If you have a child with a disability, planning for their future is vital. While it is understandably difficult to imagine a time when you won’t be around to care for your child, you will want to ensure that they are taken care of.

By including a Trust in your Will, you can provide for your disabled child when you are gone.

A Trust is often a better option than just leaving a specified amount in a Will. Especially where:

• Leaving your child with a large amount of money could put them in a vulnerable position. For example, making them a target of abuse from others
• Where your child is not able to deal with their own finances
• Where your child could lose their means-tested benefits.

Of course, you could leave all your money to someone you trust, on the basis that they look after your child. But this option is fraught with difficulties.

Firstly, you never know how someone’s changing situation and finances (e.g. divorce, bankruptcy, etc.) could impact your child. Secondly, if they die, their estate could go directly to their children (or other beneficiaries), leaving your child with nothing.

Establishing a Trust helps to avoid such uncertainties and ring-fences the inheritance earmarked for your disabled child.

Trusts in Wills

When you create a Trust, you can establish in the terms in your Will.

There are different types of Trusts and they each work in different ways. It pays to speak to a solicitor to ensure the right Trust for your circumstances.

Where a disabled child is involved this could be a Disabled Person’s Trust.

Disabled Person’s Trusts

A Disabled Person’s Trust lets you leave some or all of your estate to a beneficiary who is unable to manage the inheritance themselves.

You establish the amount of the Trust and the people you want to manage the inheritance on behalf of the disabled beneficiary. These people are called the Trustees.

You can also leave a Letter of Wishes stating how you would prefer the Trust to be used. This will help the Trustees to carry out their duties as you would want.

A Disabled Person’s Trust does not affect any means-tested benefits, and the money cannot be used to pay off any debt (or be considered an asset in a divorce etc.). Furthermore, your child cannot be coerced into giving away the assets in the Trust or using the money for other purposes.

If you have a disabled child and would like to protect them in your Will, speak to one of our expert team.

Make A Free, No Obligation Enquiry Now

To speak with one of our specialist Wills & Probate Lawyers, please call us now on 0117 952 0698 or Make A Free Will Enquiry and we will discuss your current circumstances with you and explain all available options available to you.

Having a will in place is essential if you want the final say in what happens to your business and other assets after you die.

If you die without a Will, everything you own – including business and non-business assets – will be distributed under the laws of intestacy. This means that you or your loved ones will have no say as to who inherits.

Of course, when it comes to writing a Will, you have a plethora of options. You can even buy DIY kits from the high street, do it online, or get advice from forums and write your own. And, if you are looking to save money, these can be tempting options.

But, when you own a business, not using a professional lawyer or Will writer is almost always a mistake.

Common mistakes with a DIY Will include:

• It’s not signed or dated
• It’s signed in the wrong place
• It doesn’t have the necessary number of witnesses
• The wrong person has witnessed the Will (e.g. a witness must not benefit from a Will so any family member you want to inherit cannot sign it)
• The Will fails to cover all your assets
• The Will fails to consider issues around inheritance tax, executors and trusts.

Even the smallest of mistakes could render a Will invalid, so expert advice is always recommended. But when you are a business owner, it is even more important that your Will is drafted by a professional. Not least because, if you own a business (or shares in a business), you will probably want to create your Wills in a tax efficient way to help minimise inheritance tax.

Business assets

When you die, any shares or interest you own in a business become an asset of your estate. Without a Will, these shares could be sold, the company could be broken up, or it could run into trouble without the correct day-to-day management in place.

For example, you might know who you want to inherit your business after you die, but what happens if there is a tragedy and these people don’t survive? All eventualities should be considered and only a professional lawyer or Will writer will know what questions to ask to make sure that your Will covers all situations.

In some cases, you might already have a partnership agreement or company papers in place that set out what will happen to the business after you die. These types of contracts are usually put in place if more than one person owns a business and you want the company to continue after your death. However, to avoid your assets being dealt with under the rules of intestacy, your Will should detail who will receive your shares.

Drawing up a Will is something that must be done correctly. Speak to one of our expert team.

