A letter of wishes is a document that provides guidance to your trustees and sits alongside your Will. A letter of wishes is not a legally binding document and therefore there is no legal requirement on the trustees to follow the wishes that are set out. A letter of wishes can be reviewed and updated at any time, as a Will can.
What can be included in a letter of wishes?
Guardianship
Your Will will already set out who you would like to appoint as guardian to your children should you die before they reach 18 years old. In that event you may want to leave specific wishes as to how you would like your children to be raised, which area they reside in and the school you would like them to attend. You may also have further wishes in how you would like your children to be supported in their lives. This can all be set out in a letter of wishes.
Funeral wishes
A letter of wishes can set out your preferences as to whether you would like to be buried or cremated on your death. You can further include the kind of ceremony you would like and any specific wishes such as how you would like people to dress at your funeral, any donations you would like to be made and any music you would like to be played at your funeral.
It is important to make your family members aware of your funeral wishes during your lifetime as in many cases, the Will will normally be retrieved after the funeral.
Management of Trusts
Your Will may include a number of trusts and you may wish to provide guidance to your trustees as to how you would like the trusts to be managed. Take a discretionary trust for example, this gives the trustees wide powers over how the trust is managed, how much is distributed and who to.
In a letter of wishes you can include specific wishes as to how you would like the trustees to use their powers. You could inform them of a vulnerable beneficiary and ask that they indirectly benefit from the trust i.e. food vouchers instead of cash due to their drinking or drug addiction. Where the trust names the spouse and children as beneficiaries of the trust, you can request that the trustees treat the spouse as the main beneficiary of the trust until their death.
It is important to add that whilst these wishes would not be legally binding in any way, it is useful to provide guidance to the trustees when managing the trust.
Exclusions
If you have chosen to exclude someone from benefiting your estate, your Will will have a clause in there stating that this person is being excluded intentionally and that it is not an oversight. You will be informed by your will writer of the possible risks of excluding this person and any potential claims they could possibly bring against your estate.
Your will writer will then advise you to write a letter of wishes setting out the reasons for the exclusion and to add as much detail as possible. The reason for this is because in the event the Will is challenged, the Courts will seek to look at this document before reaching a decision. In contrast to a Will that becomes accessible on death where anyone can pay to see its contents, this is not the case with a letter of wishes which remains private and therefore it is best to set out the reasoning for any exclusion in this document so only your executors will have access to it.
Gifting Small Non-Valuable Items
You may have in your possession lots of household items such as jewellery, ornaments, furniture and vehicles that you wish to gift to specific individuals on your death. The best way to achieve this is to include a clause in your will that gifts all items fitting that definition to your executors with a wish that they distribute them following your letter of wishes.
Once this clause is included you can then write a separate letter of wishes to list the items you want to gift and who you want to gift them to. This is a flexible way of dealing with your personal items as if you later change your mind, you can simply write a new letter without having to make a new will. It is important to add that anything set out in the letter of wishes is not legally binding and therefore where you are gifting high value items, sentimental items or even want to ensure the person will receive them, it is advisable to gift this in the Will.
Is it worth having one?
The simple answer is yes. Having a letter of wishes in place enables you to set out your wishes after your death and whilst they are not legally binding, if the correct trustees are chosen and providing they are not acting outside of their powers, there is no reason why these wishes could not be followed.
If you have any questions or need any guidance with the preparation of your Wills, letter of wishes or LPAs, please speak to a member of the SWW today. You can find a member in your area by searching here, or calling the office on 01522 687 888.
