Is this Will valid?
Posted: November 30th, 2016, 11:21 pm
My beloved husband of almost 50 years has died. He has been ill for a long time so of course we should have updated his Will, made in 1997, but keeping him alive seemed more important and took all my time so we didn't. I dug it out yesterday. I had forgotten that it was self-typed (based on the one I had recently made) on 2 A4 pages stapled together, the 'of'' address was our previous address, it was witnessed by our former next-door neighbours (now deceased) who had also signed 2 codicils, removing a clause and a deceased executor. I am the sole executor, presuming I am still alive and capable (not sure about the latter), and the main beneficiary, though whatever is the current IHT exempt amount is left to our 2 children. Our house is held as Tenants in Common; I think this was because at the time the Will was made he didn't have enough assets outside the house to cover the IHT exempt amount, which is no longer the case as he has ISAs slightly in excess of that.
Am I likely to run into problems getting probate with this home-made Will? I think he just mirrored the one I had had done through a solicitor to save money as we were very strapped for cash at the time as my husband had not received what he was due to from his Mother's Will and we had bought our house by tender in the expectation of doing so, so we had to borrow a large sum to complete..
We may wish to do a Deed of Variation anyway, possibly leaving some of the IHT free money to grandchildren instead of their parents. The other thing that is bugging me is whether any change should be made to the sum left to anyone other than me in order to retain some of the allowance until my death in order to benefit from any future increase if this is related to the value of the house. I have lost track of what is happening on that front. I seem to remember it was going to come into force in 2017 but if we could benefit from any future increases in the IHT amount on his estate as well as mine, that could be useful on my death. I have not yet had time to check up on this, so if anyone has chapter and verse on this and is prepared to share, I should be enormously grateful. So much to do in relation to cremation, memorial service and wake, not to mention dealing with banks, isa managers, council, etc etc. etc.
I am still peeved that pension funds, whether in drawdown or not, can be left to heirs free of IHT without encroaching on the IHT allowance, despite accruing from untaxed inpayments, whereas ISAs (accruing from taxed inpayments) incur IHT unless left to spouses.
I'd like to have a shot at dealing with the Estate myself rather than using a solicitor and definitely not a bank. Is there is a guide published which spells out exactly what to do and how it all works?
Am I likely to run into problems getting probate with this home-made Will? I think he just mirrored the one I had had done through a solicitor to save money as we were very strapped for cash at the time as my husband had not received what he was due to from his Mother's Will and we had bought our house by tender in the expectation of doing so, so we had to borrow a large sum to complete..
We may wish to do a Deed of Variation anyway, possibly leaving some of the IHT free money to grandchildren instead of their parents. The other thing that is bugging me is whether any change should be made to the sum left to anyone other than me in order to retain some of the allowance until my death in order to benefit from any future increase if this is related to the value of the house. I have lost track of what is happening on that front. I seem to remember it was going to come into force in 2017 but if we could benefit from any future increases in the IHT amount on his estate as well as mine, that could be useful on my death. I have not yet had time to check up on this, so if anyone has chapter and verse on this and is prepared to share, I should be enormously grateful. So much to do in relation to cremation, memorial service and wake, not to mention dealing with banks, isa managers, council, etc etc. etc.
I am still peeved that pension funds, whether in drawdown or not, can be left to heirs free of IHT without encroaching on the IHT allowance, despite accruing from untaxed inpayments, whereas ISAs (accruing from taxed inpayments) incur IHT unless left to spouses.
I'd like to have a shot at dealing with the Estate myself rather than using a solicitor and definitely not a bank. Is there is a guide published which spells out exactly what to do and how it all works?