How Marriage Affects Your Will

Last week, Katie Price appeared on ITV’s Loose Women, a popular light entertainment show on ITV in which a panel of four women roast interview a celebrity guest on their lives and discuss a variety of topical issues (relationships, lifestyle, current affairs etc…)

During the interview, when talking about her previous relationships (always a common topic on this particular show) the conversation moved on to planning for her children if she was to pass away. Katie announced to the panel that she hadn’t actually changed her Will since her high profile marriage (and subsequent divorce) to Peter Andre back in 2009.

Katie said “Talking of wills, Pete would get everything and Junior, Princess and Harvey, I haven’t even changed my will thinking about it, and I’ve been married twice since Pete!”

However, Katie’s is wrong to assume that Pete would get ‘everything’, and the fact that none of her fellow panellists corrected her leads me to assume they are also unaware of how marriage affects a Will.

If you marry (or remarry in Katie’s case, which she has done twice since Peter) your previous Will is revoked (cancelled) and no longer valid. Therefore, as Katie has not changed her Will, if she was to die today she would do so intestate and her assets would be split according to intestacy rules, meaning Peter would receive nothing.

However, a Will made specifically in anticipation of marriage to a particular person will not be affected when you tie the knot.

So for Katie Price, who would get what?

In accordance with the intestacy rules, her current spouse Kieran Hayler would get all of her personal possessions as well as the first £250K of all assets held in her sole name, after that, Kieran (her husband) will get 50% of remaining assets with her 5 children receiving an equal split of what is left once they turn 18.

When divorcing and remarrying, family situations naturally become more complexed making it even more important to have control over how your assets will be divided.

Consider Katie Price’s situation, when asked which of her 3 husbands would get which of her 5 children, she responded saying ‘Junior and Princess would go to Pete, Jett and Bunny would go to Kieran and I know he would have Harvey.’

With this in mind, would she want her current husband to receive the vast majority of her assets? I think it’s a fair assumption to make that she would want to have a degree of control to make sure her children were well taken care of, whether that involves her children receiving a higher percentage of her estate or inheriting certain possessions/property.

Equally important is that fact that the children would receive their share at the age of 18.  Katie Price is a wealthy woman and is unlikely to want her children to be responsible for such sums of money at such a young age. Also consider her son Harvey, who has complex needs, he may be unlikely to manage those monies and someone would have to apply to the Court of Protection to do so on his behalf.  All of these issues can be avoided by sensible Will planning.

Reviewing your will to make sure it is up to date and valid is important. We recommend updating your view after any major life event such as marriage, divorce, having children, moving home and even any significant change in net worth.

If you are looking to make a Will, or have queries regarding the validity of your will, please get in touch. At Gorvins we have a highly experienced team of experts in all Wills Trusts and Probate Matters. Call our team today on 0161 930 5151 or e-mail willsteam@gorvins.com

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