If you were me would you have a will ?

small terraced house in North London (u.k.)

My total savings are small.

that enables him not to pay any inheritance

Thats a bit unspecific. Not clear if you mean that you actually want to leave as much as you can to your son so that he doesnt have to pay any inheritance tax and the rest to your wife or what.

If that is what you want to do, you will need a will because dying intestate wont necessarily deliver that result unless your wife is prepared to do exactly what you want, and its unclear whether you wife operates like that or not.

And you really need to think about what you want to do if your wife dies before you too. Presumably you want the son to get the lot, even if that does mean he has to pay some inheritance tax.

It isnt that common that the son still lives with the parents at that age.

There always are a few, like whether your wife agrees with the detail of what you want to do or not.

Yes, it should be.

looked at wants to make money out giving

Sure, but there are plenty who dont want any money too.

Thats radically overstated with a situation as simple as yours.

Thats not completely clear given that you havent provided all the information needed to answer that question.

If you are completely confident that your wife will do what you want you dont really need a will, particularly if you dont care if your son does have to pay some inheritance tax if your wife dies before you and there is no real chance of you dying with rather more assets than you have now and the inheritance tax level isnt changed.

The main one is that you would not then depend on your wife agreeing with what you want to do.

It makes more sense to start with a free will kit for your country.

You really need to allow for what happens if they die before you unless you dont care if the state gets all your money in that situation.

That doesnt do what you say at the top with your son unless the statement at the top is badly worded.

Yes if you are happy with that quite different distribution to the one at the top.

Not really except if you want to say who gets everything if both your wife and your son die before you do.

Even advice to shove your head up a dead bear's arse ?

...

Yes you should make a will, but consider if you and wife die at the "same time", e.g. car accident. To avoid forcing son to pay larger inheritance tax than he can afford (before perhaps selling the main asset, namely the house) you could with a lawyer's help, consider putting the house in a trust.

Nope, not in that soggy little island.

That wont necessarily matter tho since the beneficiarys just keep living in that house till its done etc.

OH come on!!! People like that chap come to uk.legal expecting help and advice. That was uncalled for:(

He was only trying to obtain clarification of a statement made by the previous poster.

What's wrong with that?

You're not afraid that the previous poster might actually try to follow that hypothetical advice, are you? Here in the UK it's very difficult to acquire bears, dead or otherwise, and so if the advice was taken, hypothetical or otherwise, its implementation would be nigh on impossible.

No ursine mammals were harmed in the writing of this post.

Ophelia wrote

My total savings are small.

that enables him not to pay any

have to pay some inheritance tax if your

picked up, which says I can just write out

and your son die before you do.

And he got that.

That was a joke, Joyce.

It was just the last comment, which someone unacustomed to usenet...... sigh... maybe he was not:(

I guess I am just an old softie...

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Hokay Mabel:)

john mayfield added these comments in the current discussion du jour ...

I know nothing about UK law but in the US, everything automatically goes to the spouse unless there is a pre-nup OR possessions and money are kept separate, then a will would apply. In many/most marriages, all assets are held jointly, so no probate is needed when one spouse dies. Children are another matter. Sometimes arguments break out.

Why bother? In the situation you contemplate, the first £650k is IHT-free. Unless the OP's idea of "small savings" is something over £350k, there will be no IHT liability.

The same pertains if they die at quite different times.

Aardvark wrote

Thats not true, plenty of teddy bears even on that soggy little island.

Thats not true either, plenty of very large teddy bears and other very large dead bears.

Bod gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Because they charge money in return for performing their professional services. It's what they do. It's why they exist.

That was Rod Speed. It's a troll. Just killfile it and move along like the rest of us have done. :)

Which no-one would object to. It's the *amount* of money they charge for a simple service that is the outrage!

Kev

Ok ta:)

Unfortunately there is that one honest guy (forgot his name) and the rest of them. It isn't unusual to be billed $8,000 for a few hours work by a clerk.

I have been an executor and it really isn't a major event.

Typically a couple would own the house as joint tenants so the survivor owns it regardless of the will, but you say that you own the house TinC so the survivor will not inherit the house automatically - it goes by the will or by the intestacy rules if there is no will.

See here for what happens if you don't have a will:

Without a will only the first £250,000 goes to the widow. the rest goes to the deceased's children 9with widow getting the interest from half of it).

You don't say what the poportions of ownership of the house are, but if it is 99% yours, for example, then without a will she would not even inherit the whole house.

Robert IANAL

yes they can. Indeed is it normally the best thing to do. They can engage professional help if they needed it.

Robert

people typcailly put in cluases like "providing she shall survive me by 30 days" to cover such situations. IIRC if you die together the wills are executed as if the older person died first.

Robert