Wills are offered as a loss leader by many solicitors and
will writers in the hope that they will eventually profit from being the ones
to deal with your estate. As a result, this important service has been devalued
to such an extent that many clients are reluctant to pay for something that
they assume involves nothing more than ‘filling in the blanks’. If only it were
so easy!
In order to give you good advice, we have to ask you
questions. Lots of questions. You might find some of them awkward or intrusive
but, without this information, we can’t do our job properly.
So, what do we need to know? Well, it may seem obvious but
we need to get an idea of your financial position. Clients notoriously
undervalue their estates by forgetting life assurance policies; death in
service benefits; sums payable under pension policies; a potential inheritance
from a relative etc. By asking the right questions, we can give you the right
advice. Take some recent clients: their combined estates amounted to c.£750,000
but individually, the husband’s was worth £50k and the wife’s £700k. By
removing just a few words (‘provided s/he survives me for 30 days’) from their
existing wills, we potentially saved them £130,000 in Inheritance Tax.
Even if your estate is far more modest, we’ll still ask you
questions. Things like, ‘do you have any children from previous relationships?’.
You may have been thinking that the only way to balance the needs and
expectations of both parties would be to leave everything to the surviving
spouse on the understanding that they provide for your children in their will.
We can talk you through other options.
And, the crux of it all – what do you want to achieve? Do
you want to ensure a child doesn’t have access to their inheritance until
they’re, say 18 or 21? To simply include a direction that funds shouldn’t be
paid over until a child reaches a certain age will be completely ineffective,
unless you include further trust provisions.
Of course it’s tempting to go for the cheapest option,
especially if you think your circumstances are pretty straightforward. In my
experience, there are lots of things clients don’t even realise they need to
think about and the examples above only scratch the surface.
What I’m really trying to say is, don’t mistake ‘cheap’ for
‘good value’. You should leave our office feeling confident you’ve made the
best possible provision for the people you care about.
Sophie
