Wills, Probate and Inheritance Tax For Dummies / created by Julian Knight

Includes bibliography and index

Wills, Probate & amp; Inheritance Tax For Dummies, 2nd Edition; About the Author; Dedication; Author's Acknowledgements; Contents at a Glance; Table of Contents; Introduction; About This Book; Conventions Used in This Book; What You're Not to Read; Foolish Assumptions; How This Book Is Organised; Icons Used In This Book; Where to Go From Here; Part I: Planning Your Will; Chapter 1: Preparing for the Inevitable; Recognising the Advantages of Putting Your Estate in Order; Plotting Your Estate Strategy; Gearing Up for the Probate Challenge; Launching Your Strategy: The Checklist. Chapter 2: Recognising the Benefits of Making a WillThe Circle of Life: Events to Prompt You into Will-Writing; Making a Will with Your Spouse; Considering Who Can't Make a Will; Understanding the Consequences of Dying without a Will; Modern Life: Intestacy Isn't Geared Up for It!; Looking at the Different Rules in Scotland; Chapter 3: Totting Up the Value of Your Estate; An Estate: Isn't That a Place in the Country?; Understanding Why You Need to Do the Sums; Dishing Out the Dosh with Aplomb; Calculating the Value of Your Assets; What on Earth Are Chattels? Looking at Moveable Possessions. Honey, I Shrunk the Estate! Factoring in Time and DebtThe Grand Total: Your Net Worth; Chapter 4: Deciding Who Gets What; Who You Have to Include in Your Will; Assessing What Everyone Should Have; Gift Failure and How to Prevent It; Playing the Philanthropist; Gifting to Cut the Tax Bill; Chapter 5: Leaving Your Home in Your Will; Giving the Mortgage Lender a Piece of the Pie; Understanding How Ownership Affects Your Bequest; Leaving Your Buy-to-Let Property in Your Will; The Other Side of the Fence: The Tenants' Story; Writing Your Home into Your Will; Putting Your Faith in Trusts. Part II: Writing Your WillChapter 6: Choosing the Right People to Follow Your Wishes; Considering the People Who Make Your Will Work; The Big Cheese: The Executor; A Matter of Faith: Trustees; Protecting Your Children: Guardians; The Eyes Have It: Witnesses; Considering Getting Expert Help; Calling in the Professionals; Going Solo: Using a Will Kit; Keeping Your Will Safe; Chapter 7: Getting It in Writing: Drawing Up Your Will; Choosing Your Materials; Taking Care of Preliminaries; Giving Your Executors Elbow-Room; Detailing Who Gets What; Passing the Finishing Line: Signing Your Will. Getting Your Will WitnessedChapter 8: Fine-Tuning Your Will; Powering Up Your Executors; Clinging on to a Survivorship Clause; On One Condition: Putting Stipulations in Your Will; Protecting Your Will Against Challenges; Getting to Grips with Power of Attorney; Chapter 9: Ringing the Changes: When and How to Change a Will; Love Changes Everything ... Even Your Will; Having Children: Sleepless Nights and Altered Wills; Correcting Mistakes in Your Unsigned Will; Changing a Beneficiary; Snip, Snip: Cutting Someone Out of Your Will; Changing Financial Circumstances; Appointing New Appointees

Planning how to pass your estate on doesn't have to mean complications, legal jargon and huge bills. Wills, Probate and Inheritance Tax For Dummies, 2nd Edition takes you through the process step-by-step and gives you all the information you need to ensure that your affairs are left in good order. It shows you how to plan and write your will, minimise the stress of probate, and ensure that your nearest and dearest are protected from a large inheritance tax bill. Discover how to: Decide if a will is right for you Value your assets Leave your home through a will Appoint executors and trustees