Wills: keep it sweet and simple and don’t tell

Sarah Love

In the fiduciary world practitioners are often confronted by long-winded last wills and testaments, which clients can barely understand – yet have signed – and when the details of the document are unpacked the instructions that it ultimately contains are not necessarily what the cli- ent intended at all.

Short and simple wills usually suffice.

No one needs seven pages of illegible “legalese”, yet many people are lulled into a false sense of security that the more official sounding the document reads, the safer they are. KISS – keep it sweet and simple.

The sweet part comes from the fact that your last will and testament will eventually become a public document, unless revoked before your death.

It is in no one’s interest to have dirty laundry aired in this manner, so don’t dredge up old family feuds, grudges, embarrassments and secrets in your will.

Keep the instructions in your will simple – you will not be there to explain them and the more complicated your wishes are, the more likely they are to be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Finally, don’t tell. Your will is a private document until you die, and you’re under no obligation to tell anyone what it contains.

Sarah Love is a Private Client Trust fiduciary specialist