01-08-2025
- General
- The Herald Scotland
Good will? Why getting your estate sorted really matters
Firstly, and crucially, if you die intestate, there will be delays and extra costs involved in administering your estate. An Executor will have to be appointed through court and it might be necessary to obtain specialist insurance. These events will not only add a couple of hundred pounds to costs but also an additional average of 6-10 weeks to the administration of your estate.
Secondly, to have control about who inherits what from your estate, you simply must make a will. When there is no will, the order of who inherits from your estate is directed by statute. And depending on a series of factors, your estate may not automatically pass to your surviving spouse/civil partner, and that in turn might cause financial hardship for them.
Another important reason to get your affairs sorted arises if you and your partner cohabit but aren't married. Surprisingly, there are no automatic rights of succession for cohabiting partners in Scotland. If you die intestate your surviving partner only has six months to file a claim with the courts to receive the same provision that they would have had if you were married. So far, there has not been a reported case where a surviving partner has received the same entitlement as a widow or widower – it has always been lower.
If you're still not persuaded, don't forget that having no will can cause family problems after your death. If you die intestate with a cohabiting partner and children, the children will usually be first in line to inherit and any successful claim by the surviving cohabitant will reduce the shares left to the children and can affect family relationships.
Still swithering? The final reason I urge everyone to get a will in place is because of money. Or more precisely, inheritance tax. With the nil rate band (the amount you can leave without paying inheritance tax) static at £325,000 since 2009 and not expected to rise any time soon, more and more people are finding themselves caught in an inheritance tax trap. It's now very easy for a person with a house, some life cover and some cash who wouldn't consider themselves wealthy to be subject to inheritance tax.
If you have already made a will, great, but you really need to keep it up to date. Circumstances change and life events happen, so it's only sensible to check over your will every three years or so. It just makes life, and death, easier for everyone.
Stephanie Christie-Carmichael is a Private Client Director with Curle Stewart Limited, in Glasgow. An updated version of her book How To Settle An Estate in Scotland is available from Amazon
