Some cautionary tales (longish
):
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
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
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
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html