The Eric Whitehead Partnership

If you have step-children or your husband/wife/partner has step-children please get in touch with us to discuss this further.

There are many variations on this. For example, you might want to allow them to sell the house and buy something smaller without losing their right to occupy. If you want to make these sorts of provisions, you will need to discuss matters with us further.

Choose between one to four Executors. If there are children beneficiaries, you must choose at least two Executors.

Appointing the firm as Executors

Note about the fees: If this firm acts as Executors, we will be entitled to charge additional fees to the estate for so acting.

If you want the firm to act as Executors jointly with people you know, please get in touch and we can arrange that.

There are three main ways you can make gifts in your Will:-

1. Giving away specific belongings – Specific Legacies

These legacies should always be referred to in your Will as "my". For example, “I give my engagement ring to X”. As the gift relates to a specific item then, if you do not own that item when you die, the gift fails.

Describe what you mean in your own words and be careful to make sure everything is clear and unambiguous. If you have similar items make sure that you clearly identify both the gift and the person receiving it.

2. Giving away specific cash gifts – Pecuniary Legacies

These are specific sums of money to relatives, friends, Charities and so forth, for example “I give £5,000 to X”. These types of legacies do not specify where from your Estate they are paid from so they are paid from your general Estate after death.

3. Gifts to a class of Beneficiary – Class Gifts

For example, you could give all of the grandchildren living at the date of your death an amount of cash.

Would you like to make any cash gifts to Charity?

If ‘Yes’ please provide details below:

The registered charity number is not essential but be careful to be specific if you do not have it because many charities have similar names.

Please note that we offer a Free Will Scheme under the Cancer Research UK Free Will Scheme. This Scheme is open to any client aged 18 or over. Please ask for further details.

OTHER CASH GIFTS

This is where we record specific gifts of cash in the Will. Please provide details of the people to whom you are making cash gifts, and the cash sum amount that you would like to leave. This should include any gifts to your children, step-children etc.

You can also specify that the children receive their gifts when they reach a certain age. If you want to do anything more complex (for example pay everybody when the youngest child reaches 18), get in touch with us to discuss.

If you want the children to inherit immediately, just leave these boxes blank.

You can also leave each or any Executor a cash gift provided they “prove your Will” (get Probate) – the gift is a way of thanking them for doing the work.

CLASS GIFTS

A class beneficiary is when you make a gift of the same amount of money to, for example, “the grandchildren”

The Will would say something like “I leave £500 to each of my grandchildren living at the date of my death”

Please provide details of any gift of cash that you would like to leave to a class of beneficiary.

What happens to the remainder of the estate after these legacies are distributed? We call that the “residue” of the estate, or the Residuary Estate. It is what is left over after the funeral expenses, debt, administration costs, taxes and specific legacies have all been paid out. Normally, the Residuary Estate represents the vast majority of the Estate.

Remember to think about the “what if’s”. For example, what should happen if someone was due to receive something but then dies before you? Does it go to their children? Or back to the estate to be shared out?

Please also consider the age at which each beneficiary should inherit – a child beneficiary is automatically entitled to inherit at the age of 18 unless you say otherwise. If the child is under-age their share will be held in trust until they reach the required age.

Please set out in the box below exactly how you would like your Residuary Estate to be dealt with. If you have a spouse and children it is very common to leave the Residuary Estate to your surviving spouse in the first instance with it then passing to the children in equal shares in the event of your spouse predeceasing you. It would also be common in these circumstances to state that if any of your children also predeceases you leaving children of their own then their share would pass down to their children.