Make A Free, No Obligation Enquiry Now

To speak with one of our specialist Wills & Probate Lawyers, please call us now on 0117 952 0698 or Make A Free Will Enquiry and we will discuss your current circumstances with you and explain all available options available to you.

Perhaps one of the first things to think about when planning or revising your Will is who your dependents are. Who relies on you financially or for care? These are significant considerations you will need to think about.

Obviously, this could include a spouse, civil partner or co-habiting partner, along with any children you may have. This isn’t limited to your natural children; you may have adopted or step-children you will need to consider. It may also include anyone you have been caring for or looking after financially, such as elderly relatives or a child with a disability.

If you and your partner are not married or in a civil partnership, it is vital that you have a Will to protect them should you die. If you don’t then the proceeds from your estate will pass to your children or to other relatives if you have no children. If there are no relatives, your estate will pass to the Crown. Under the Inheritance Act 1975 your partner may be able to make an application for some of your assets, but this will take time and money.

If you and your partner die before your children are 18 years old, they will need a guardian to take responsibility for them.

You may also consider setting up a Trust to cater for the financial costs of being a guardian, by leaving a property for any children in the Trust until they are older. Usually a guardian will be one of the trustees, but it’s advisable to appoint someone separate as well to help the guardians and ensure there is no conflict of interest.

More thought also needs to go into providing for a child with disabilities. If you have more than one child, it is natural to want to provide for them equally. That said, sharing the proceeds of your estate equally between your children may not be in the disabled child’s best interests.

If you plan to leave a lump sum to each child, you need to assess whether or not the disabled child has the capability to make decisions for themselves. If they don’t have capacity to deal with their financial affairs, a deputy may need to be appointed. This is likely to eat into some of the funds of their inheritance.

You will also need to consider whether any inheritance left to a disabled child will affect their entitlement to means tested benefits. If it does, their inheritance may have unintended consequences that leave them worse off financially rather than better.

Again, setting up a Trust to provide an income for the disabled child is often a sensible approach to take.

There are different types of Trusts to consider and Trust law is complex. A good Solicitor, Estate Planner or Will Writing Professional will be able to advise you on this and all aspects of providing for your dependents in the way that you want.

Make A Free, No Obligation Enquiry Now

To speak with one of our specialist Wills & Probate Lawyers, please call us now on 0117 952 0698 or Make A Free Will Enquiry and we will discuss your current circumstances with you and explain all available options available to you.

Although not a pleasant thought, when planning for the future it is not just the financials that need to discussed. If you have children, what happens to them if the worst should happen should be considered, such as who will look after them and where they will live.

When guardianship is entered into a will as a clause, this is known as ‘testamentary guardianship’. This is not something that can be decided whilst sat with you’re the person drafting your will, it should be discussed beforehand and the persons you would like to nominate involved in the conversation.

Another thing to consider is who has parental responsibility. Unmarried fathers will only obtain parental responsibility if they are registered on the birth certificate, there is a parental agreement between the mother and father or a court order.

If there is a dispute about where the children are to live, the courts will look first to those who have parental responsibility. If you are no longer with the other parent to your children, even if your children have had no contact with them, they will continue to have parental responsibility and the children may be placed in their care, if no other provision is made.

It is therefore important to appoint a guardian of your choice in your will, which will give them parental responsibility.

Alongside the guardianship being decided, you will need to ensure that there will be finances available to help raise the children. As each situation is different, we will be able to assist on providing the best options with the assets you have.

It is important to review your will regularly, as both your situation and your appointed guardians’ situations, may have changed. For example, you may have appointed your parents as guardians, which may have been good whilst your children were small, but will they be able to take on teenagers later in life?

You must also ensure that you appoint those who you trust to bring your children up. In a will you cannot insist how your children are raised, however you can leave an ‘expression of wishes’ alongside the will that can give guidance. We will also be able to help you with this.

Make A Free, No Obligation Enquiry Now

To speak with one of our specialist Wills & Probate Lawyers, please call us now on 0117 952 0698 or Make A Free Will Enquiry and we will discuss your current circumstances with you and explain all available options available to you.