Update Your Will Week – 28 March – 1 April 2022

Humphries Kirk are proud to be participating in the very first official Update Your Will Week as launched by Solicitors for the Elderly.

Having a properly drafted Will in place is important for two main reasons – Succession, and Estate Planning.

Succession means your Will ensures your assets pass to the correct people after you have died. Without a Will, you have no control over who inherits your assets and someone (for example, an estranged spouse or family member) may end up benefiting from your estate even if you would not want them to.

Estate planning means that a Will can include provisions that help reduce the amount of inheritance tax you pay on death, or could protect assets from being used up on care fees.

If you already have a Will, it’s just as important to make sure you regularly review it. The law is changing all the time and therefore what might have been a perfectly good Will many years ago when you signed it, could quite possibly now be insufficient to carry out your wishes. In particular, anyone who made a Will before 2007 or 2016 should be advised of some dramatic changes to the Inheritance Tax laws that could seriously effect the terms of their Will, if they have not been updated.

At Humphries Kirk, we recommend you review your Will with a professional advisor at least once every 3 years. We are happy to offer free reviews of your Wills where the Will was originally prepared by Humphries Kirk, and we also offer a package that for a one-off fee entitles you to not only a carefully prepared Will, but a free replacement Will if you wish to make any changes within 5 years.

Digital assets

When preparing or updating a Will, we recommend putting in place a document that helps your executors access your Digital Assets after you have died. More and more data is becoming electronic, such as online bank accounts, digital music libraries and social media accounts. Without any guidance on how to access these assets, the executors of your Will may struggle to carry out your wishes.

This frustration can be prevented by putting in place a record of your digital assets and how to access them. You can then store this record with your solicitors with binding instructions to hold this confidentially and securely until after your death, after which it can be released to the executors of your Will.

If you would like to discuss updating your Will, or putting in place a record of your digital assets please do not hesitate to contact us on 01202 437150 or email p.stagg@hklaw.uk.