June 11, 2019

Having a Will is not just for the elderly. It is vital that everyone has an up to date Will in place, parents in particular.

Making a Will allows you to express your final wishes clearly, and without one you are leaving it up to the law to decide how your estate (your money, possessions and property) is passed on and what happens to your children – and this may not be the way you wanted it to be.

Many people today have life insurance policies as well as death in service benefits from employers, and therefore if they suddenly die, their children could be entitled to a substantial sum of money. Whilst this is of course a positive, it is important to understand that without a Will, you could be leaving all this money to your children at an age where you feel they are not yet responsible to safeguard it.

There are many advantages to setting up a trust to receive these benefits in the event of your death. When you set up a trust you decide the rules about how it’s managed. You can also appoint trustees who have a legal duty to look after and manage the trust assets for the person who will benefit from the trust in the end.

Rather than your children receiving the full life insurance pay out at the age of 18, you may wish to ensure that trust provisions are in place so that any life cover can be drip fed to your children over the years of 18-25 for example, to ensure the money won’t be misspent. Or you could say that your children will only get access to their trust when they turn 25.

Having trust provisions in your Will means you can have peace of mind what will happen to any finances when you are no longer here and that your children will benefit at the right time. It can also help protect against hostile creditors and preserve inheritance tax benefits.

Life of a parent is hectic, but it is important now to plan for the future. For parents, making a Will is the single most important thing they can do to ensure their child is cared for should anything happen to you. Speak to our team to ensure you have an up-to-date Will in place providing for your child’s future.