A legacy is a gift of money to someone in your Will.

1. A lot of people put an age contingency on their gifts, eg  ‘Ieave £15,000.00 to my niece  Ann Smith on her attaining 25 years’.  To do so causes technical issues when it comes to providing income/capital from it to Ann whilst she is under 25 years.
2. A simpler wording would be ‘ I leave £15,000.00 to my niece Ann Smith …and then include a legal clause which we call a ‘receipt for minor clause’ …this will enable the £15,000.00 to be paid out to the child’s parent or guardian if she is under 18 years .  The money would belong to Ann already and be fore her use and would also form part of Ann’s estate if something happened to her before she got to 18 years.  On attaining 18 years Ann could take over control of the money.

There are benefits to doing b) above especially for smaller sums; for example  the income tax on interest would be at Ann’s rate, and also the Executors of your Will would not have the responsibility to seek advice and invest it until she attained age which can be onerous and also incur costs.

When making a legacy in a Will there is technical wording that is required which will differ depending on whether you wanted Ann to have income from her gift whilst she was under a stated age and/or have access to the capital whilst  she was under a stated age.

We recommend that you seek legal advice as to the specific wordings of legacies so that your intentions can be put into practice correctly after your death

If you need any assistance please contact the Private Client Team at mosshaselhurst solicitors, Telephone Northwich 01606 74301.