Wills and Trusts - any basic guidelines?
Discussion
My wife and I are drawing up general themes for our wills (yes, should have got these done a long time ago).
We are pretty comfortable with the terms of the wills i.e. transfer everything to the other spouse, executors, guardians for our children etc.
It's trusts we are less sure about.
I know guardians and trustees should not be the same people and that the trustees should be financially savvy.
Presumably we would do something like put the sales value of our house in the event of death and sale in a fund to provide for education etc.
But would we also want to create an extra income stream for the guardians to pay for the day-to-day maintenance of the children?
I have no idea how this works and thought I would ask resident PH experts before I burn my wallet picking the phone up to my solicitor!
We are pretty comfortable with the terms of the wills i.e. transfer everything to the other spouse, executors, guardians for our children etc.
It's trusts we are less sure about.
I know guardians and trustees should not be the same people and that the trustees should be financially savvy.
Presumably we would do something like put the sales value of our house in the event of death and sale in a fund to provide for education etc.
But would we also want to create an extra income stream for the guardians to pay for the day-to-day maintenance of the children?
I have no idea how this works and thought I would ask resident PH experts before I burn my wallet picking the phone up to my solicitor!
Trustees do have to be financially savvy and trustable but trustees and guardians can be the same people if you are really stuck for options, there is no legal conflict there, just a moral one. It makes sense to have one independent trustee if you can though to ensure fair play etc.
If you put a trust into a Will depending on the type of trust you would normally include (as a separate document) a letter of wishes and you can give guidance to your trustees as to what you would like to happen in the event of your death, you can put in things like renting out a property to create an income for the guardians etc, etc.
A cheap way of providing an income stream is via a life assurance policy, particularly an family income benefit type plan, this will provide an income to your guardians in the event you and the Mrs die together, they are usually pretty cheap too, and it keeps the estate in tact as assets don't need to be sold in order to pay guardians.
If you put a trust into a Will depending on the type of trust you would normally include (as a separate document) a letter of wishes and you can give guidance to your trustees as to what you would like to happen in the event of your death, you can put in things like renting out a property to create an income for the guardians etc, etc.
A cheap way of providing an income stream is via a life assurance policy, particularly an family income benefit type plan, this will provide an income to your guardians in the event you and the Mrs die together, they are usually pretty cheap too, and it keeps the estate in tact as assets don't need to be sold in order to pay guardians.
If you think drawing up a will burns your wallet, wait til you try and resolve a dispute arising from a badly drafted will. Seriously, if you have guardianship, trusts or anything other than a basic mirror will to execute, go and see a solicitor. It'll cost you a couple of hundred quid, and you'll get a proper job done.
Sid's Dad said:
If you think drawing up a will burns your wallet, wait til you try and resolve a dispute arising from a badly drafted will. Seriously, if you have guardianship, trusts or anything other than a basic mirror will to execute, go and see a solicitor. It'll cost you a couple of hundred quid, and you'll get a proper job done.
Mirror Wills with trusts will a bit more than £200. Mirror Wills WITHOUT trusts will be £200.Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff