More than 50% of UK adults don't have a will. Do you? If not, when you die, you risk your money, property and possessions being shared out according to the law of the land, rather than your wishes.
At Protego-te, we believe everyone should have a will. By law it ensures your property and possessions go to the people or organisations you care about. We provide professional advice on wills. With proper planning and a professionally written will by our legal team, you can ensure your wishes are carried out. This is how to help safeguard your family’s future.
Get in touch using the form opposite and one of our wills experts will contact you to give you more information and answer any questions you might have.
A will is a legally binding document that lets you decide how your estate will be handled after your death. If you die without a will, there's no guarantee your wishes will be carried out.
A will avoids the drawn out probate process which can be distressing and frustrating to those you leave behind. With a will the courts know exactly how you want your estate to be divided.
Taxes can eat away a sizeable chunk of your estate. A will can help reduce the amount of Inheritance Tax you pay on any property or money you leave behind.
A will lets you appoint guardians to take parental responsibility for children who are under 18, until they come of age.
A will ensures you can continue supporting the causes that are important to you after you're gone. Charitable gifts and donations in a will are typically exempt from Inheritance Tax.
Once you have written a will you can update it anytime as your circumstances may change. For example, if you get married or divorced.
The essential elements are the name, address and marital status of the person making the will (known as the testator) and specific instructions about which property goes to which beneficiaries. This includes the distribution of gifts of which there can be several types. For example, a special gift (a specific item to a named person), a pecuniary gift (a gift of money) and a residual gift (a percentage of the estate after other gifts have been distributed and debts and taxes paid).
The executor of the estate will also be identified as well as the guardian for minor children. A will should also be signed by two witnesses who are over the age of 18. Certain rules govern who can be witnesses. They must not be family members or a spouse/civil partner. Neither should they lack mental capacity or sufficient understanding.
While most people think about making a will at some point during their lives, they often put it off to a later date. However, they never get around to it, assuming their partner or children will inherit everything when they're gone. But it doesn’t work out like that. If someone dies before making a will, this is classed as intestacy or dying intestate. This makes matters a lot more complicated.
The law steps in with a rigid set of rules that decides who gets what and how much, which may not be per your wishes. Spouses, civil partners and biological children are taken care of, but there are no provisions for anybody else. So, cohabiting life partners who were neither married nor in a civil partnership cannot inherit under the rules of intestacy. Neither can step children, close friends, pets or charities.
With our will writing services, our qualified and experienced solicitors will ensure your property, money and possessions go to who you want them to go to, provide advice on minimising inheritance tax, appoint legal guardians for any children who are minors, set up trusts, make sure personal gifts go to the right people and help you choose trusted people as executors to sort out your affairs when you die.
Whether your estate is small, large or complicated, our will writing service is tailored to your needs and is designed to make things very easy for you. We can also help you make business wills, living trusts and living wills.
Business Wills - ensures the smooth transition of ownership if a business partner or principal shareholder dies. A business will can specify funding for the future and the ongoing management and control of the business. It avoids unnecessary complications after the event of death.
Living Wills - this is a legal document that sets out your wishes for your end-of-life care should it ever get to a stage where you are unable to communicate your decisions.
Living Trusts - with this legal document, you can place your assets in a trust to benefit you during your lifetime. Upon your death, they will be transferred to designated beneficiaries. Among the principal advantages of a living trust is that it avoids probate, the court-supervised process of settling a person's estate.
Ensure only people you trust make decisions on your behalf. An LPA enables a trusted person to make decisions on your behalf if you lose mental capacity. In the UK, one person develops dementia every three minutes. Strokes and serious accidents happen all too often as well.
Our futures are uncertain. That's why it's vital to plan in case you become unable to make decisions. We all hope this never happens to us. Just thinking about what would happen if our faculties desert us is uncomfortable, but it's essential to be prepared. it's not just something for the elderly.
Find out more about LPAs >>>