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Marriage and wills




In their fortnightly column, solicitors Mossop and Bowser discuss how marriage affects wills.

When planning your big day, the topic of how your marriage or civil partnership might affect your wills may be the last thing on your mind. However, the legal implications of marriage could have a big effect on your will. Unless you have specifically stated otherwise in your will, it will automatically be revoked on the day of your marriage. Consequently, until you prepare a new will you will be intestate (without a legal will) and you will no longer be in control over who deals with your affairs and benefits from your inheritance after you have gone.

What could this mean to me?

Prior to marriage, your significant other had no automatic entitlement to your estate. Instead, your children are generally first in line to benefit from your inheritance. After marriage/civil partnership this position is dramatically different. If you don’t prepare a new will, your spouse/civil partner will automatically inherit the first £270,000 of your inheritance. They are also entitled to a further 50% of any additional assets you may have. The remaining 50% is then divided between any children. It is also important to note that this does not include any assets owned in joint names (ie joint bank accounts, property etc) as these will usually pass to the surviving joint owner.

Mossop & Bowser (50252187)
Mossop & Bowser (50252187)

In many cases this may not be an issue. However, it could be an alarming shift if you are a family unit which includes children from previous relationships. If no action is taken, your child’s inheritance could have been reduced to zero without your knowledge and the position may only come to light after your death, at which point your child is reliant on your significant other to share their inheritance with them unless your child takes legal action in court which could be a lengthy and expensive process with no guarantee of success in the end.

This is all very easy to fix – all you need to do is prepare a new will before your wedding/civil partnership ceremony or after it to set the record straight. Contact Caroline Cunnington or Helen Pacey at Mossop & Bowser Solicitors, 01406 422651 or info@mossops.co.uk



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