Cheap Legal - AARP

Cheap Legal - AARP

Common mistakes people make when getting a ‘quick’ will There are three vitally important elements in making sure you have the right will in place: a detailed understanding of your personal circumstances, your assets and the people you are looking to pass your estate on to the estate planning advice you receive in terms of protecting assets after you’ve gone and being tax efficientquickwill the will itself and tailoring it to reflect the first two elements Putting a will in place, without the advice of an experienced professional who focuses on all three of those, can cause some difficult issues and often impacts not you, but your beneficiaries. Some common issues are; wills that don’t reflect the law of the country you and or parts of your estate are in, wills which are unclearly drafted, wills that don’t reflect your individual needs and wills that don’t consider the individual circumstances of your beneficiaries to take into account whether their inheritance should be protected. All of these are avoidable by having the right advice and will at the outset. Otherwise problems are often discovered when it is too late to easily fix them. If the will provisions cannot be put into effect for any reason, there is a risk that the people you wanted to inherit your estate will not receive it. That happens when the rules on intestacy have to come in to play to fill the gaps left by the wording or ineffectiveness of your will. These rules will dictate who inherits from you and that may well not match who you wanted. When should you write a will? Getting married, buying a home, starting a family, getting divorced or suffering a bereavement; these are all life events that should trigger people to put a will in place. But, in all honesty, the best time is as early as you can – whatever age you are and wherever you are in life. It can even form part of your tax planning and help leave loved ones with less inheritance tax to pay.