The Importance of Wills for Parents

If you have children under 18, having an up-to-date, legally valid Will is essential. While most people view a Will primarily as a tool for passing on wealth and assets, for parents, it serves an even more vital purpose: securing your children’s future and care. We take a look at the importance of Wills for parents.

The main reason for making a Will is to ensure you pass on your wealth to your choice of beneficiary. However, a Will also offers other advantages, particularly to those with children.

1. Appointing a Legal Guardian for Your Minor Children

The single most critical reason for parents to make a Will is the ability to name a legal guardian.

If both parents pass away unexpectedly without a valid Will naming a guardian:

• The Courts Decide: A family court judge will determine who takes custody of your children.

• Unintended Outcomes: The court’s choice of legal guardian may not align with your personal wishes, values, or family preferences.

• Delays and Stress: Your family may face lengthy, stressful legal proceedings during an already difficult time.

Naming a guardian in your Will ensures that the people you trust most are legally appointed to care for your children.

2. Ensuring Financial Security for Your Dependents

Beyond guardianship, a Will allows you to manage how your estate is distributed to support your children:

• Setting Up Trusts: You can create trust structures to hold funds until your children reach a specific age (e.g., 18, 21, or 25).

• Funding Living & Education Costs: You can appoint trustees to manage money for your children’s day-to-day upbringing, education, and health needs.  Leave your trustees instructions as to how you would like funds to be dealt with. For example, you could specify that you would like money to be released for your children’s university education.

Making a Will

Contemplating a future where you are no longer there for your children is difficult, but creating proper legal provisions offers the best protection for them. Writing or updating your Will gives you complete peace of mind, knowing you have secured your family’s future.

Writing a Will allows you to choose exactly who receives your assets. Without one, the Rules of Intestacy distribute your estate to your legal next of kin. These strict rules can leave your children with substantially less than your surviving spouse, directly opposing your actual wishes.

Including step-children:The Rules of Intestacy completely exclude cohabiting partners and step-children. If you want your step-children to inherit any part of your estate, you must explicitly name them in a Will.

Inheritance Tax and estate planning:Creating a Will lets you structure your estate strategically to minimise Inheritance Tax and maximize what you pass on. For instance, unmarried cohabiting partners must pay Inheritance Tax on any assets they inherit from you. If your partner then leaves those same assets to your children upon their own passing, HM Revenue & Customs taxes that money a second time. Leaving assets directly to your children avoids this double-taxation trap.

Remarriage:Marriage automatically revokes any existing Will unless you wrote it specifically in contemplation of that marriage. If you marry or remarry without drafting a new Will, the Rules of Intestacy take over. Under these rules, your new spouse automatically receives the majority of your estate. This gives your new spouse full freedom to pass those assets onto their own children or a future partner, unintentionally disinheriting your own children.

If this is not what you want, you should make a Will and set the provisions you wish to apply. For example, leaving money to children from an earlier relationship.

Deciding who will have heirlooms: Your Will is also an opportunity to pass on individual items of value to your children. This ensures that they receive what you would like them to have and can also prevent disagreements from arising.

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