Tenants in Common / Wills

[Meatloaf]

Going back to 2017 I was lucky enough to get some help from yourselves in taking a financial advisor to the ombudsman to get a full refund, so thanks to you all again.

I wonder if you could help us again....

In 2019 my wife and I decided to update our Wills and entered into a Will with a Discretionary Trust which wasn’t made clear to us until we visited a solicitor recently to once again update our Wills.

Apparently, the Wills had previously given all of our assets to our trustees to hold in Trust and indicated that our spouses be the main beneficiary during their lifetime but naming a number of other beneficiaries, with the ultimate discretion being given to our trustees to decide what would be paid to whom and when. This was not our wishes and have now had a simple and straightforward Will written up simply leaving everything to each other.

Power of attorneys were done for us both in 2019, which we are happy with, but we were also advised to give notice of our wish to sever our joint tenancy in equity of our property and agreed that to own our property (and its future proceeds of sale) as Tenants in Common in equal shares. This was done with the Land Registry.

It is the Tenants in Common /updated Wills that are our concern and need some clarification on. We were under the impression that having the Tenants in Common document meant that if one of the equal share holders died then the property belonged to the remaining spouse (50%) and the beneficiaries of the Will (50%) and protected the surviving spouse from having to sell the property should they go into care. Is this still the case? Or by now having updated our Wills and simply leaving everything to each other caused the Tenants in Common document to become invalid?

Your advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
J & J

[Pezza54]

The advice you received in 2019 to sever your joint tenancy and own your property as tenants in common was correct, when you had trust wills drafted. Unfortunately you were given poor advice about the type of trust chosen
The main advantage of a married couple owning their property as tenants in common is that the share of the first spouse to die can be protected from care home fees if the surviving spouse has to go into care
The wills are drafted to provide the surviving spouse with lifetime interest in the property
Each spouse can state in their will what should happen to their share of the property

[Meatloaf]

The advice you received in 2019 to sever your joint tenancy and own your property as tenants in common was correct, when you had trust wills drafted. Unfortunately you were given poor advice about the type of trust chosen
The main advantage of a married couple owning their property as tenants in common is that the share of the first spouse to die can be protected from care home fees if the surviving spouse has to go into care
The wills are drafted to provide the surviving spouse with lifetime interest in the property
Each spouse can state in their will what should happen to their share of the property

Thank you for your prompt reply.
Are we correct in thinking that now we have had new Wills drawn up (not yet signed) leaving all our assets to each other, that the surviving spouse will not have a lifetime interest in the property which will result in it not being protected from care home fees, if that person then had to go into care. Should our new Wills state that each of us want our share of the property to be held by the Trustees i.e. 50% held by the surviving spouse and 50% held by the Trustees? Leaving the surviving spouse to be protected from care home fees because one half of the property belongs to the Trustees and the property can only be sold once the surviving spouse dies after which the Trustees will then divide the monies from the sale to all beneficiaries of the Will?
If we leave our new Wills as they are, leaving everything to each other, does this mean that as the surviving spouse will own 100% of the property it will not be protected by the Tenants in Common?

We await your guidance and thank you
J & J