Pride month: The importance of making Wills for LGBTQ+ families
It may be tempting to put off or avoid making your Will but they are really important documents which make the difficult task of sorting your affairs after your death much easier for your loved ones and ensuring provision for those who would not receive anything under the intestacy rules.
Why is making a will important?
Wills can help with many important matters such as:
- Ensuring provision for an unmarried Partner
- Appointing guardians for children under 18
- Protecting inheritances for those on Benefits
- Looking after vulnerable beneficiaries who would have trouble managing money
- Mitigating the Inheritance Tax burden for your family
If you have built your family through fertility treatment (or with the help of a donor, whether at a clinic or at home), surrogacy, co-parenting or adoption or if you are parenting your partner’s child from a previous relationship, it is particularly important not only to put a Will in place but to seek specialist advice beforehand.
This is because the law may not necessarily provide you with the status you expect as a parent – i.e. the right of your child to inherit from you automatically or your ability to continue caring for them if your partner dies. This can be resolved by careful drafting of inheritance and guardianship provisions within your Will to ensure that your wishes are accurately recorded and valid, in the event of your (or your partner’s) death.
In seeking this advice, it may become clear that there are other measures you can take to legally secure your family – this might be pre-emptive (if you are still in the family planning stages) or achieved by applying for a court order – which can have a significant impact on issues such as inheritance tax in the future.
If you are pursuing surrogacy, there are a number of other factors you may wish to consider to protect your otherwise legally-informal arrangement (such as formalising your surrogate’s right to her agreed expenses). Your Will can be used creatively as a tool to record these intentions and bolster any written or verbal agreement you have.
The issues that might be experienced without a Will or through a poorly drawn one may also apply to financial arrangements like entitlement to pensions or work-based death in service benefits, so it’s vital that suitable advice is taken, and you have all your nominations up to date.
How can Ellis Jones help?
At Ellis Jones we offer expert advice in relation to both Wills and LGBTQ+ family structures to ensure that you can benefit from the full range of our experience and feel confident that your Will adequately covers your unique family.
Contact us at lgbt@ellisjones.co.uk or 01202 525333 for further advice on safeguarding your family in this way and to discuss the process for preparing a Will.
How can we help?
When you submit this form an email will be sent to the relevant department who will contact you within 48 hours. If you require urgent advice please call 01202 525333.
