The common reasons to write a Will

Have you ever asked yourself why you need to write a Will?

1. Protect the assets that you have worked so hard to build during your lifetime. It might also be an inheritance that your parents worked hard to build that you would like to pass down to your loved ones.
2. Retain control over your assets and who inherits as oppose to the government deciding through the laws of intestacy.
3. Appoint people you trust in your Will to administer your estate (take care of your affairs), to appoint guardians in your Will for your minor children and to provide certainty from the grave as to where you would like your assets to go.
4. Protect vulnerable beneficiaries. This might be someone who is not able to look after themselves and needs financial support.
5. Cater for funeral wishes and decide what happens to you in terms of organ donation.
6. People often forget to write when they are divorced. It is really important to renew or write a Will after such a life-changing event.

There are, of course, more reasons to write your Will and using a practice like Lawrence Legacy will mean that your affairs are taken care of, that you get peace of mind and that your loved ones will understand exactly what your intentions were.

Reasons why parents need Wills

We would do anything for our children, wouldn’t we? Writing your Will is one of the most rewarding things you can do for them. It has 3 main benefits that protect us as a parent.

1. We can appoint guardians for our children so that they will have a legally appointed carer chosen by us if something happened to us. Without a Will, then a court will decide who raises them and they may be taken into care. Someone we don’t know may then raise our children and it’s unlikely they will raise them in the same way we would want. A Will provides this certainty.
2. We can provide for our children in a Will by making sure that our share in a house or our money goes to our children. If they are not old enough to manage that responsibility, someone we trust and elect, will.
3. We can protect our children’s inheritance against remarriage. Let us suggest that we pass away. We need to ensure that what we have worked hard for (our house, our money etc) is not lost should our spouse remarry. If they did but they died first, without a Will, their new spouse would inherit, and our children could lose out entirely. This is all too common.

These are three of the most important reasons to write a Will as a parent.

Business Owners need Wills too

Businesses are one of the things that are often forgotten when it comes to estate planning, but a business is a valuable asset that often needs protecting. With different company structures in place and with differing business motivations, writing a ‘business Will’ helps your business partners, staff and of course your loved ones understand what you would like to happen to your interest in the business in the event of your demise.

Your business succession planning might mean that you provide instructions as to how you would like the business to continue without you; who would retain control, what happens to your shares or what the business would be worth. It might be that you empower people to continue the business without you. Business succession planning is crucial, and Lawrence Legacy can help put these safeguards in place.

We can’t prevent death, but we can work with you to prevent unintended consequences. It all starts with a conversation and knowledge.

Written by Jude Rhodes MSWW Director of Lawrence Legacy – find their contact information in The Hug Directory – Contact Jude today – she works with people across the UK

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