What You Need to Know About Marriages and Wills
While you might be keen to get married to your partner, there is probably something that you haven’t thought about, and that is what happens to your estates when you get married.
People assume that marriages allow you a degree of protection, but the truth is this is not always the case. Let’s take a look at what you need to know about marriages and wills.
Common Misconceptions
There are two common misconceptions that people have about their estates and marriage. The first of which is that even though they don’t have a will, their spouse automatically inherits everything upon death anyway. This might get complicated so hold on tight, a lot of people seek the advice of a Kent accountant for probate services to simplify matters and you’d benefit from it too.
The rules of intestacy work a bit like this. If you don’t have a will, it’s not as simple as leaving it all to your partner.
Furthermore, if the spouse who’s died has children, then the surviving spouse only inherits the estate up to the value of the first £270,000. After that, the spouse gets half the estate, and the children share the other half.
It’s important to remember that this is a pretty simplified summary of how it works, and the estate will only be made of assets that the deceased spouse owned completely on their own. If it was something that you owned with your partner, then you inherit it automatically.
The second misconception is that because there is a will already in place, people assume that they’re naturally covered.
This is not always the case. Unless there is explicit written provision inside your will to say that it was made with your marriage in mind, your marriage automatically revokes the will, and you have to deal with the rules of intestacy.
Basically, this mandates that you make a new will which takes your marriage into account. It’s important to consider this, because just because you have one, that doesn’t mean you’re protected.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, it’s completely understandable that you probably don’t want to think about this too much. However, there is an element of thought which has to go into this particular situation, and if you don’t think about it too much, it may backfire on you.
At the end of the day, you need to make sure that you have a secure position in case something happens. This can definitely be hard to do, so it’s well worth consulting with an expert Kent tax advisors.
Being married does not offer the immediate protection that many assume it does. In a lot of cases, being married does not offer any protection, you have to make a proactive stance on fixing things and setting up a system where your partner is protected in the event of your death. Of course, this might seem decisively morbid, but it’s a necessary part of adult life.