Preparing for death, even just a little, can greatly reduce stress at what can be a very challenging time for those that live on. By taking a few simple steps, you could reduce future stress and save a lot of money.
Why we recommend preparing for death
There are some important reasons to go through the process of preparing for death:
It can bring family members closer together through deep and honest conversations about important things.
People can be less fearful of someone’s death because they have a better idea of what will happen and what they will have to deal with.
It makes sure everyone is aware of your wishes. This can give everyone peace of mind that there are clear instructions to carry out and help prevent disagreements over possessions and money.
The person responsible for dealing with things will be in a more informed position to deal with the estate themself, with minimal legal help. This could potentially save many thousands of pounds in legal fees.
Terminology to know
Before carrying out the steps below, it’s a good idea to become familiar with some of the terms we will use:
Term | Definition |
Asset | Something someone owns that has value and could be used to pay a debt. |
Estate | All the assets someone owns. |
Will | A legal declaration of a person's wishes for what happens to their estate after they die. |
Executor(s) | The person or people appointed to carry out the wishes in someone's Will. |
Grant of Confirmation | An official document issued by Scottish Sheriff Courts that is often needed to deal with certain assets. In other English-speaking countries, this is called a 'Grant of Probate', ‘Grant of Representation’, or ‘Letters of Administration’ if there is no Will. |
The 7 steps to prepare for death in Scotland
This simple guide is written for someone with full mental capacity who is doing the preparation for their own death. The principles in the guide are applicable worldwide.
1. List organisations and important contacts
One of the most basic but incredibly useful things you can do is to spend a few minutes writing down a list of people and organisations with which you have any kind of financial relationship. If you’re in charge of the household finances, write down things like utility providers and any useful contacts.
Keep this list in a safe place that your Executors know about. You could set a regular date in your calendar to check it’s up-to-date, perhaps every 6 months or yearly.
If you’re responsible for someone else’s finances for someone who is likely to die before you, it is still worthwhile composing this list now to reduce the stress later on.
Download our free 'Probate Preparation Pack' for prompts and store your information at home.
2. Make or update your Will
By making your intentions clear and known, you can avoid a lot of extra stress for your family. You should try to provide as much clarity as possible, as it is common for families to fall out after disagreements about personal possessions and money.
If you die without a Will and a Grant of Confirmation is needed to deal with one or more of your assets, then expensive professional help may be required.
If you have a lot of online accounts, it is worth naming a reasonably ‘tech-savvy’ executor to manage your affairs. If your affairs are pretty simple and you don’t have any young children, an online Will can be a good solution.
3. Get a Power of Attorney and a Living Will
Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney will allow someone to access your finances and make legal decisions on your behalf should you no longer be able to. If you lose mental capacity, it can be expensive to go through the courts to get authority to act on your behalf, and the court may not appoint the person you would choose.
A Power of Attorney should be prepared by a solicitor and is likely to cost a few hundred pounds.
Authorities in a Power of Attorney are only valid until you die. After this, the authority to act on your behalf transfers to your Executors.
Living Will
A Living Will leaves instructions for your end-of-life care. It can help the person you nominate to make clear and pre-planned decisions at a very difficult and emotional time, and remove the burden of responsibility for making hard decisions about your treatment.
A Living Will can be made using a free online template as it is not a binding legal document.
4. Express your funeral wishes
Some people like to plan every last detail about their own funeral, and some say they don’t really mind what happens. Either way, doing some planning now is a really good idea.
Funerals need to be arranged within a few days after a death, which can be a challenging time for grieving people to make decisions.
Having a clear idea of your wishes, or at least having some agreement on what happens to your body (cremation or burial), can reduce a lot of stress.
We created some helpful prompts in our free Probate Preparation Pack.
5. Check life insurance policies
Make sure any life insurance policies are ‘written in trust’. By writing it into trust, the money will be paid out straight away to the people you choose and it will not form part of your estate for tax purposes. The insurance company should provide you with the correct forms to do this free of charge.
6. Be aware of company ‘probate thresholds’
Different companies that you have accounts with have different limits of what they are willing to pay out after you die without seeing a Grant of Confirmation.
Staying under these limits could mean your Executors can avoid getting a Grant of Confirmation, and therefore deal with your assets in a more straightforward way.
Even being just £1 over a company’s limit could mean long delays to access the account, and thousands of pounds in avoidable legal fees. Some banks’ thresholds are as high as £50,000.
7. More advanced measures
There are some more advanced measures that can be taken to reduce the complexity of your estate, like placing assets in trusts, putting your property into your children’s names, and selling investment portfolios. These could have big tax implications so we recommend involving a professional estate planner.
Most estate planners only consider the most tax efficient route. But it’s also important to consider how straightforward things will be to unravel after your death. More complex situations might need expensive legal help, which can undo the tax savings. This can be especially true with trusts.
Probate Preparation Pack
For a handy checklist of ways to prepare, download our free 'Probate Preparation Pack'.