Before her untimely death in 2007 of a brain haemorrhage, Dame Anita Roddick made it publicly known she was having a “joyful” time giving away around £3 million a year to human rights, social and environmental groups
More recently was the case of Illott v Mitson which after over 10 years of wrangling was finally settled in the Supreme Court. In this case the estranged daughter, Mrs Illott , claimed her mother should not have excluded her from benefitting from her £480,000 Estate, which was left to three animal charities. I have no idea of the costs of this case, but after 10 years of rattling round the legal system, I doubt there was much of the original £480,000 Estate left.
Avoiding Your Will Being Challenged
Being open about your Will while you are writing or updating it can help to prepare children or other beneficiaries of its contents hence preventing it becoming a shock or surprise when it is read. Sometimes there is a perfectly good reason why siblings are treated differently.
To avoid possible claims that you didn’t know what you were doing or were being influenced by others, write your Will in your early years. It can never be too early to write your Will nor can you be too young once you reach 18. Here at Enfield Wills, we ask you a number of questions to which we record and document the answers. We ask you to sign the documented answers to confirm these to be your answers given freely and without any undue influence of others. This will protect you and prove your wishes should someone contest your Will.
We will be present at a Will signing, to stop anyone saying it doesn’t fulfil the technical requirements to make it a legal document. Again, the entire Will process is documented from start to finish with an overriding case of file notes.
If you decide to exclude a spouse, or family member, then we insist you write a Letter of Wishes giving a very detailed explanation of your reasons for doing so.
Claims can also be brought if you promised to leave assets to someone, but fail to do so in your Will. The claimant can say that they have suffered detriment – financial or otherwise – because they relied on the promised inheritance.
The obvious way to avoid these sorts of claims is by not promising assets in the first place and then changing your mind. If circumstances do change, however, and you need to renege, try to do it before the detriment goes too far, or compensate the person at the time. Again, anything of material significance not included in your Will should be included in your Letter of Wishes.
So, when you write your Will with us, you can rest assured your wishes will be adhered to and that any challenges to your Will are highly unlikely to succeed.
For a friendly chat about your circumstances or to book an appointment contact Roger Bourdon 07958 221460
You can visit our website by clicking here
Read Roger’s article “It’s never TOO early to write your will but it could be TOO late” here
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