As many as 66 per cent of UK citizens over 55 years old do not have a sufficient will in place.
This is according to a study carried out by Macmillan Cancer Support which surveyed 2,000 people.
The result of not having a will means that an individual’s inheritance, property, vehicles, finances and possessions may not be handed down in the way they would have wanted, giving rise to a number of complications and family feuds.
A will is a legal binding document that allows a person to distribute their wealth and belongings to other friends, family members and organisations when they die. The individual allocates an executor who is responsible for passing on any items or money to the recipients of the will such as children, spouses or friends. There are commonly stories of the deceased passing on all their wealth to charities and dog homes.
The number of people taking wills is frightfully small and means that money can go to unwanted recipients and lead to serious legal battles for relatives over what is rightfully theirs. Importantly, wills become invalid once a person gets married because it is the law that their spouse will get everything.
Therefore, a new will should be formed to include children, friends and other organisations. Also, since we accumulate so much more after time, including cars, jewellery and properties, experts suggest updating your will every 5 years.
In terms of creating a will, naturally, you can just put one together or use online will builders. However, the process of allocating who gets what and how they receive it is a very technical process and would benefit from the use of a professional will writing service.
Some key things that a professional will writer brings to the table includes a very detailed structure to your will, using specific language that avoids further dispute or potential legal battles. The benefit of using a professional is that it does not leave anything ambiguous and they raise very alternative scenarios such as what if you die after the people you want to hand things down to? Do you have any digital assets such as online investments or cryptocurrencies? Have you chosen how you would like your funeral to be?
In terms of making changes to a will, it is not as simple as just ruling it out in a pencil or signing with your initials. Changing a will is a formal process and every change is known as a codicil.
Writing a will may cost just a few hundred pounds and take just a few weeks to complete. However, the short-term cost is well worth the potential headache that you leave behind for your dearest and nearest.
