There is no financial threshold for making a Will. The whole point of a Will is to make sure it is you who decides what happens to your property, money and possessions when you die. Even if you don’t own a property or own many possessions or have much money, it should still be you who decides what happens to it when you die.
Your Will is not just about your assets. Your Will can also confirm your wishes about all sorts of other things, from who do you want to be guardian to your children to who will look after your pets to what songs you want to be played at your funeral.
Also, you simply cannot know how much you will own or how much you will be worth when you die. You may have a few hundred pounds now, but by the time you die you may have much more. It’s amazing how much stuff we can end up with – you just don’t know what we will have in our life, but you need to say which loved one you want to have it when you die.
You also need to consider that you may not have much in your lifetime, but there may be sums that are due to you when you die, for example pension payments, death in service pay-outs, insurance payouts, compensation etc. These can all be taken into account in your Will and distributed in accordance with your wishes.
It is not only you that you need to consider when thinking about a Will. After your death, it will obviously be a difficult and upsetting time for your family and loved ones. However, even if you only have a bank account with a few hundred pounds in it, having a Will in place makes this time a little less stressful for your family and loved ones because they know exactly what to do to make sure you wishes are carried out. After the death of a loved one, it can often happen that the family falls out over who gets the smallest amount of money or a relatively trivial item, such as the toaster or a picture. A Will takes all these arguments away because you have made your wishes clear.
A further issue to consider is what you want to happen to your body after your death. If you have clear wishes, make sure you state them in your Will. This will make sure your wishes are carried out, but also will avoid your family falling out about it when you die.
