Sometimes, there are members of the family that for one reason or another, you may wish to leave out or exclude from your Will. You may think that simply not referencing that person in the Will is enough but in fact this could leave the door open for someone wishing to contest your Will later on.
If you wish to exclude someone from your Will who may themselves expect to be named as a beneficiary, it is advisable to include a separate clause in your Will which expressly states this. It should refer to a separate letter commonly known as a ‘Letter of Wishes,’ to explain why you have decided to leave them out of your Will. The Letter of Wishes should contain as much background information as possible as to why you have decided to exclude that particular person, and should be clear, reasonable and logical. You need to sign and date this letter and keep it with your Will in the event that it is ever needed after your death.
A Letter of Wishes that is factual in its nature when explaining why an individual is being excluded will go a long way when it comes to protecting the estate from a claim. This isn’t to say any claim is precluded, nor that any claim will fail, but that the likelihood of a claim’s success might be diminished.
A Letter of Wishes on it’s own is not simply enough without the exclusion clause within the Will. The reason the testator has opted to make an exclusion ought to be based on sound reasoning and not one where their emotions are the only reason for the exclusion. The reason ought to be as factual as can be, though this isn’t to say the letter must be devoid of emotion, only that there should be a balance that the logical reasoning has been communicated with regard to how the testator feels about the situation. For example, “I have excluded my brother Paul Smith from my Will as we have had no contact for the last ten years and he is no way financially dependent upon me”
Do remember that nothing should be clipped or pinned to your Will document as this could invalidate the Will. The letter should be addressed ‘to my Executors’ and is intended to be entirely confidential as once Grant of Probate is issued, a Will be comes a publicly available document. The letter is supporting evidence that the exclusion is deliberate and the person has not been omitted by mistake.
Sounds complicated I know, but don’t worry, that parts our job. If this is something that is on your mind that you would like to talk to one of our experienced team about, just drop us a line or give us a call and we’ll talk you through it.
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