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Post by moonraker on Mar 9, 2021 8:12:14 GMT
"Free Wills Month brings together a group of well-respected charities to offer members of the public aged 55 and over the opportunity to have their simple Wills written or updated free of charge by using participating solicitors in locations across England, Scotland and Wales."
WebsiteI imagine, indeed hope, that this scheme has been shown to benefit charities more than it costs them - their hope being that they're get a bequest. (I assume that they pay the solicitors a set fee for each will written.) As it happens, I am having to write a new will, and one charity named in it (and my existing will) has a similar arrangement with a will-writing company, so I've sent them a draft modified from the existing one and have a phone-chat booked for Thursday. I'm very well aware that will-writing companies are not law firms or substitutes for a lawyer’s advice about complex estate-planning issues but I thought that a chat with someone with more experience than I wouldn't hurt. It may well be that I shall also consult a solicitor. I have supported the charity in my will financially and with my time for 15 years, so feel OK about using this service, but suspect that some others may get a will drawn up and not bother to include a charity in it.
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Post by bernythedolt on Mar 9, 2021 13:18:50 GMT
Many caution against leaving a charity a percentage of your estate. By all means bequeath a fixed sum, but a percentage can cause great difficulties for the executors.
My brother-in-law executed his aunt's will which left a proportion of her estate to a charity. When it came to selling her property, all beneficiaries were happy to accept the reasonable offers being made, except the charity. They kept insisting on holding out for a higher offer, meaning the sale dragged on for several months - I believe it took a couple of years before he could finalise and distribute the bequests because of this charity's difficult and uncompromising attitude throughout.
One would think the charity might have been as happy and as grateful as the other beneficiaries to receive their share of the sale, but no. They alone held out for the absolute maximum and made my brother-in-law's job a real headache. I know he cursed the charity for all the grief it caused him, and he advised the family accordingly.
If your executor is likely to be a firm of solicitors (as I believe you've said elsewhere?) I can just imagine their charges being ramped up nicely over the protracted period. They must love percentages bequeathed to charities.
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Mar 9, 2021 14:00:43 GMT
As discussed on another thread, our main difficulty with the three charities my Uncle donated percentages to, was although it's obvious, we (and I assume my Uncle) hadn't realised family items would be included in the charities percentages, in the event we offered to buy the items he would have wanted us to have, but potentially the whole house contents might have had to be valued and sold so that the charities could take their share.
I would say make sure any items you would want to remain in the family are specifically bequeathed, and as said above it may be safer to leave specific amounts to the charities.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 9, 2021 15:51:07 GMT
Turn the situation round slightly... Uncle left 50% to the Basingstoke Home for Terminally Bewildered Aardvarks. The family cannot stand aardvarks, has never been near Basingstoke, and would really rather that 50% stayed within the family. "Oh, that? No, it's not run for years. No more than sentimental value..." <pockets Rolex> "His old banger? No, I'll probably weigh it in if it doesn't pass the MOT..." <hides classic Ferrari keys> "Just some old family photos, newspapers, and junk mail to sort through..." <thick wodge of property deeds, share certificates and cash> As far as specific amounts go - remember that specific amounts are paid before residual amounts are calculated. If there's nothing left after the specific amounts, the 50% people get nowt. |
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Mar 9, 2021 16:45:59 GMT
Turn the situation round slightly... Uncle left 50% to the Basingstoke Home for Terminally Bewildered Aardvarks. The family cannot stand aardvarks, has never been near Basingstoke, and would really rather that 50% stayed within the family. "Oh, that? No, it's not run for years. No more than sentimental value..." <pockets Rolex> "His old banger? No, I'll probably weigh it in if it doesn't pass the MOT..." <hides classic Ferrari keys> "Just some old family photos, newspapers, and junk mail to sort through..." <thick wodge of property deeds, share certificates and cash> As far as specific amounts go - remember that specific amounts are paid before residual amounts are calculated. If there's nothing left after the specific amounts, the 50% people get nowt. Uncle in question didn't have that sort of money, the items were a few paintings by local artists that had been collected by his Grandfather and were not of significant value. It wasn't a big deal to just buy them out of the estate, but I'm sure that is not what he intended. Just a heads up really, I was thinking of putting %s to charities in my will, but it hadn't really crossed my mind that family items would be included, although it is perfectly obvious if you think about it. Yes it's meant to be theoretically safer to use a %, but having been through it, and thought about it the potential hassle has definitely put me off, and I hadn't even thought about the charities not agreeing to the sale price of the house!
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 9, 2021 17:08:44 GMT
Turn the situation round slightly... Uncle left 50% to the Basingstoke Home for Terminally Bewildered Aardvarks. The family cannot stand aardvarks, has never been near Basingstoke, and would really rather that 50% stayed within the family. "Oh, that? No, it's not run for years. No more than sentimental value..." <pockets Rolex> "His old banger? No, I'll probably weigh it in if it doesn't pass the MOT..." <hides classic Ferrari keys> "Just some old family photos, newspapers, and junk mail to sort through..." <thick wodge of property deeds, share certificates and cash> As far as specific amounts go - remember that specific amounts are paid before residual amounts are calculated. If there's nothing left after the specific amounts, the 50% people get nowt. Uncle in question didn't have that sort of money... Oh, I'm absolutely not suggesting your uncle's relatives in particular. I'm merely explaining why any potentially controversial beneficiary of a %age of an estate will need to keep an eye on the behaviour of the executors and other beneficiaries. Where there's a will, there's a gold-digging relative.
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Mar 9, 2021 20:38:58 GMT
Uncle in question didn't have that sort of money... Oh, I'm absolutely not suggesting your uncle's relatives in particular. I'm merely explaining why any potentially controversial beneficiary of a %age of an estate will need to keep an eye on the behaviour of the executors and other beneficiaries. Where there's a will, there's a gold-digging relative. As said just a heads up to people intending to do a % gift to charities.
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Post by df on Mar 9, 2021 20:50:45 GMT
"Free Wills Month brings together a group of well-respected charities to offer members of the public aged 55 and over the opportunity to have their simple Wills written or updated free of charge by using participating solicitors in locations across England, Scotland and Wales."
WebsiteI imagine, indeed hope, that this scheme has been shown to benefit charities more than it costs them - their hope being that they're get a bequest. (I assume that they pay the solicitors a set fee for each will written.) As it happens, I am having to write a new will, and one charity named in it (and my existing will) has a similar arrangement with a will-writing company, so I've sent them a draft modified from the existing one and have a phone-chat booked for Thursday. I'm very well aware that will-writing companies are not law firms or substitutes for a lawyer’s advice about complex estate-planning issues but I thought that a chat with someone with more experience than I wouldn't hurt. It may well be that I shall also consult a solicitor. I have supported the charity in my will financially and with my time for 15 years, so feel OK about using this service, but suspect that some others may get a will drawn up and not bother to include a charity in it. I've used this initiative a couple of years ago and had no second thought whether to include charity or not. I'd imagine those who decided not to include a charity are the tiny minority. It's a great scheme - very inclusive.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Mar 10, 2021 10:01:59 GMT
reminds me of a will I heard of in a friends family where 5 beneficiaries were each left a percentage of the estate ( not the residuary estate ) and the percentages totalled 105%.
took a long battle to sort as the specific bequests took priority and if memory serves only about 30% was left and one of the residuals was more than that and he wanted his full 30%.
I believe in the end the executor engaged solicitors to "do it legally" because of the arguments, reducing the amount available further.
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