I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to review a will writing service recently and although making a will is one of those things that people often put off it is a really important thing to do. Why?
Well going through the process thoroughly has really made me consider the implications of not making a will and quite frankly without one it does make life more difficult for the people left behind if you don’t.
The most important reason for me and particularly if you have children, is that it gives you some control over who has what. If you die without a will there are certain intestacy rules that apply and your estate may not be divided up the way that you would like it to be. This can be particularly significant if your partner remarries or you have children from a previous relationship. It also allows you to leave particular items of emotional or physical value to specific people.
Again if you have children, it allows you to appoint guardians for your children. My husband and I had to discuss the ‘what if something happened to both of us …’ and although it is a terribly morbid thing to have to discuss, we really thought long and hard about who we would want to look after our children and not necessarily our parents either as they are all in their sixties.
When you make a will, you have to decide on and name the executors of the will and by doing this, you can ensure that people that you know and love and most importantly trust, will be in charge of sorting everything out if you are no longer there.
If you’re not married, a will once again can ensure that part of or all of your estate can be left to them as without it, they may not receive anything.
If you don’t make a will this can lead to big deep rooted family disputes and I have sadly seen first hand how damaging that can be to a family already struggling to deal with the loss of a loved one. Of course there can always be a will dispute, but having a will in place really does give you peace of mind.
I have received compensation for writing this post.
