Have You Made Your Will? Not a joke.

I know some one who did similar, but it wasn't old age but cancer. Gave him a couple of months to live.

You can guess what happened, they didn't sue his wife for the money, they found a cure and he didn't die, he had to pay it all back.

 

Thanks for that shiney, you have jogged my memory about this again!!!

Val

 

Evening all.

Sorry if this has already been said, but I haven't read the entire thread.

I'm going to be a hippocrite now, and say that it is important to make a will, even if you're at that age where you still believe you're immortal. I'm a hippocrite because I haven't done it yet, even though I know I should.

To anyone still lucky enough to have a good pension and life assurance scheme at work, as I did a couple of jobs ago.

You think to yourself, I don't need to do anything, my wife is automatically my next of kin. If I die while I'm in the scheme, she will be looked after in that she gets a lump sum payout, plus a significant percentage of my salary each month for the rest of her life.

Then you stumble upon a convoluted term in the terms and conditions document. To paraphrase, it says that the person you name on the form as your next of kin is just a suggestion to the scheme trustees, who will decide themselves by vote who gets the benefits from the scheme unless a will is made. It actually said that the trustees could decide that the best thing to do would be to reinvest the benefits into the scheme.

So I take that to mean, even if you don't have a life assurance scheme at work, its still not safe to assume that your assets go to who you think they'll go to in the event of your untimely demise.

 

What Clueless states is true, the trustee can will it to themselves Unless you have made a will stating what you want

As for the FREE WILL month, it is a bit of a CON to top up WILL AID
They make up the will for free then make a suggested DONATION

It is VERY difficult for one to Will a home worth 460k and 200k assets, then donate NOTHING

Joking aside, even if you THINK you are not worth much You need to make a Will
The law in Scotland is different, but if you die INTESTATE, Then the assets can go to places you never imagined, NOT JUST TO YOUR NEXT OF KIN

The wicked Witch you have not quite Divorsed will get his/her full share
The child who ran off with the family silver and thinks you are a stupid T$%^£
will get his full share too

I suppose when you are dead, it does not really mater to you where its gone
just peace of mind whilst you are still around

Jack McHammocklashing

 

I can't imagine I need a will:o what would an unemployed 20yr have to possibly leave? maybe my gardening books and the PC

 

This is how my mum was ******* over by her brother, his name was on the title deeds (i presume so he didn't have to pay inheritance tax?) however the house and contents where down on the will to be shared between them

 

I work with elderly people daily and one couple i visit were scammed out of a couple of thousand by a very well known 'elderly people aid' company.

How could this happen from such a reputable company you ask ...... ?
Because their 'will agents' were 'subcontracted' for want of a better word ..... and this particular 'agent' took the deposit money and ran

They contacted the 'big well known company' but because these guys weren't actually employed by *** ******* and there was nothing that could be done.
It was a dreadful do.

 

Actually that's not true, although lots of organisations rely on tricks like this to get out of their legal obligations.

When you do a deal with a company, you are doing business with that company only. The company may choose to subcontract some or all of the services you are buying, but it is still the original company that you are doing business with.

Its all in the Sale of Goods act 1990, which despite the misleading name, also applies to services.

The scam victims, who in effect were robbed, can claim a refund from the original company. If the company wont pay up, then, if they have the energy and persistence, can take it to the small claims court (you can do it online via moneyclaim.gov.uk).

When they win, the company may choose to recover their losses by taking action against the subcontractors, but that's their problem.

 

Interesting.

The couple in question certainly didn't have it in them to persue it but they've 2 sons and i think they took it further but were told by *** ******* that it was "out of their hands" and the sons' actions stopped there :(
Dreadful actions for such a well respected company, to send in these agents to the peoples homes, where they take advantage of every single thing and factor from the (2 hour long) hospitality to the folks' ignorance, is totally un-acceptable.
I was outraged, on principle.

It really was awful, it shook-up the elderly couple quite badly.
They've now made wills and did it through a normal/high street solicitors company.