A common mistake people make when making a will is listing everything they own in the will itself. Obviously – as we live and grow our estate changes. We move house, change bank accounts, make investments and purchases.
Your wealth now may be very different to what it was 5, 10 or 20 years ago.
The “residuary” section of your will accounts for this. Every thing you own (minus any specific gifts) is counted in your residuary.
So that covers your needs from a legal perspective.
From a practical perspective a list of wills can make a big difference to your executors. We therefore recommend keeping an up-to-date list of assets.
There are three ways you can create your list of assets.
- Firstly, a paper list kept with the will (Important: do not attach it to the will: no staples, paperclips, glue, sticky tape or anything else).
- Secondly, if you made your will with us you can log in and keep information about your estate in your secure account (key estate info),
- Thirdly, you can keep your list through an independent online service.
If you do have multiple types of assets (bank account, shares, property, others) then it is helpful for executors to have a list of your assets. The contents of this list of assets will not be published as part of the application for probate whereas the will is published. That is why you should never put passwords or full bank account details on the will itself.
Sometimes people are surprised that the will doesn’t list everything you own. This is because we don’t want you to have to update your will every time you change bank accounts or buy or sell and investment. Everything you own is automatically treated as part of your residuary estate unless you leave a specific gift.
Please make sure the list isn’t stapled, paperclipped, stuck to or attached to the Will in any way.
You can update your list of assets as often as you like. You can also provide instructions to your executors about any logins and passwords.