You’ve made sure your assets will be left to the right people. You included the standard things like how your assets will be divided and possibly if you want to be buried or cremated but, there are some things you might never have thought to include that could be equally as important e.g. appointing a guardian for your cat or some quirky request to have a line dance party at your funeral.
Below is a list of not so obvious topics to cover in a will.
• Leave instructions about your funeral e.g. cremation or burial, what songs to play at your service, where to scatter your ashes, if you are an organ donor or if you wish for a religious ceremony or not etc.
• Leaving assets to charities, friends, or partners besides family.
• Specific legacies – who gets what e.g. family heirlooms, sentimental keepsake, or contents of a bank account. The more specific you get, the less chance there is for confusion or legal battles.
• You can set up specific ages for your children to receive a percentage of their inheritance to avoid them frivolously spending their entire inheritance.
• Don’t forget any digital assets and online accounts – you may have assets you purchased online such as digital music, movies, and photographs. Also, who will control your social media accounts or who will manage or remove them for you.
• Instructions on where to find any passwords and log in details to manage your digital assets – a separate document should be written with these for the executor and the will should only state who the document is with.
• Who will care for your pets? – make sure whoever you leave your pets to gives you their permission. Also, you can state specific instructions on how to care for your pet. This may seem trivial, but there are many cases of people leaving their entire fortunes to their pets. *
These are but a few possibilities that could be included in your will. There might be others that you have not thought about yet. The more specific the better.
Always make sure that your will is legal and correctly drawn up. Consult with your deVere advisor to help review your will or make use of deVere’s online wills portal.
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Please note, the above is for education purposes only and does not constitute advice. You should always contact your deVere advisor for a personal consultation.
* No liability can be accepted for any actions taken or refrained from being taken, as a result of reading the above.
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