Why you should never leave it too late to put your affairs in order, as your loved ones could lose out
Just this week a family contacted Tony Marchi, principal at ILAWS Scotland for advice but, because there was no Will in place, ILAWS was unable to help.
Tony explained: “I was contacted by a son and daughter who wanted help because their father had passed away, and their mother was in a care home. They were worried about the local authority taking their mother’s assets to pay for her care home fees.
“But because their father had not written a Will, despite their encouragement to write one, they are not entitled to a share of their father’s property or assets. His estate will be placed into intestacy instead – this happens when someone dies without a Will in place.
“It will go through the courts and, automatically, go to his surviving spouse – his wife who is in a care home. It will mean the local authority will then take the assets and money from sale of their father’s property to pay for care home fees.
“This could have all been resolved a few months ago for just £48 by writing a simple Will. But now, sadly, the couple’s children will not inherit their late father’s assets.”
“This is not an isolated incident,” explained Tony. This happens often and it stresses the importance of having a Will written. Tony said that, to safeguard the house, the couple could have put the property into a trust or done a transfer before their mother went into care.
This would have saved the property being sold to pay for care home fees.
“We wish that this hadn’t happened, because we could have helped them months ago,” added Tony. “But, because they left it too late, we could not do anything.”
Don’t let this happen to you, your children or your family. One call to ILAWS can prevent this and safeguard your own children’s inheritance.
ILAWS can write a Will for you, outlining your wishes, as well as arrange a Power of Attorney, so decisions can be made on your behalf when you are no longer able to.
And if you have a property, and want to prevent it being sold to pay for care home fees, there are options, such as trusts and transfers. ILAWS can look at this for you.