Last month we wrote about the need to have the capacity to make a Will, and now we are turning our attention to what a Will needs to contain.
Firstly, the Will needs to appoint the Executors; these are the people who will run your estate after death.
Choosing your Executors carefully is very important as, effectively, they will be in charge of implementing your wishes. We will look at Executors, in more detail, in coming months.
You then need to decide if you want to make specific gifts to anybody. This could be artefacts, such as jewellery, or a lump sum of money. Anybody, or any organisation, can be included. This is a good place to include gifts to grandchildren and charities, for example.
Consideration needs to be given to any valuation assets e.g., your house. Who gets this after your death? You could, for example, give somebody the right to live in the house whilst they are alive (e.g., your spouse) but then on their death, you specify where it goes.
Finally, you need to consider what happens to the rest of your Estate. This is known as the “residue”.
Your residue is what is left after the rest of the assets have been given away. In this section, we would normally be looking at percentage, e.g. to my children equally, or 20% to A, 30% to B, 50% to C. The important point here is that it must add up to 100%.
The final and very important part of the process is that you must sign your Will, and in the presence of two witnesses who must actually be with you when it is signed.
Worth bearing in mind is that a witness cannot be a beneficiary in a Will, so do choose them carefully.
As you can see, there is a great deal of formality that comes with the drafting of a Will. It is possible to do a DIY Will, but they can easily go wrong. A read of our Probate column this month will highlight the dangers of even a simple mistake.
For advice and help in making a Will, contact Carol George on 01480 426500 or email carol.george@georgehay.co.uk.
GH Wills Ltd is a company controlled by the members of George Hay Partnership LLP.
