For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
#1886741
lobstaboy wrote:
PeteSpencer wrote:@Flying_john

We no longer needed to have the kids looked after by friends etc etc.

It was dead simple : everything left to the other one: if we both croaked together then divided between 2 kids.

Not a cats home , charity, or alma mater in sight …….. :wink:


Then why did you need new wills? Sounds like a bit of easy money for the solicitor to me...


In a nutshell a ton of irrelevant stuff and isolated bequests deleted . :wink:
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
#1886745
Flying_john wrote:my own legal beagle was quite insistent that we should write wills that dealt with usual things that happen with growing families, marriages, deaths, births etc, whilst still adopting the KISS principle.


I guess it depends upon your circumstances.

I have assets in more than one country, Im divorced, now with my true love/GF/partner, but have children from my previous marriage, and my ex is, how can I put it, a mad biartch..?? :shock:

Im my case writing a will to provide for my partner, yet make sure her kids dont profit at the expense of my kids, yet without my ex getting her grubby hands on anything, was not an easy feat, especially when trying to look ahead. :roll:

My solicitor was worth every penny... :thumleft:
Flyin'Dutch', Rob L liked this
#1886748
PeteSpencer wrote:In a nutshell a ton of irrelevant stuff and isolated bequests deleted . :wink:

My understanding is that isolated bequests are best handled via a Letter of Wishes, which, whilst not binding on the Executors, allows for a cheap*** & easy way of updating such bequests. If you are not convinced that the Executors will be guided by such a Letter then maybe change the Executors PDQ.


*** ie free.
#1886750
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:Don't ask how I know. My father died a few months ago......

My condolences, sorry to hear that.

My own parents, soon 82 and 80 respectively, are luckily fit and healthy in both body and mind, but they are aware that time is running out. They haven't shared the contents of any will with my brothers and I, but I do know that they know what they want should happen.

Up until some five years ago, my mother owned land jointly with her (since deceased) brother, but made sure to cut those business ties so there was to be nothing to sort out with my cousins. Similar things have been known to bring out the worst in some relatives of an earlier generation: my mother hasn't spoken to her cousin, except via lawyers, since 1986. And her cousin has her summer house 200 meters from where my mom lives.
#1886751
We’ve just reviewed our wills . There’s a family trust involved. (Mrs Jim having surgery soon )

The solicitors we’d used had done no reviews or updates over the last 15 years.

They’d gone out of business last April, no one told us.

The company lumbered with the work were scathing of the neglect.

We used a more local one to write a new, simple, will; but they’re still unpicking the trust details.

Feels good to have done the review.

( Mrs Jim new hip doing ok. I’m doing housework, cooking as well as my usual duties. )
#1886753
There's a lot to be said about recognising your skill-set, and paying in the short term for skills that you don't have yourself, to save in the long term (i.e. importing skills).

I pay plasterers & bricklayers (but not plumbers, chippies or electricians).

I pay dentist fees (UK NHS notwithstanding) and accountant fees, but not aircraft mechanic fees or for painters & decorators.

But I would certainly pay the relatively meagre Solicitor fee necessary to set up a Will, especially one dealing with trusts for minors. I have no skills therein.
Flyin'Dutch', Pete L liked this
User avatar
By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886756
Colonel Panic wrote:If you are not convinced that the Executors will be guided by such a Letter then maybe change the Executors PDQ.


Sadly not always an option and particularly aggrieving when the executor is a beneficiary of the will depending on the interpretation of the will by, you guessed it, the executor.

Grrr....
#1886931
Some cautionary tales (longish :oops: ):

We first made Wills when first posted abroad (to US) with children. This was to ensure that matters would be dealt with under English [sic] not US (specifically, Maryland, where we would be living) Law. Our youngish solictor, whom we knew from our first house purchase, was cheerfully scornful of his own Profession, which appealed to me :thumright: One of his remarks "lawyers make much more money out of people who don't make Wills than out of those who do." :?

In Maryland the husband of a DoD colleague died suddenly, quite young. He had made no Will. In these cases, under Maryland Law, the Estate is administered by a lawyer appointed by the Judge (elected position!) of the Family Court of the County where the deceased lived. The lawyer gets as a fee a percentage of the value of the Estate, whose assets (eg a family home) may have to be liquidated to pay that fee. This couple had mutual Life Assurance policies. The lawyer included in the late husband's assets the potential value to the husband of the payment from that policy if the wife had predeceased, which was clearly not going to happen, thus increasing the asset value and so his fee. When she complained, he replied (my gist): "yes, of course it's unfair and absurd, but the only way you'll get it overturned is to find another lawyer to sue me, which will cast you even more even if you win; I work for the Court, well actually for myself, not for you". She ended up having to sell the marital home to pay the lawyer's fee. Oh and yes, it turned out that that Judge routinely appointed that lawyer in such cases :roll:

My father-in-law was a Chartered Accountant. On his death his widow discovered that he had left meticulous record of the various assets and investments, but no Will. The Administration took far longer, cost much more in Professionals' fees, and caused much more hassle than a Will would have done. But in that generation 'money matters' were left to the man of the house' :?

When my father died we found details of a (smallish, from many years ago) Life Assurance policy written in Trust for the (named) but explicitly written 'surviving' children equally, the Trustee being a named local solicitor who was long dead. A further complication was that my elder brother had predeceased my father. The named solictor's practice had gone through several stages of merger and takeover, and was now part of a large nationwide company; I gather this is common. It took a lot of correspondence involving my father's Death Certificate (of which, fortunately, we had arranged to have lots of Certified Copies: one can't have too many!), proof of my late brother's death (fortunately, they accepted copies of his obituary from several of the broadsheets; he was much more distinguished than I), and the Grant of Probate for my father's Estate to get the solicitors to produce the document to persuade the Life company to release the sum, divided equally now between my sister and myself.

Bottom lines: make Wills and update them as required, and keep records of assets up-to-date accessible and safe. And no, we've been lax in following this advice ourselves, which the arrival of grandchildren should have prompted some time ago :oops:
#1886933
kanga wrote:
In Maryland the husband of a DoD colleague died suddenly, quite young. He had made no Will. In these cases, under Maryland Law, the Estate is administered by a lawyer appointed by the Judge (elected position!) of the Family Court of the County where the deceased lived. The lawyer gets as a fee a percentage of the value of the Estate, whose assets (eg a family home) may have to be liquidated to pay that fee. This couple had mutual Life Assurance policies. The lawyer included in the late husband's assets the potential value to the husband of the payment from that policy if the wife had predeceased, which was clearly not going to happen, thus increasing the asset value and so his fee. When she complained, he replied (my gist): "yes, of course it's unfair and absurd, but the only way you'll get it overturned is to find another lawyer to sue me, which will cast you even more even if you win; I work for the Court, well actually for myself, not for you". She ended up having to sell the marital home to pay the lawyer's fee. Oh and yes, it turned out that that Judge routinely appointed that lawyer in such cases :roll:



they must be really brave to operate in this manner, in a country that promotes gun ownership, and has lots of open space!