Wills, Trusts & Pensions
Many people worry unduly when it comes to making wills. They think they are going to die immediately after they make one. Rest assured that this is a rare enough occurrence.
You can make as many wills as you like in your lifetime, each one automatically cancels the earlier one.
Why make a will at all?
Well, if you don't, your property may go to people who have no interest in you – or you in them - or it may result in family disputes between a surviving spouse and children.
For instance, if you are single or widowed with no children and die without a will, your property goes to your parents. If you have no parents alive, it is divided between your sisters and brothers. If a brother or sister has died before you, his/her share goes to the children of that person.
So if you have no brothers or sisters surviving you, only twenty-two nieces or nephews, all you have is divided among them.
You might not want that so you should make a will to reflect your wishes.
If you are married and have no will and leave a spouse and three children, your spouse gets two-thirds of your property and your children one-third between them. This could lead to problems and disputes and cash flow difficulties if everyone looks for their entitlement. It stands to reason that you should make a will to prevent this happening.
You may intend to leave something to a charity or friend. You can't do so unless you write it down in a will - so, please make a will!
If you don't make a will, your survivors will have to take out a bond with an insurance company adding to the cost - so, make a will!
Nobody has an automatic right to any of your property except a surviving spouse. Regardless of what you say in your will, your spouse is entitled to one-third of what you have where there are children and half of what you have where there are none.
So, if you give your spouse anything from one-third to all of your estate, that is fine. If you give your spouse only 25%, the rest will have to be taken from the other people who benefit, to make it up to one third.
When making a will, you need to appoint an executor or executors. That person has the job of gathering your assets and ultimately distributing after a probate has been extracted from the High Court. A probate is the document which gives the executor authority to deal with your goods,. A person benefitting from your bill can be an executor (for example, a spouse, a child, a relative etc)
The rate of iheritance tax is at 20 percent at the moment, but there is no tax on gifts to a spouse.
You can give up to €466,725 to a child (once) with tax payable on anything over that amount. The sum of €46,723 can be gifted to a brother, sister, nephew or niece before tax becomes payable, while the tax threshold for anyone else is €23,366 to anyone else. Gifts to charities are tax-free.