Wills for Married Couples
Making sure your family get the best you have to give and without the stress, strife or sadness by utilising a flexible will
Only the first £270,000 of your wealth will go to your spouse if you die without a will?
Most of the married couples we speak with, believed all of their wealth would go to the surviving spouse (this is the reason they never bothered about a Will in the first place). Utilising fully flexible wills for married couples will help eliminate this problem and with education, fully inform our clients to make the best decision to align with their own circumstances. Are you guilty of thinking that everything will go to your spouse automatically?
Do The Questions Below Apply To You?
These are the common challenges that kill peoples plans for their children.
Do You Have Assets Worth More Than £270,0000?
Without the correct planning the wealth may not flow in the direction you need it to.
Are You using Mirror wills to maximise your planning?
As a married couple, if you do have a will or using the wrong type of will you could be missing out on a massive opportunity. The first priority is to utilise mirror wills if viable to do so
Are You Aware of The Special Tax Breaks for Married Couples?
If so, are you taking advantage of them?
If you already Have A Will, Has It been reviewed since 2015?
There were significant change to the law relating to Inheritance Tax which may be of extreame significance. The way your current Will has been drafted may cause signficant lost to your family due to inheritance tax
Do You Have Children who Need Special Care and Attention?
There are special prvisions that can be made in order to provide the best support for loved ones who are vulnerable and require care and love.
Are you a home owner?
If you are a home or property owner and also have children you could be missing out on some vital tax and asset protection planning
What exactly Does ‘Flexibility' Mean?
Flexibility is all about maintaining choice and control. Unfortunately no one is born with a crystal ball where they can determine the behaviour and performance of their children and loved ones.
As a parent, especially if you have been through the ‘teenager' phase, you will completely understand how our children can make the most strange decisions and all we can do is love them and shake our heads trying to comprehend the basis of their choices.
Imagine if your daughter decided to elope and get married to someone who you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that this will not last. Or maybe your son decides he found the deal of the century and guarantees a 150% return on investment in 14 days, and blows all of his 50K savings he earned from an inheritance from his favourite Grand parent?
Can you see where this is going? The flexibility element is passing control to a third-party you trust who can manage how the wealth is distributed based on YOUR terms. So The wealth is protected from those unforeseen family situations or perhaps protection from the inevitable?
It's also helps your trusted advisers assess situations such as changes in the law and tax legislation; to make sure the wealth is protected to the maximum and most importantly, all of the heavy lifting of technical decision making is taken off of your loved ones hands. All they need to do is just ‘enjoy' the asset if and when they get access to it.
What gives a Will it's ‘Flexibility'?
The term flexible trust was originally associated with the use of a type of trust known as a discretionary trust.
Trusts have been used inside of Wills for many, many years. The rules changed in March 2006 and the use of the ‘2 year' discretionary trust has opened significant doors for planning powerful and ‘flexible' Wills.
Trusts need a whole page all on their own for a decent introduction to the topic, however what we can share with you, is that a trust is one of the few devices recognised within the legal system that provides a mechanism to allow the concept of ‘Own Nothing Control Everything (ONCE – did you see what we did there?) to be explored and utilised to it's core.
