Wills and Estate Planning

At the heart of your estate planning is your will (“Last Will and Testament”). Without it, you lose your right to choose your heirs, to choose the executor of your estate, and to choose who will look after your children and your family trusts when you die. But there’s lots of online chatter about other types of “will” such as offshore wills, digital wills, business wills, ethical wills and living wills. What are they and do you really need to put them all in place?

Your will must always lie at the heart of your estate planning. But don’t concentrate solely on the financial wellbeing of your family after you are gone. The personal legacy you leave them is also important. It focuses on your family’s values, history and heritage, supporting your heirs in living their lives to the fullest while preserving and enjoying the material wealth they inherit from you. But how do you create a personal legacy that will last for generations, and how does this fit into your overall estate planning? We share some practical suggestions on how to get started…

“Let’s choose executors and talk of wills.” (William Shakespeare in Richard II) You may have read one of the many online articles about an electronic will being validated recently by the High Court. Don’t be misled into thinking that electronic wills are now valid as a matter of course – they most certainly are not. …

Electronic Wills Aren’t Valid: Stick to Pen and Paper Read More »

“All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.” (William Shakespeare, in Hamlet) Master’s Office records suggest that less than a third of us leave behind a will when we die. That’s astonishing, given the fact that death is one of the few absolute certainties in our lives. Why do so many of us …

Excuses, Excuses: Why People Don’t Make Wills, And Why You Must Read More »