Putting it off could mean that your spouse receives less
\nIt\u2019s easy to put off making a will. But if you die without one your assets may be distributed according to the law rather than your wishes. This could mean that your spouse receives less, or that the money goes to family members who may not need it.<\/p>\n
There are lots of good financial reasons for making a will:<\/strong><\/p>\n you can decide how your assets are shared out, if you don\u2019t make a will, the law says who gets what<\/p>\n if you aren\u2019t married or in a civil partnership (whether or not it\u2019s a same sex relationship) your partner will not inherit automatically, so you can make sure your partner is provided for<\/p>\n if you\u2019re divorced or if your civil partnership has been dissolved you can decide whether to leave anything to an ex-partner who\u2019s living with someone else<\/p>\n you can make sure you don\u2019t pay more Inheritance Tax than necessary<\/p>\n If you and your spouse or civil partner owns your home as \u2018joint tenants\u2019 then the surviving spouse or civil partner automatically inherits all of the property<\/p>\n If you are \u2018tenants in common\u2019 you each own a proportion (normally half) of the property and can pass that half on as you want<\/p>\n A solicitor will be able to help you should you want to change the way you own your property. You also need to bear in mind if you are planning to give your home away to your children while you\u2019re still alive that: if you keep living there without paying a full market rent (which your children pay tax on) it\u2019s not an \u2018outright gift\u2019 but a \u2018gift with reservation\u2019 so it\u2019s still treated as part of your estate, and so liable for Inheritance Tax<\/p>\n from 6 April 2005 onwards you may be liable to pay an Income Tax charge on the \u2018benefit\u2019 you get from having free or low cost use of property you formerly owned (or provided the funds to purchase)<\/p>\n once you have given your home away your children own it, it becomes part of their assets; so if they are bankrupted or divorced, your home may have to be sold to pay creditors or to fund part of a divorce settlement<\/p>\n if your children sell your home, and it is not their main home, they will have to pay Capital Gains Tax on any increase in its value<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a will there are rules for deciding who inherits your assets, depending on your personal circumstances. The following rules are for deaths on or after 1 July 2009 in England and Wales, the law differs if you die intestate (without a will) in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The rates that applied before that date are shown in brackets.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re married or in a civil partnership and there are no children personal items, such as household articles and cars, but nothing used for business purposes<\/p>\n \u00a3400,000 (\u00a3200,000) free of tax or the whole estate if it was less than \u00a3400,000 (\u00a3200,000)<\/p>\n half of the rest of the estate<\/p>\n The other half of the rest of the estate will be shared by the following:<\/p>\n surviving parents<\/p>\n if there are no surviving parents, any brothers and sisters (who shared the same two parents as the deceased) will get a share (or their children if they died while the deceased was still alive)<\/p>\n if the deceased has none of the above, the husband, wife or registered civil partner will get everything<\/p>\n If you\u2019re married or in a civil partnership and there were children<\/p>\n Your husband, wife or civil partner won\u2019t automatically get everything, although they will receive:<\/p>\n personal items, such as household articles and cars, but nothing used for business purposes<\/p>\n \u00a3250,000 (\u00a3125,000) free of tax, or the whole of the estate if it was less than \u00a3250,000 (\u00a3125,000)<\/p>\n a life interest in half of the rest of the estate (on his or her death this will pass to the children)<\/p>\n The rest of the estate will be shared by the children.<\/p>\n If you are partners but aren\u2019t married or in a civil partnership<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t married or registered civil partners, you will not automatically get a share of your partner\u2019s estate if they die without making a will.<\/p>\n If they haven\u2019t provided for you in some other way, your only option is to make a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.<\/p>\n If there is no surviving spouse\/civil partner to surviving children in equal shares (or to their children if they died while the deceased was still alive)<\/p>\n if there are no children, to parents (equally, if both alive)<\/p>\n if there are no surviving parents, to brothers and sisters (who shared the same two parents as the deceased), or to their children if they died while the deceased was still alive<\/p>\n if there are no brothers or sisters then to half brothers or sisters (or to their children if they died while the deceased was still alive)<\/p>\n if none of the above then to grandparents (equally if more than one)<\/p>\n if there are no grandparents to aunts and uncles (or their children if they died while the deceased was still alive)<\/p>\n if none of the above, then to half uncles or aunts (or their children if they died while the deceased was still alive)<\/p>\n to the Crown if there are none of the above<\/p>\n It\u2019ll take longer to sort out your affairs if you don\u2019t have a will. This could mean extra distress for your relatives and dependants until they can draw money from your estate.<\/p>\n If you feel that you have not received reasonable financial provision from the estate, you may be able to make a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, applicable in England and Wales. To make a claim you must have a particular type of relationship with the deceased, such as child, spouse, civil partner, dependant or cohabitee.<\/p>\n Bear in mind that if you were living with the deceased as a partner but weren\u2019t married or in a civil partnership, you\u2019ll need to show that you\u2019ve been \u2018maintained either wholly or partly by the deceased,\u2019 this can be difficult to prove if you\u2019ve both contributed to your life together. You need to make a claim within 6 months of the date of the Grant of Letters of Administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Putting it off could mean that your spouse receives less It\u2019s easy to put off making a will. But if you die without one your assets may be distributed according to the law rather than your wishes. This could mean that your spouse receives less, or that the money goes to family members who may… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[124,406,441,464],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPlanning to give your home away to your children while you\u2019re still alive<\/p>\n
\ngifts to your children unlike gifts to your spouse or civil partner aren\u2019t exempt from Inheritance Tax unless you live for 7 years after making them<\/p>\n
\nThe husband, wife or civil partner won\u2019t automatically get everything although they will receive:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThe estate is distributed as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n