I talk to a lot of people who think they don’t need a will, they have various reasons for thinking so and I have a few replies that you might want to consider if you think that you don’t need a will.
I don’t have anything to leave.
This is probably the most common but it isn’t true, even if all you have is a bank account then you need to nominate someone to close it in the event of your death, if it’s in the minus figure then the banks will want to confirm that there are no other ways of paying them back before they’ll close it but it will get closed and the person to do this is the person you nominate as your Executor, you nominate them in your will. Also, if you have a bank account with even a little bit of money in it then the Bank needs to know who to give that to, your Executor will be the person who tells them and in that instance, there’s a possibility that someone you care about will have some small benefit. They’ll appreciate the time and effort that you put in to writing your will.
If I don’t have a will it’ll go to the right people anyway.
This may be true but between the time of your death and the time they get what the Government think is to go to them there could be a very long time, there could be huge doubts in your family’s minds about whether they’ll get anything or not, the cost of hiring someone to sort out the mess will reduce your estate’s value so your loved ones get less. If your estate is over a certain size, then, if you think everything will end up with your spouse, it might not, the Rules of Intestacy are pretty good but not perfect. Please feel free to read the linked Gov page there! Frightening.
By writing a will you can make sure that the people you care about do inherit and that this is done in the shortest time possible after your death.
I don’t care.
Well, there’s very little I can say about this excuse but I hope that eventually the people who think this realise this one thing; it’s not about them, it’s about their family and friends!
