Where there’s a will, there’s a relative.

I know that it’s a bit flippant to be making jokes about death, because this is a serious subject, but it’s still an accurate comment.  When you die, the probability is that your family will be wanting to know what, if anything, they’ll be getting.

You may think that this is going to lead into me telling you why you should have a will, but I’m not.  I’m sure you already know that.

What you may not know is the risk involved if your will doesn’t cover you for every eventuality.

You may have read recently about the death of the British tycoon Mr Richard Cousins, the CEO of the catering giant Compass. Mr Cousins and his whole family died in a tragic accident in December 2017 which triggered the process of the administration of his Estate according to his latest Will.

With many wills, people will leave their estate to their partner and/or their children, but they will often not think ahead to what should happen if all of their immediate family goes at the same time.  If none of the people named in your will survive your death, then your estate will either go to some distant relative that you don’t know (or possibly know but don’t like!) or it could go to the crown.

Fortunately Mr Cousins had taken good legal advice and had a “catch all” clause, which provided that if all of his family died with him or before him, Oxfam received £41m from his Estate.

If you’d like us to undertake a free review of your will to see if it covers everything that it should, or if you don’t have a will and would like to meet with us to talk about what you need and what the costs would be, drop us a line at Yoanna@kleymansolicitors.com or call us on 0203 887 8740.  We will send you our questionnaire to complete, and help you set up a meeting with our will writing team.