For more information on the benefits of having a Will contact our Private Client team today on 01284 767 766
Today I saw a 24 year old client who came into the office to sign her Will and she told me that when she had mentioned to her friends that she had made a Will they all asked her ‘WHY?!’
Legally you can write a Will from the age of 18. Most of my clients tend to be considerably older than this but there are many reasons why someone who is 24 (or younger!) should make a Will:
Children
If you have children under the age of 18 you could use your Will to appoint a legal guardian. If both parents die the guardian could take over responsibility for your children. If you don’t appoint a guardian, anyone can apply to the family court to become a guardian. Making a Will could help you choose who looks after your children if you die.
Property
If you buy or are gifted a property, this is certainly a good time to consider making a Will to ensure that your wishes regarding your property are carried out on your death. This is particularly important if you live with someone, a partner, spouse, who doesn’t own the property, or owns a share of it with you, but you want to ensure that they are able to remain in the property for as long as they like if anything happens to you. You can include rights in your Will to allow for this.
Funeral wishes
Explaining our funeral wishes is a conversation many of us don’t get around to having with loved ones, particularly when those loved ones are young. You could include your wishes for your funeral arrangements in your Will, or in a document to be best kept with your Will, to let your loved ones know what you wanted and to help reduce the stress involved in making these decisions.
Specific gifts
If you have certain items that you would like to leave to individuals, then to ensure that this happens you need to include them in a Will. Likewise, if you would like to leave cash sums to people or charities you need to make provision for this in a Will.
Digital assets
Digital assets include photos, email accounts, social media accounts, music collections, film libraries, gaming accounts, cryptocurrencies and many more. A Will allows you to appoint a specific person to deal with these assets and decide what should happen to them.
Pets
ou could use your Will to nominate who you would like to look after your pets after your die. You could also include a cash gift to that same person to help with any expenses incurred in looking after your pets.
Statistics show that more millennials than ever before are writing Wills – 27% of adults aged 18 to 34 now have Wills compared to only 18% in 2019. Rather than focusing on what age you should be to make a Will, it is more important to consider your personal and financial circumstances and your overall wishes regarding your estate and ask yourself if these wishes could be carried out effectively on death without a Will in place. The client I saw today was a very switched on young lady, who knew that she wanted to protect her loved ones if anything happened to her and knew the only way to do this was to prepare a Will.
Making a Will at any age is always a good idea, it protects your loved ones from any problems with your assets if you die. For more information about the benefits of making a Will contact our Private Client team today on 01284 767766.
