My Partner & I are both in our 40s, homeowners, with an 8 year old child, we’re unmarried. We have no will written or any other legal guff to dictate what happens when one / both of us die.

Where do we start? What do we need to know / do? Any accredited bodies we should look for be aware of? Trust funds? Solicitors V will writers?

Ultimately we wanna do the best financially for our son with our assets as we can and deprive the government of as much as we can.

Ta

This Law Society document is worth reading as a starting point.

In your situation you definitely need a will, you don’t necessarily need to spend a load of money on one.

Go to a solicitor – on the surface this looks simple but can quickly become complex! Eg…

…If you both die while your son is young, who controls the money? What can you do to stop them spending it all?

…If you die first what is to stop your partner blowing your son’s inheritance?

…What age should he have access to it?

I would speak to a solictor and get one created for a flat fee and check that they aren’t an executor and if they are they aren’t taking a percentage of an of the estate.

I mention this as my girlfriends uncle died and did his will through WillsDirect or some such company (got a pack from WHSmith) and a standard clause is the company is an executor of the will, which mean that sorting the estate out took ~8months and they took around 7% of the estate; all for providing some forms ……

My brother and his partner had two kids and no wills, and no amount of pestering resolved this, so in the end I paid the Solicitor, booked a slot and drove them there…

They now have reciprocal wills….

My Partner and I have recently completed a will, and we have assets that are difficult to account for in an event of 1 or both of us dying. we used

http://www.wsl-nationwide.co.uk/wills/?p1=1&p2=1&p3=8&p4=GTSCH&gclid=CjwKEAjw9qafBRCRiYrL4-fpuFkSJACvocQ1L2FsGYMXmUvxmdYk0wuAvxQ9ZnG5tdmIB3IbqbmVqhoCAwTw_wcB

There are many things people don’t consider, and like us you are not yet married and as such there is a certain lack of protection for dependants.

Key things to consider

Tenancy in common on mortgages reduces your tax liability.
Residency trust, stops someone turfing you out of your house.
Naming the trustees
Naming the executor
who keeps the will (this ideally should be somewhere neutral in the event of fires etc!)

all sorts of shit to consider.. We’ve paid around £800 (I think) because our assets are a little complex at the moment, but this fee does give us life time cover for changes (moving house etc).

Sui.

Not entirely relavent but an interesting fact (but morbid) I picked up.

If you die at the same time (e.g. a car crash) then it becomes important who’s will is read first.

e.g. your will says I give everything my surviving family, her will gives everything to the donkey sanctuary. If her will is read first then her 50% would go to the donkeys, then the remainder to the kids. Vice versa would give your 50% to your wife, then imediately to the donkeys, not the kids.

The way arround this is an assumption that in the absence of any evidence the older person died first. The important point being that you make sure the will’s do what you want them too regardless of which order you read them.

Near-simultaneous death is such an obvious and well-known issue that any competent will-writer will account for this, eg my will gives (almost) everything to spouse if she survives me by 30 days, or else it goes elsewhere (and vice-versa for hers). Doesn’t matter a jot who dies first in the crash.

The OP might also like to consider whether his aversion to IHT (and other potentially awkward bureacracy) exceeds his aversion to marriage.

All food for thought, keep em comin ta

car crash – a.k.a. common calamity. as above 30 days apply IIRC (e.g. one person dies on spot, other succumbs to injury later.. air crash obviously likely to be much more definite..

Near-simultaneous death is such an obvious and well-known issue that any competent will-writer will account for this, eg my will gives (almost) everything to spouse if she survives me by 30 days, or else it goes elsewhere (and vice-versa for hers). Doesn’t matter a jot who dies first in the crash.

Yep, pretty standard in any properly drafted will.

If you or your partner are a member of a trade union, their lawyers will often do it for free or a vastly reduced rate. Unite did reciprocal wills for nowt for me and my partner, (also not married with 1 daughter) free of charge, only me a member.

Charities also have ‘wills for a donation’ schemes. Easy enough to find if you google it.

We were in a similar position to the OP a while ago and just went to the local solicitor. Like people say, there were a few eyeopeners that we didn’t even think of.

I can’t remember all the gotchas, but it’s worth thinking about what happens if one of you passes away – who gets the your share of the house etc. – not a major issue until your child ‘inherits’ his/her share – potential for wanting to sell it to feed their drug habits, or losing some though a dodgy divorce etc., or simply wanting to kick out your other half. Obviously that’s all melodrama but there is potential.