How dangerous can a DIY Will be?
We recently learned about a horror story, involving an unmarried couple.
Mr Smith had quite a large estate and had been married previously with children, Miss Jones had never been married and had no children.
Mr Smith had a Spanish property within his estate and when he bought it, he was advised by the real estate agent in Spain to get a Spanish Will.
On his return to the UK, he decided to set up his own DIY Will leaving his estate split between his new partner and his children.
Some years later he married his partner and Miss Jones became Mrs Smith.
Unfortunately, Mr Smith died only a year later. He did so, leaving no Will in place.
Having read the above, you might wonder why?
When Mr Smith made his DIY will he included, as most Wills do, the revocation clause. This revokes all previously made Wills, in this instance as no mention was made of the Spanish Will, it revoked that also.
Then when Mr & Mrs Smith got married, that revoked the DIY Will because he had not included a contemplation of marriage clause.
The result - Mr Smith died intestate.
As previously mentioned, Mr Smith’s estate was very large and exceeded his nil rate band allowance for inheritance tax purposes.
As his estate is now dealt with under the intestacy rules – his new wife got £250,000 absolutely plus his personal belongings, then half of the remaining estate.
The other half was split between his 2 children and due to the estate size, paid 40% Inheritance Tax to HMRC.
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MiGem Life Well Planned
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