Mr P and Miss A had been living together for 15 years when they came to us to discuss whether they needed a will. They had always believed that if one of them were to die, the other would inherit everything. We explained that as they were not married, their assets would pass to their close relatives and not each other upon death. We therefore prepared wills for them to reflect their wishes. The wills also gave Mr P and Miss A an opportunity to leave a gift to their favourite charity.
We acted for Ms H who has a brother, A, who is severely disabled. A is in receipt of means-tested state benefits which could be at risk following an outright inheritance. To protect A's entitlement to state aid, we drafted a will for Ms H including a discretionary trust for the benefit of A and a niece of Ms H. Ms H's trustees were given the power to make payments of income and capital to both beneficiaries, and we drafted a Letter of Wishes for Ms H in which she made clear her intention that the majority of funds should be paid to A.
We wrote a will for Mrs B who was a widow with three children aged under 18. Mrs B wanted to make sure that the children would be provided for should she die. We advised her to include a guardianship clause in her will allowing her to select her sister to bring up the children should she die. The will also have gave Mrs B's sister the legal right to hold the children's inheritance in trust until they reached the age of 21, when Mrs B felt they would be responsible enough to receive the inheritance. The will gave Mrs B's sister the power to use the money for things like paying for the children's education before this time.