While this a pretty unappealing thing to think about, the fact is that if you don’t have a will things can be fairly messy for your family to sort out if something does happen to you.

As the law currently stands if you don’t have will then your ‘estate’ goes into what is called ‘intestacy’. This basically means that the law directs who inherits your worldly goods rather than your family. While this may be sorted out to benefit your family, it is always leaving things open to interpretation and so a will is the best way of avoiding any confusion.

Especially now with step families and second marriages producing more children a will is essential to ensure that you make sure your ‘estate’ goes to the people you want it to go to.

Some of us may even have made wills before having children, but again we should revisit these documents as our children should be cited in our wills.

There is a clause that can be added into wills called the Family will option and this is something we should all think about looking into once we have children. It can even be worded to address the fact that you may have more children after making the will thus ensuring all your children will benefit in the event of your death.

There are will making services available online, or you may wish to approach a local solicitor.

If you wish to leave your whole estate to your partner and then to your children, then producing a will is a relatively straightforward procedure and there are online services available to do this at a reasonable cost (less than £100). If however, you live abroad or have children from different relationships, or wish to gift certain elements of your estate to people other than your partner/children then it is probably worth sitting down with someone face to face, so you make sure you have covered all angles to your satisfaction.

For independent legal advice in England and Wales, try www.clsdirect.org.uk.

If you live in Scotland

You should check that any will-making service makes Scottish wills for people living in Scotland. Your local solicitor can give you advice. You may be entitled to help through the legal aid scheme. You can also contact your local Citizens Advice, law centre, independent advice centre or local council.
Citizens Advice Scotland: www.cas.org.uk

The information given in this section is not in any way intended to guide you towards any particular product or service. We do not offer information as financial experts or consultants and we would recommend you taking independent financial advice before purchasing any financial services product.