Article of Interest on Wills & Estates

I JUST NEED A SIMPLE WILL 

“I must call in to see you and get you to draft my Will. It’ll only take fifteen minutes. It is simple.”

Thomas has said the magic words which trigger alarm bells, “It is simple.”

Firstly, no Will is simple.

Secondly, I know Thomas has been married before. He has 2 children to a previous marriage. He now lives with a lady to whom he is not formally married. They have one child. His partner also has 2 children to a previous relationship.

They own a house together. They have an investment property on the beach. Thomas is a successful businessman. The business is controlled by a company. The directors and shareholders in the company are Thomas and his business partner, as opposed to his life partner. There is also a Family Trust which has been set up by Thomas’ Accountant AND, Thomas has no idea how the business structure relates to the Family Trust. “The Accountant said it was a good idea.”

It will only take 15 minutes to draft Thomas’ Will if I don’t ask any questions and be content to draft a Will that has absolutely no meaning.

“Look here Thomas, you have created a really complicated life. Drafting your Will is a complex exercise and, there is no point in drafting a Will that is meaningless and creates more problems for the people that you want to provide for than if you had no Will at all.”

Thomas rings all of the necessary alarm bells. In particular, he is a self-employed businessman with shares in and a directorship of a company which operates the business. The company has a value and owns assets. Although Thomas is a good businessman, he doesn’t understand the company structure. As a consequence, he is unable to make sensible provision in his Will in relation to his share in the company. Companies ring loud alarm bells. Family Trusts ring louder alarm bells. They don’t create problems while Thomas is alive; the problem only emerges when he dies.

Thomas is also ringing very loud alarm bells in that he is a part of a blended family. He wants to make provision for his children, our children and her children. However, he doesn’t fully understand what he actually owns and how he can make provision for all of these people.

Help!! This is not a fifteen minute exercise.

The remarkable thing about addressing the issue of your Will is that it actually makes you look at what you own, in what manner you own it, and how to plan for the future.

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