Protect your children and grandchildren's Inheritance from loss. Our children are so precious that we want to protect them and give them a loving safe environment in which they can grow up healthy and happy.

Should something unexpected happen to you then you would, undoubtedly, want your young children to be brought up and cared for by somebody of your choosing.

Without a Will, where does it say who you have chosen to bring up your young children? Without a Will your children could end up with somebody who you may not have chosen yourself. In your Will you can state who you want to be guardians for your children.

Children and grandchildren cannot inherit until they are 18 years old but you may decide that 18 is too young for them to have the responsibility of inheriting everything that you have worked hard to build. You may prefer that they inherit at 21 or even 25 when they may have matured.

However, at the same time, you may also want to ensure that they have access to their inheritance before the nominated age for reasons such as maintenance, health or education.

With a Kirwans drafted Will and estate planning advice you can help protect your family’s inheritance from being diminished by unnecessary loss.

You may have a child / grandchild (or other loved one) who has a disability and is in receipt of state benefits. If they received an inheritance they could have their disability benefits reduced or even stopped. There are ways this loss can be prevented or minimised by drafting a Trust into your will.

You may want special provisions in place. You may want wish to leave your family home to all your children; but you may also want your disabled child to be able to live there for the rest of their life.

If you left the house to all the children you could inadvertently leave your disabled child in a precarious and even vulnerable position.

When we are young we think we are invincible and a Will is probably the last thing we would ever think about. Young married couples sometimes think that they don’t need to make a Will because they perceive that they don’t have much to leave.

If you are buying your home and have a life or mortgage policy then it usually pays off the mortgage if one spouse passes away; there may even be additional life insurance policies and death in service benefits that pay out.

The surviving spouse finds themselves with assets; these assets now form their estate for any children or other loved ones. This estate can now be vulnerable to potential loss if not protected.

Without a Will, where does it say who you want to look after your young children if you were to both go? A will is of vital importance for young married couples, unmarried partners, single mums and dads, everyone really.

After the loss of a spouse, or after a divorce, it is quite common for people to marry again; often taking assets of their own into this new marriage.

These assets may be pooled with those of the new spouse to buy a joint home together, or they may choose to live in the existing home of one of the spouses and put the new spouse on the deeds.

Imagine that the home you have with your current spouse is in joint names. You could pass away and your surviving spouse owns the house 100% in their name.

They remarry again and later pass away too. If the house is now passed to the new spouse then your children could end up with nothing!

Unmarried partners also have very little rights in law. If one of them were to pass away then the surviving partner could end up with very little or nothing. Without a Will in place the assets of the deceased partner would go to their children or parents, brothers and sisters. The unmarried partner will lose out as the intestacy rules don’t cater for unmarried partners.

This could not only devastate your partner but put them in serious financial crisis.

There are huge numbers of people in the UK who are divorced. Even where a Divorcee is currently unattached their estate is still susceptible to loss to care authorities, inheritance tax and other potential claims.

If you are separated, or going through a divorce where there is no final settlement yet, then, if you were to pass away during this period your ex spouse may have a claim on your estate and could even get the house.

It is very important that you make a new Will to reflect your new status and wishes.