Life Insurance and Will Writing

Do I choose Life or Life and Critical Illness Policy?

Taking a life policy providing mortgage protection ensures that in the event of your death your mortgage would be cleared.  A life policy pays out the insured sum on the death of the policy holder or holders whereas a life and critical illness policy will pay out on the death of a policy holder or if the policy holder suffers a critical illness (the relevant critical illnesses are listed by the insurance companys documentation and in Key Facts).

Fact: You are twice as likely to claim on a critical illness policy as a life policy!

Some of companies we can arrange you policy with are as follows:-

Will Writing

How will you benefit from writing a will?

• Writing a will benefits you greatly as you are able to distribute your estate however you choose, giving gifts, money and any specific items to whomever you wish.
• You are also able to appoint the most suitable executor(s) of your choice, being someone whom you trust to administer your estate exact to your wishes.
• With a will you will also benefit from being able to appoint guardians to look after your children in the event of the death of both you and your partner.
• You are able to specify your funeral wishes.
• You are able to save on Inheritance Tax meaning more for your beneficiaries.

Taking out a policy with Uk Mortgage Gallery will also allow be able to profit from no worries about paper work in your time of bereavement. With the permission from our customers, we are the only company who will take on the responsibility for the life insurance policy we have provided. So what we can do is take the unneeded stress away and offer out free service of handling your insurance claim efficiently.

So, what happens if you don’t write a will?

• If you die without making a will there will be intestacy. This means that your estate will be handed over to the courts to administer your estate according to the Administration of Estates Act. Therefore your estate may not go to the people you expect or wanted it to.
• If you have no spouse/ civil partner or blood relatives then your entire estate will go to the tax man.
• It is a common misconception that in the event of your death everything will automatically pass to your spouse.
• If you do have blood relatives or a spouse/civil partner, they will have to apply to the courts to administer your estate – a far more lengthy and costly process than if you had written a will. This could lead to your Inheritance Tax bill being higher than normal.
• Without a will even if you have a co-habiting partner and have been together for 50 or more years, he/she will receive none of your estate. This is because the Intestacy Laws don’t recognise unmarried partners.
• If you have no surviving relatives then your estate will go to the Crown.

If you do not write a will and you have no spouse/ civil partner or blood relatives then your estate could go to the Treasury.

Making a will is the only way to ensure that you decide how your property and possessions are distributed after your death. If you have any children under the age of 18, and the other parent is also deceased, then you have also given up the right to decide who looks after them.

What should I think about before writing my will?

Executors/Trustees

• Executors do the work of administrating your Estate and carrying out other instructions in your Will.
• You should appoint people you trust who would comply with your wishes. Executors are also appointed ‘Trustees’ which may involve long term management e.g. looking after money for minor children and paying any debts, Inheritance Tax or other taxes and expenses that are due at the date of your death.
• Executors are able to claim from your estate for any expenses incurred carrying out their duties.
• There may be advantages in appointing a professional executor such as a solicitor, accountant or bank manager however they will charge for the work they do and these costs will have to be met from your estate.
• As a last resort if there is no one able and willing to act as an executor or where a beneficiary is an incapacitated adult or dependent child, it may be appropriate to appoint a Public Trustee.

Guardians

• You would need to think about whom the best person(s) you would appoint to look after your minor children (under 18) after the death of both you and your partner.

Legacies

• You will need to think about who you think to leave your estate to and what would happen with your estate to and what would happen with your estate if the chosen beneficiaries are unable to receive for any reason.
• Also what you should think about is what you would like to happen with anything you may inherit up to the date of your death.

When would I have to re-write my will?

Supplements to a Will can be added to your existing without having to re-write your will providing that the changes are only minor. An example of this would be your residuary estate address changing. Never make changes to your will yourself, when changes need to be made always contact your Will Writer.

Examples of changes that would lead to a new will are illustrated below;

· Marriage

· Re-marriage

· Entering a civil partnership

· Divorce with a reference to the ex-partner in the will

If you wish to make a payment for your will please select the type of payment below;

Will Purchasing

Single Will £95.00 Joint Will £180.00 Deposit £30.00 Single will outstanding £65.00 Joint will outstanding £150.00

If you wish to take out a Will or any of our other financial services please feel fee to contact Uk Mortgage Gallery on 01922 691 244 or 07931 366 014.