Straightforward Will Advice for Homeowners
Homeowners Wills was created for a simple reason.
Many homeowners want to protect the inheritance they have spent a lifetime building, but find Wills and trusts unnecessarily complicated. These days children and especially grandchildren need all the help they can get to become homeowners and fund expensive pensions.
My aim is to make the options understandable (but not on the pension side – not my experise!
No frightening sales pitch.
No unnecessary lifetime trusts.
No assumption that every homeowner needs an expensive solution.
No expensive professional trustees (unless you can’t trust your family to be fair! Then we will find an economical workaround.)
Just practical advice about what you want to happen to your home and your inheritance after you die.
Meet Steve Pett
Homeowners Wills is run by Stephen Pett CmpnSWW, AffSTEP, DMS, an experienced professional Will writer and estate planner based in East Sussex.
I have spent more than 25 years helping families with:
- Wills;
- trusts;
- Lasting Powers of Attorney;
- inheritance and estate planning;
- property ownership;
- and planning for what happens after death.
My approach is deliberately straightforward:
First understand what you want to achieve. Then decide, with you, which legal arrangements, if any, are actually needed.
Why Homeowner Protection Wills?
For many couples, the family home represents most of the inheritance they hope eventually to leave.
Ordinary mirror Wills often leave everything outright to the survivor.
That may be perfectly appropriate.
But it can also mean that once the first person dies, they have little control over where their share of the property ultimately goes.
The survivor may later:
- remarry;
- change their Will;
- enter another relationship;
- experience financial difficulties;
- Fall out with the children (especially when there is a new relationship)
- or simply make different decisions many years later.
Homeowner Protection Wills provide another option.
They can allow the survivor to remain secure while helping protect an inheritance for children, grandchildren, charities or the other beneficiaries you have choosen.
The important question is not whether you can have a Will trust – or indeed a Lifetime trust.
It is whether the additional protection is genuinely worthwhile for you.
I Will Tell You If You Don’t Need One
This matters.
A Homeowner Protection Will is more complicated than an ordinary Will.
There are trustees.
There is administration after the first death.
There are be restrictions and disadvantages.
So I do not believe every homeowner should automatically have one.
If a straightforward Will does everything you need, I will say so.
The trust should solve a genuine problem — not simply increase the cost of your Wills.
I Explain the Disadvantages Too
Some websites make property trusts sound almost magical.
They aren’t.
Before deciding, you should understand matters such as:
- administration after the first death;
- trustee responsibilities;
- possible Trust Registration Service requirements;
- what happens if the survivor wants to move;
- possible difficulties with equity release;
- the importance of adequate provision where there is a mortgage;
- possible tax consequences;
- and the fact that no trust can guarantee that somebody will never have to contribute towards care.
Good advice means explaining what can go wrong as well as what can go right.
[Advantages, Disadvantages & Risks →]
Your Home Normally Stays Yours
A Homeowner Protection Will is very different from putting your house into a lifetime trust now.
You do not normally transfer your property away while you are alive.
You keep ownership and control.
The protective trust is contained within your Will and normally comes into existence after the first death.
[Homeowner Protection Will vs Lifetime Property Trust →]
Plain English Comes First
You may come across expressions such as:
- tenants in common;
- beneficial ownership;
- life interest;
- trustees;
- ultimate beneficiaries;
- severance;
- Trust Registration Service.
They have legal significance.
But you should not need to know the terminology before asking for advice.
You tell me what you want to happen.
I explain the options and what they mean in real life.
Your Will Should Reflect Your Family
No two families are identical.
You may have children together, children from previous relationships, grandchildren, a second marriage, an unmarried partner, vulnerable relatives or charities you want to support.
That is why the discussion comes first.
The important questions are:
- Who should be secure if you die first?
- Who do you ultimately want to inherit?
- What would concern you if circumstances changed after your death?
- How much freedom should the survivor have?
- How much protection do your beneficiaries need?
Once those answers are clear, deciding upon the legal structure becomes much easier.
Personal Advice, Not Just a Questionnaire
You deal directly with someone who understands the arrangement being recommended.
You are not simply completing an online questionnaire and hoping a computer has understood your family.
Where specialist legal, tax or financial advice outside my area is needed, I will say so.
The aim isn’t to make estate planning sound clever.
It is to make it understandable.
Because ultimately the most important question isn’t:
“What is this trust called?”
It is:
“Will my Will actually achieve what I want for my family?”
That thought in the original About page is particularly worth retaining.
How I Work
Understand
We start with your family, your property and who you want eventually to benefit.
Explain
I explain the available options in straightforward English.
Recommend
If an ordinary Will is enough, I tell you. If additional protection would genuinely help, I explain why.
Prepare
I make sure the Will, trust and property ownership work together.
Review
Circumstances change, so estate planning should be reviewed from time to time.
No Pressure
Finding out whether a Homeowner Protection Will is suitable does not commit you to having one.
Tell me what you are trying to achieve.
I will explain whether the additional protection makes sense.
Then you decide.
[Find Out If a Homeowner Protection Will Is Right for You]