It is never nice to think about our own demise. Many of us feel invincible but the sad truth is that, at some point, we are all going to shuffle off this mortal coil.

If that isn’t bad enough, imagine everything that could possibly unfold after we have gone, going wrong… It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?

These are the sorts of things that we have seen and some of these are entirely avoidable;

Imagine this first: Your loved ones are struggling with the grief of losing someone close to them and then the fighting and arguments break out. Someone isn’t happy with the way the Will is being administered. It could all come down to something as simple as someone seemingly being obstructive when it comes to receiving a gift. Choosing the right people as your executors is crucial and sometimes is wise to appoint a professional.

Perhaps you have a Will, something happens to you but it turns out that your Will is ‘out of date’… It hasn’t been reviewed for several years, some of the intended beneficiaries have passed away their gifts failed and as such, some of your estate passes by partial intestacy. 

Another fairly common one is having a Will, thinking everything is fine, passing away and your loved ones finding out that the Will wasn’t signed correctly and therefore it’s invalid. The signing process for Wills is relatively simple but should be done with caution and ought to be done under supervision of a professional to ensure that you are not wasting money or getting it wrong.

Another common signing error is having a beneficiary as a witness. To the probate court this could be deemed that the Will was written under the influence of the beneficiary/witness and as such any gifts to said person is deemed invalid. 

Pretty bad so far… We will leave you with one more horror story:

Try this one for size: You leave a Will but no one can find it. All of your hard work, time and expenses go to waste. That means that your estate is distributed in accordance with the laws of intestacy, not in accordance with your Will and your wishes.

To avoid any issues – seek professional advice. P.S – we are the professionals to turn to.