Digital Assets After Death — Why Your Executor May Not Be Able to Reach Your Accounts

by johnireland | Articles

A generation ago, an Executor’s first task was to go through a filing cabinet. Bank statements, share certificates, insurance policies and title deeds were physical objects, and finding them was mostly a question of patience. Today a substantial part of the...

Choosing a Guardian for Your Children — The Decision Parents Postpone Longest

by johnireland | Articles

Of all the decisions involved in making a Will, this is the one that stops people. Fees, Executors, even the division of an estate are dealt with briskly. Then the question arrives — who would raise your children if you and their other parent could not — and the...

What Your Executor Actually Has to Do: The Legal Duties Most People Don’t Understand Until It’s Too Late

by johnireland | Articles

Most people who are named as an executor in someone’s Will have no idea what the role actually involves. They assume it means signing a few forms and distributing some money. In reality, being an executor is a legal position with personal liability, fiduciary...

What Happens to Your Will If You Remarry — The Inheritance Trap That Catches Thousands of Families Every Year

by johnireland | Articles

Every year, thousands of families across England and Wales discover a legal rule that most people have never heard of: marriage automatically revokes your Will. It does not matter how recently you wrote it. It does not matter how carefully it was drafted. The moment...

TLDR — What Happens if You Die Without a Will

by johnireland | Estate Planning Essentials

The Problem Around 54 per cent of UK adults do not have a valid will. When someone dies without one, the intestacy rules decide who inherits — and the outcome rarely matches what the deceased would have wanted. Who Gets What Under Intestacy If you are married with...