PROTECTING YOUR FAMILY
The Protective Property Trust described in our Fact Sheet Protecting Your Home provides the facility for you to determine how you wish your share in the property to be distributed.
This creates two significant benefits for your family.
The first deals with the common occurrence of couples in a new relationship where each has children from a previous relationship. It is not unusual for each partner to wish to leave their share in the property to their own children.
If the family home is held as Tenants in Common as described in our Fact Sheet Property Ownership and the Protective Property Trust is included in each will, then each partner can leave their share to their own children while providing a life interest for the survivor.
The second benefit protects your share of the property, on your death, against a subsequent remarriage of your spouse.
In most cases the family property is held as Joint Tenants (our Fact Sheet Property Ownership explains these terms). It will automatically transfer to the spouse on death. If the survivor then remarries any existing Will becomes invalid. If they then die without making a new Will the laws of Intestacy will come into force with some of the assets transferring to the new spouse, which may not benefit your children.
This is particularly relevant if the new couple hold the property, or a subsequent property, as Joint Tenants, because the whole property will transfer to the new spouse. Your children could then be disinherited through no fault of yourself, or your partner.
By holding your family home as Tenants in Common you can place your half of the property into the Protective Property Trust, with the children as the beneficiaries, and a life interest for the survivor. This means your children will inherit your half of the property on the second death irrespective of whether the survivor remarries.
We can advise on
how this affects your own situation and ensure you take full advantage of the
options available.
THE WILL WRITING PARTNERSHIP
LLP
Somerdown farm Slade Lane Lympsham
Weston Super mare BS24 0DP
Tel 08000 93 92 21
Registered in England under
Number OC316557
Member of, and regulated by, the Society of Will Writers And Estate Planning Practitioners
Membership Number HA46080111/5