Do I need a Will?
When you die without having made a Will, your estate will pass to your next of kin. Some reasons to make a Will are:
~ To appoint executors
~ To appoint guardians for your children
~ To make specific gifts to people
~ To make sure your spouse gets all your money
~ To make gifts to charity
~ If you marry or divorce
~ If you have children or grandchildren
~ To prevent family disputes
~ To save tax

Tax-Saving Wills
Tax law changes and the latest Inheritance Tax rules mean that the recently-popular Discretionary Trust Wills are now often less tax-effective than no Will at all. There’s an explanation of this at the bottom of this page. It’s still possible though to save considerable amounts of tax if you can make the choices the Revenue taxes least.

What happens if I don’t make a Will?
If you are married or in a civil partnership, your spouse or partner will get all of your estate if it is worth less than £125,000 (£200,000 if there are no children). Beyond that children or other relatives may get a share.

If you are single your children will inherit your estate, or your parents if you have no children. If your parents have died grandparents and then uncles and aunts will inherit. If you don’t have a half-uncle or half-aunt, the Crown will inherit your estate.

What it costs
We can revise an existing Will for as little as £50 or prepare a new straightforward Will for £95. Straightforward mirror Wills for a couple for cost £150. If you require complex trusts or tax-saving advice, it will be more- ask for an estimate based on your circumstances.
All prices quoted include VAT and may be revised. Check when you call that they are up to date.

The facts about Discretionary Trust Wills
Discretionary Trust Wills worked like this: if a husband, say, died in 2005 leaving everything to his wife, then she would not pay any Inheritance Tax, but she would lose the benefit of his tax-free band (£275,000 in 2005/6). The Will therefore hived-off part of his estate- equal to the tax-free band- into a Trust.

When the wife died, her children would get the benefit of her tax-free band, plus her husband’s (the assets left in the Trust). Under the present rules however, if your husband or wife died before you leaving an unused tax-free band, your executors can use it on your death at its present value (£325,000 in 2010/11). So using the same example, if the husband had left everything to the wife then the wife’s executors would have a tax-free band of £650,000 (£325,000 for the wife and £325,000 for the husband) instead of £600,000 (£325,000 for the wife and £275,000 carried over from the Trust).

What to do next
Call us on (01372) 454791, or e-mail PalmersSol@aol.com