Wills Shouldn’t Be the Elephant in the Room
Ask most people under 50 whether they have a will, and the answer is usually the same: “not yet.” Wills tend to get filed away mentally alongside pensions and life insurance, as something for “later,” a task for when you’re older, richer, or have got round to it. In the meantime, it sits there quietly, an elephant in the room that everyone agrees they should deal with eventually.
The trouble with treating a will as a later-life job is that life doesn’t wait for the “right time” to make you a parent, a homeowner, a business owner, or a newly separated spouse. Each of these moments changes exactly who needs protecting, and precisely what happens if you don’t have a will in place can be very different from what you’d assume. This article looks at why a will matters at every life stage, not just the last one.
If you die without a will, your estate doesn’t simply pass to “your family” in whatever way seems fair. It’s distributed according to the legal rules of intestacy, a fixed formula that takes no account of your actual wishes, your relationships, or your circumstances.
Under those rules:
Notice who is missing from that list entirely: unmarried partners and stepchildren. However long you’ve lived together, however much you consider each other family, the law does not recognise a cohabiting partner as an automatic beneficiary. Without a will, they could inherit nothing at all, regardless of how the relationship actually functioned.
New Parents
The arrival of a child is one of the most common triggers for finally writing a will, and for good reason. A will isn’t only about who inherits what; it’s where you appoint guardians, the people who would raise your children if the worst happened to both parents. Without a will naming guardians, that decision is left to the courts to resolve, at exactly the moment your family can least afford more uncertainty.
Cohabiting Couples
If you live with a partner but aren’t married or in a civil partnership, a will isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s essential. Under intestacy rules, a long-term partner has no automatic right to inherit any part of your estate, even if you’ve lived together for decades and raised children together. Without a will, your partner could find themselves with no legal claim to a home you’ve shared for years.
Homeowners
How you own your property matters just as much as what your will says about it. If you own a home as “joint tenants,” your share passes automatically to the other owner when you die, regardless of what your will states, because it never forms part of your estate. If you’d prefer your share to go to your children, or anyone other than your co-owner, you may need to hold the property as “tenants in common” instead. This is a common and easily overlooked gap, particularly for second marriages or blended families.
Separated and Divorcing Couples
This is one of the most overlooked risks of all. Many people assume that once they’ve separated, or even started divorce proceedings, their soon-to-be ex-spouse is no longer entitled to inherit from them. This isn’t true. Until your Final Order (formerly Decree Absolute) is granted, you remain legally married, and dying without a will means your spouse could still inherit the first £322,000 of your estate, potentially far more than any children you have together, even if you’ve been separated for years and the divorce is almost finalised. Resolving the financial side of a divorce can take a year or more, so there’s often a lengthy window where an out-of-date, or entirely absent, will can produce a result you would never have chosen. Making or updating a will as soon as you separate is one of the simplest ways to close that gap.
Blended Families
If you have children from a previous relationship, a straightforward will leaving everything to a new spouse can unintentionally disinherit them. A life interest trust can offer a solution, allowing your spouse or partner to live in the family home for their lifetime, while ensuring your children ultimately inherit your share, rather than risking it passing to a stepparent’s new partner or their own children instead.
Business Owners
If you own or have a share in a business, dying without a will can leave your co-owners, family, and employees in limbo while the intestacy rules slowly work out who technically owns your share. A will can specify what should happen to your business interests, and, where appropriate, work alongside a shareholders’ or partnership agreement to protect the business itself.
Later Life
Wills written earlier in life often need revisiting as circumstances change, a subsequent marriage, for instance, automatically revokes an existing will unless it was specifically made in contemplation of that marriage. Later life is also when many people start to think about lasting powers of attorney, appointing someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you’re no longer able to, and about care and support needs more broadly.
Nobody enjoys thinking about their own death, and it’s natural to assume there will always be more time. But a will isn’t really about planning for death, it’s about protecting the people who are still here. The risk of not having one isn’t abstract: it’s a partner left with no legal claim to your home, children whose guardianship is left to a court to decide, or a former spouse inheriting a sum you would never have chosen to leave them.
A will also doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. For many people, the essentials, who inherits, who acts as executor, who becomes guardian to any children, can be set out clearly in a single, properly drafted document. What matters is that it reflects your actual circumstances, and that it gets revisited whenever those circumstances significantly change: a new relationship, a new child, a house purchase, a separation, or a new business venture.
If you don’t currently have a will, or haven’t reviewed one in several years, it’s worth asking yourself:
If any of these questions gave you pause, that’s usually a sign it’s time to stop treating your will as tomorrow’s job
At Heritage Park Family Law, we help clients at every life stage put a will in place that genuinely reflects their circumstances and wishes, from new parents appointing guardians to separated couples closing the gap left by intestacy. We can also advise on lasting powers of attorney and later life planning.
To get expert and accurate legal advice speak to one of our qualified lawyers, as one thing you can be sure of at Heritage Park Family Law, is that we know family matters.
To arrange an initial discussion, please contact us on 01525 406030 or fill in our enquiry form today.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different, and you should seek advice specific to your circumstances before making decisions about divorce or separation.
