What is a letter of wishes and when should you consider writing one?

Your Will sets out who you would like to be a guardian to your children should you die before they reach 18 years old. A Letter of Wishes allows you to leave specific wishes as to how you would like your children to be raised, where they live, the school you would like them to attend and any further wishes about how you would like your children to be supported in their lives. 

A letter of wishes can also be used to detail what kind of funeral you want, i.e. burial or cremation. You can also include the kind of ceremony you want and any specific wishes such as music, religious references, how you would like people to dress at your funeral and any donations you would like to be made. It is important to let your family members know these wishes during your lifetime as well though as often the Will is retrieved after the funeral. 

Your Will might include trusts and you may wish to provide guidance to your trustees as to how you would like the funds in the trusts to be managed. For example a discretionary trust gives your 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. If there is a vulnerable beneficiary for example, you may want them to benefit from the trust with 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 mention that whilst these wishes would not be legally binding in any way, it is more to provide guidance to the trustees when managing the trust. 

f you have chosen to deliberately exclude someone from your Will, you will have a clause in there stating that this person is being excluded intentionally and that it is not an oversight. Your will writer, will discuss the possible risks of excluding someone and the potential claims they could bring against your estate. 

 

Your will writer will advise you to write a letter of wishes giving your reasons for the exclusion and to give as much detail as possible. The reason for this is because in the event the being Will challenged, the Courts will seek to look at this Letter 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. It remains a private document and therefore it is best to set out the reasoning for any exclusion in this letter so only your executors will have access to it. 

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.