Meet Mr and Mrs Jones- They have 2 children, Alex and Jane, they are both happily married and each have two children.
Mr and Mrs Jones have a house worth £300,000. They have savings and investments worth around £40,000.
Therefore, the total value of their estate is worth £340,000. They would like to make sure that as much as possible is passed onto to their children.
They are concerned about care fees and what might happen in the event that either of them marries again after the first person passes away.
Mr and Mrs Jones have Property Protection Wills. They own their property as tenants in common, so they each own a half share of the house.
Mrs Jones sadly passes away. The 50% of the property that she owned passes into a trust. All that this means in practice is that her children (as Trustees) are added to the deeds of the property. Mr Jones still owns his 50% as normal.
Therefore, Mr Jones now owns 50% of the family home and £80,000 in savings. The total value of his estate is now £230,000. (note: this is not the correct calculation for inheritance tax- only local authority care funding. The total value of the house would still be taken into account for any inheritance tax calculation.)
Mr Jones lives alone for a few years before he meets Jane at his art club. Mr Jones and Jane get on very well and they decide to get married!
They also decide to sell both of their properties and buy one together.
If Mr and Mrs Jones had simple Mirror Wills, so that Mr Jones inherited everything after Mrs Jones passed away, this could means that Mr Jones's children from his first marriage do not receive the inheritance their mom intended for them.
Mr Jones sadly passes away, everything that he and Mrs Jones (the first) worked hard for passes to his new wife. The children of Mr and Mrs Jones inherit nothing from their parents- a virtual stranger gets everything.
However, because Mr and Mrs Jones had Property Protection Wills then half of the value of their home (£150,000) would have been ring-fenced for their children. So, even if Mr Jones made a new Will leaving everything to his new wife, or he did not realise that marriage revokes a Will and forgot to make a new one, their children would always inherit at least 50% of the value of their property.
Mr and Mrs Jones’s Property Protection Wills cost them £300. Why not spend a little now to safeguard what you have worked hard for all of your life for your children, not a stranger?