Wills

A Will, properly draw up by a solicitor, ensures that on your death your estate will be dealt with in accordance with your wishes with the minimum of delay or distress and without unnecessary expense. There are many reasons why everyone should make a Will. These are just a few:

You can ensure that your estate will pass to your intended beneficiaries. It is a popular belief, for example, that on the death of a husband his whole estate will pass automatically to his wife. Not necessarily so! On intestacy (which is where there is no Will) a widow has certain prior and legal rights but after they are paid the remainder of the estate will go to any children or even to parents and siblings of the deceased in preference to the widow.

In your Will you will appoint an Executor or Executors of your choice. Your Executors may be family, your solicitor or someone else. It is the duty of the Executors to see that the terms of the Will are carried out and to deal with any legal formalities. If you have not made a Will an Executor will have to be appointed by the court. This will incur delay and expense that can be avoided if there is a Will.

Where your beneficiaries are children you can incorporate in your Will Trust provisions to deal with their shares until they come of age.

You can take steps in your Will to make sure that there is as little Inheritance Tax payable as possible thus leaving more for your beneficiaries.

You can appoint legal guardians for your children.

If you do not make a will, and there is no surviving spouse, it will be necessary to obtain a Bond of Caution - a type of insurance indemnity - before the estate can be administered. The single premium for this is usually several hundred pounds.

If you marry or divorce, under Scots Law, your existing Will remains valid. It is therefore important to update your Will if circumstances change.