come from. Knowing which situations are straightforward is what determines whether to risk it.
Wills & Estates
Drafting, witnessing, probate and the usual mistakes.
Wills & Estates
The annual review: half an hour, once a year
Plans go out of date silently. A short annual check catches the things that have changed and prevents most of the problems on this site.
Wills & Estates
Life insurance and death benefits
Insurance and pension death benefits frequently pass outside the will, which makes the beneficiary form more consequential than the will itself for those assets.
Wills & Estates
What happens to the animals
Pets are property in law, they are family in fact, and the gap between those two positions produces some genuinely bad outcomes.
Wills & Estates
Leaving money to charity
Charitable legacies are a substantial source of funding for the voluntary sector and a common source of family dispute, and both facts are worth knowing.
Wills & Estates
The letter of wishes, and who gets the clock
Disputes over personal possessions are more common and more bitter than disputes over money, and a short informal document prevents most of them.
Wills & Estates
Assets in another country
Cross-border estates are considerably more complicated than domestic ones, and the complications are frequently discovered by an executor rather than anticipated by the testator.
Wills & Estates
When a will is challenged
Disputes over wills are expensive, slow and destructive, and most of them arise from a small number of avoidable circumstances.
Wills & Estates
Estate and inheritance tax: the general shape
Systems differ enormously and a few structural features recur. Knowing which type of system applies to you determines what planning is even relevant.
Wills & Estates
Trusts: when they are worth the complexity
Trusts are marketed heavily and needed by a minority. Knowing the problems they actually solve is the fastest way to work out whether you have one of them.
Wills & Estates
Probate: what the process actually involves
The legal process of administering an estate takes longer than families expect, and understanding the sequence makes the delay less alarming.
Wills & Estates
Choosing an executor, and what you are actually asking
The job involves months of administration, legal responsibility, and frequently the management of family disappointment. Most people appoint on the basis of affection.
Wills & Estates
Dying without a will: what actually happens
Intestacy rules decide who inherits when there is no will, and they frequently produce results that bear no relation to what the person would have chosen.