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Choosing Executors

Choosing Executors

When appointing Executors, think carefully especially if your Will is to be drafted by a Charity or solicitors that they instruct to draft a Will on your behalf.

If you have relatives, be it, children, nieces, nephews, to mention but a few, they are preferable as Executors to appointing a Charity especially if you have given them gifts in your Will.

If you appoint a Charity, your loved ones might find the process of contacting the Charity to chase the administration of the estate time consuming and tedious.

Lastly, your loved ones might end up getting less of your estate that you anticipated because professional Executors have to be paid for administering your estate whereas your relatives do not.

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Wills, Intestacy and Probate

If your loved one does not leave a Will, then government rules dictate how their money, property or possessions will be distributed. This may not be what he or she wished.
 
Unmarried couples and partners who have not registered a civil partnership cannot inherit from each other unless they have a Will.
 
If a person dies and does not have surviving relatives who can inherit under the intestacy rules, then the estate passes to the Crown. The person may have had strong friendships or preferred charities whom might have benefited instead.
 
Most people put off making a Will. For example, Prince, the famous musician, died without leaving one. As a result, a bank is administering his estate which will be slow, expensive and impersonal. His relatives will not have a say in how the estate is administered, or worse, will perhaps enter into their own legal challenges.
 
According to the Citizens Advice Bureau statistics, 3,747 people contacted them in 2015 regarding their loved one’s estate because they had not left a Will. They required advice regarding administering the estate.
 
 

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Do I require a Will and if so what type

Your personal circumstances determine the kind of Will you need. If you have assets valued at £5000 or under, then you will probably require a simple Will.

If your assets are over £5000, your beneficiaries will require a Grant of Probate to administer your estate. For example, a bank will require that document before they can release the money to you. If you have a Will, the process may be simple because your Executors can administer your estate themselves. This means that your Will would enable them to find out your assets and pay any debts you have before distributing your estate.

If you are not married or in a civil partnership and you do not have a Will, your circumstances may require that you have a more in depth Will.

If, for example, your estate is more than £325,000, you might require a tax planning Will to ensure that your estate does not pay inheritance tax unnecessarily. You might also use a Will to protect a share of your assets from care fees if you are married and own your property jointly.

If you do not have a Will, the government states who gets your estate and in what order. If your relatives can not be traced, then your estate will go to the government.

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February 2016 news

Living Wills

A tool has been created to help people control end-of-life decisions. My Living Will is an online tool that provides information about an advance decision and advance statement. It enables a person to create a personalised advance decision to refuse treatment.

Pensions

The Chancellor is expected to abolish the tiered system of tax relief which depends on a person’s income. It will be substituted with a single flat-rate system.

These changes will end the anomaly in the pensions system which benefits higher earners. Currently, if a basic rate taxpayer pays 80p to a pension, the government adds an extra 20p, which is equivalent to their 20% tax rate. Additional rate taxpayers, however, receive a 40–45% top up. Commentators believe a single rate of around 33% is more likely.

Inheritance Tax

HMRC has announced that it is now standard policy to impose severe penalties on recipients of potentially exempt transfers who do not declare the gift to the deceased’s personal representative. The penalties will be at least 50% of the unpaid tax.

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