A will is a legal document which sets out who you would like to benefit from your estate – be it property, savings, investments, or personal possessions – after you pass away
A critical action that every parent or homeowner should tackle without delay – to ensure their loved ones aren’t left in the lurch – has come to light.
A staggering 50 per cent of adults over 30 are yet to draft a will, an essential step for securing an estate. Legal expert Melinda Giles has handled countless situations where absent, outdated, or invalid wills have left families in turmoil Recalling her experience, she said: “I’ve seen first-hand the devastating impact of a will not being in place. I recently worked with a family whose relative had passed away, leaving behind a significant estate.
“Before she died, she’d started the process of making a will, but she sadly lost capacity and died before it was signed. This meant the estate went back to the crown.”
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The cost of drafting a will can vary, often landing somewhere between £150 and £500 depending on its intricacy. Moreover, every March and October, the public can take advantage of Free Wills Month, a highlight from Martin Lewis and his team at Money Saving Expert.
The campaign provides an opportunity for individuals to have a solicitor-drafted (or updated) will for free, with charities hopeful for bequests as revealed by the famous faces from the BBC and ITV, reports Birmingham Live.
The scheme is targeted at those who are at least 55 years old; in the case of couples seeking ‘mirror wills,’ just one partner needs to meet the age requirement. However, participants must first verify if their region is participating in the offer during either the March or October periods, Lewis’ expert team notes.
Participating locations for March’s event span across the UK, with Aberdeen, Barry, Bedfordshire, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bristol, Cardiff, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dundee, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Essex, Fife, Glasgow, Harrogate, Hastings, Hertfordshire, Inverness, Kent, and Kilmarnock all joining in.
Completing the line-up are cities and regions such as Leeds, Liverpool, London, Mid Wales, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Wales, Northamptonshire, Norwich, Perth, Sheffield, Sunderland, Surrey, Swansea, Wirral and Wolverhampton.
However, some areas including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Chichester, Coventry, Crawley, Horsham, Peterborough, and Worthing, are also taking part but have reached full capacity.
MSE adds: “You’ll be asked to leave money to a charity in your will (‘a bequest’). Typically people leave between £300 and £1,000, or you could leave a small percentage of your estate instead – but the decision is yours. You don’t have to leave anything if you don’t want to.”