Hopefully this is the right place for this question. I don't have an official will written and I'd be worried about how long it would take to get it in order and also the questions that would be raised if I suddenly showed interest in writing an official will. I am thinking of just making some bank transfers (scheduled for later so as to not alert anyone before being sure I have fully ctb) would the people that I send the money too definitely be able to keep it even if the transfer actually happened after I was dead? I am in the UK if that makes any difference
Not sure of the differences with how wills work in the UK vs US, but here, it takes minutes to draft a will. There are websites like Legal Zoom that have templates, and you just fill in the info. Then you take it to a notary (not sure if you have those in the UK), get it notarized, and the will is legally binding. You can do this totally on your own, so no suspicions would be raised. In all the process wouldn't take more than 10 mins to draft the will, and a few minutes to head to a notary.
What you're talking about doing is an ACH transfer. To do these, you would need the info from both accounts (account and routing numbers). They can be scheduled and canceled at any point before the day of the transfer.
There's also limits to the amount of money that can be transferred in one go as well as/on top of the amount you can 'withdraw' daily unverified, which may complicate matters further. I too am unsure about the use of notary in the UK but I assume a solictor would be sufficient. Probably charge you £60-100 foe the service but it at least keeps family suspicions at bay. As @threesummers mentioned, you will need their acc number and sort codes. You may well already have some of those. I guess you may not need them with a will however as arrangements would be made bybthe respective parties/banks to honour your wishes outlined in the will.
I'm actually quite interested by this topic myself so would be very interested to hear how you get on. Could you update us when you decide on your course of action please?
Best wishes.
I'm actually quite interested by this topic myself so would be very interested to hear how you get on. Could you update us when you decide on your course of action please?
Best wishes.
Get a book from the library to be certain. In the US electronic books can be checked out from home.
In the US beneficiaries don't even have to know they are beneficiaries until after you have died. Here the hardest part is to make sure people are aware of the will and it is followed. And it is possible to add beneficiaries to bank accounts and pensions, so they don't even require a will.
The main thing is to prevent people you don't like from automatically inheriting.
In the US beneficiaries don't even have to know they are beneficiaries until after you have died. Here the hardest part is to make sure people are aware of the will and it is followed. And it is possible to add beneficiaries to bank accounts and pensions, so they don't even require a will.
The main thing is to prevent people you don't like from automatically inheriting.
Thank you for the replies, I've done a little more reading and in the UK you need 2 independent witnesses to the signing of the will to make it legally binding. This probably means for me that finding people to do this without raising suspicions might be tricky. I have tried to find out more about whether there would be any difficulties for people if I just send them money and it seems there are some tax laws in the UK that relate to gifting money near to the death of a person in order to stop people getting around inheritance tax by gifting away all their money shortly before they die. It looks to me (bearing in mind that I am by no means a tax expert) that at worst the people I would transfer money too would have to pay around 30% of it to the government but if the amount is under £3000 then I think it would be exempt from tax so I will probably go with that option as I do already have all the bank details of the people I would want to send money
You could also send the deposits in multiple transactions. You could fein a bout of generosity before passing, still keeping the amounts below the taxation level. Then you can potentially double the amount they receive overall.
Also, with regards to the 2 independant witnesses.... they can be anybody. You could literally walk into a store or bank and claim yourself in a rush to hand in your documents as you're about to go on holiday and therefore need them to act as your witnesses. It's no skin of their nose and won't cause them issues. Maybe double check that but I'm pretty sure it would be ok. Maybe a work colleague otherwise? It's not unusual to write a will and the only people likely to be suspicious are loved ones and family. And maybe the tax office lol.
Also, with regards to the 2 independant witnesses.... they can be anybody. You could literally walk into a store or bank and claim yourself in a rush to hand in your documents as you're about to go on holiday and therefore need them to act as your witnesses. It's no skin of their nose and won't cause them issues. Maybe double check that but I'm pretty sure it would be ok. Maybe a work colleague otherwise? It's not unusual to write a will and the only people likely to be suspicious are loved ones and family. And maybe the tax office lol.
I would imagine you could go to a lawyer's office and sign the will there. The lawyer and partner/paralegal could be the witnesses.
