Estate Planning as a Career

This is a question I get asked a lot. Most people have some misconceptions about what they can and can’t leave in a Will.

The basic premise is that to leave something in a Will you have to actually own it at the time of your death. Now this may seem obvious but there are assets that you may think you own outright but in legal terms you do not. The asset must be in your sole name or the gift will fail. Examples of this are:-

Jointly held assets (Joint Tenants)

1. Bank accounts - if it is a joint bank account you cannot leave this to anyone in your will as it will automatically pass to the other joint holder
2. Insurance policies - if it is a joint policy them the other named holder will gain ownership
3. Houses - this is for most people their biggest asset. If there are two or more names on the deeds and you hold it as Joint tenants then the other named tenant or tenants will automatically gain ownership on your death and you cannot leave this asset to anyone else. You can change the ownership to Tenants in Common and then you can determine who gets your share of the house. This is the most overlooked aspect of Estate planning and if not done correctly then it can cause problems form a tax point of view or more importantly from funding long term care. I will cover this in another article and you can also read about it on my blog.
4. Investments - again if these are held jointly with anyone else you cannot leave them to a third party.

What does this all mean in terms of writing your Will?

The first thing to do is generate an Asset Register. Make a list of everything you own and put a value on it. Next determine how you own it, is it solely owned by you or Jointly with someone els (more…)