blended families

Writing a Will for the non-traditional family

Many of us now live in non-traditional, or “non-nuclear” families. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica “A nuclear family, elementary family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of two parents and their children (one or more).”

It is the classic family structure which is still common, but according to every statistical analysis, a decreasing number of families meet this criteria.

We are seeing far more one-parent families, “blended” or “stepfamilies” where one partner is not the biological parent of the children, civil partnerships and three parents living under the same roof.

According to data coming from the Office for National Statistics, the number of marriage rate has halved in the UK since the 1970’s. In 2017, the married or civil partner couple family remains the most common, but the cohabiting couple family growing the fastest (doubling from 1996). In fact, about half the population of the UK are either single, divorced, widowed or in a civil partnership.

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Dying without a Will – When does it make sense?

Dying without a Will is a choice. You can choose whether to take the time to prepare a Will, or you can delay, postpone and procrastinate. But it is important to understand the consequences of dying without a Will, not just with the distribution of your possessions, but also with the “estate administration” process.

Hopefully at the end of this article the question in the title will be answered for you. It NEVER makes sense to die without a Will. It is a decision that you make that doesn’t impact you significantly (you will be dead), but it has serious repercussions for your family and loved-ones.

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Dying without a Will – the first few days

If something were to happen to you today, there is a good chance that your family would be struggling with grief. But quite quickly actions need to be taken and this would fall to your “next-of-kin”.

Although the UK doesn’t have a legal concept of “next-of-kin” it generally means your closest relative.

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