Dive into the first of a new series of articles from our partner MyArk.
MyArk is on a mission to optimise your financial health, a super app available to all, but with a special drive to support the military community. With their founders coming from the Armed Forces Community, their mission is to give you a complete view of your financial affairs, know where you ‘are’ at all times, and share in an easy way all of that financial and household information. Find out more and join the waitlist here.
10 reasons you need a Will
1. Protect yourself in life if you become incapacitated. By making sure your wishes are known & you have the right people making the right decisions for you if you cannot.
2. Make sure wealth is not lost e.g. missed assets or unknown accounts. Don’t add to the £15bn unclaimed assets in UK because your family doesn’t know where your savings & pensions are held.
3. Make sure your wishes are carried out. If you don’t allocate a guardian for your children, they go into care of the state. Outline who you want to get what.
4. Manage how much tax you have to pay. Inheritance tax is 40%. By planning sensibly (further down the line) you can potentially significantly reduce this.
5. Avoid being ‘intestate’ where either all or part of your ‘estate’ is not covered by a valid Will. Should this happen £270k goes to your spouse (if you have one) and the rest is split 50:50 between children & spouse. This can mean e.g. children & spouse end up co-owning a house, so is best avoided!
6. Stop money getting locked up through lengthy process until ‘probate’ is granted i.e. the courts officially recognise all the assets & Will, which can take 18 months or more. This means bank accounts can be frozen etc whilst everyone waits.
7. Reduce administrative stress for loved ones. Even people who think they are organised can only sort out what they know about, and things are often missed or difficult for others to understand.
8. Reduce emotional stress or family infighting. Grief brings out the most unexpected emotions and responses in people and is the worst time to make decisions. Avoid conflict by making sure your wishes are known & legally binding.
9. Give to charity. You may want to support a cause important to you. You also reduce inheritance tax to 36% if you leave more than 10% of your estate to charity.
10. Avoid delayed grief. Having to go through an extended probate process can delay closure & extend grief. Make sure your loved ones don’t have to go through avoidable suffering.