4 smart ‘finish line’ tips – Write your FREE Will

Don’t leave your family and friends scrambling to make arrangements, it’s not cool and it is easy to fix. Here are four smart ways to plan for the finish line of life, whether it’s today or in decades.

1. Create your Will for free (if you bequeath to charity) 

Your will is the final gift you leave to those you care for. Failure to make a will could result in long term family discord and avoidable hassle. Wills aren’t just vehicles for the wealthy or the morbid. If you have a family and a home, not to mention a savings account, you should definitely have one. Cost is no excuse. While the average cost of a Will drawn up by a lawyer typically runs from £400 to £800, you can get a simple will for free on Kwaetus, if you include a bequest to charity in your will.

Writing a will is also your chance to share some of the things that you love or that have value to those that you love and to really help worthwhile charitable causes.

If you want to do any more complex estate planning, chances are you’ll have to set up a trust, which isn’t cheap. They can cost as much as £2,000 to £3,000 or more. The primary reason people go to this kind of trouble is to protect their heirs from having to pay hefty estate taxes that can turn their carefully built nest egg into chicken feed. Or to protect their heirs from themselves if they are, to put it kindly, not very financially astute.

Once you have a will in place, don’t forget to update it regularly. You’ll need to amend it whenever there is a big change in your family’s circumstances; a birth, death or marriage, a change in financial or geographical position. A will might seem like a hassle, but that’s nothing compared with the hassles your heirs will experience if you die without one.

2. Build your Legacy Now

Legacy building isn’t a tomorrow exercise. It’s for today. Kwaetus offers the opportunity to memorialise your life through expressions of wishes, detailing your last words for people to remember your life by, and you can update everything as your life develops. Imagine for a moment that your grandchildren’s children will want to read about you and find out about you; Kwaetus helps you do this.

3. Use technology to simplify and expedite

We work hard to do the right things for our families and friends and at the finish line this is even more crucial. Failing to inform your loved ones about the distribution of your material possessions after death, how to handle your affairs and how to celebrate your life can destroy years of good reputation and trust building. Technology will help you organise your affairs in an easy way. Kwaetus is a secure and encrypted new website that helps you arrange everything quickly, efficiently and you can update and change your ideas as life progresses:

• distribute your property and material possessions to specified beneficiaries and start the conversation with your loved ones now
• choose trustees and executors for your estate
• reduce taxes through insurances, trusts and charitable donations
• make funeral arrangements, plan a celebration of your life event, write your legacy words, choose music and food, leave memories for grandchildren and beyond. These simple acts change the way you are remembered forever
• write your health directives and organise your digital assets

Your personal wishes, beliefs and values are among the most significant identifiable aspects of you. They need to be spelt out and discussed openly if the truthful version of who you are is going to last for generations to witness and explore.

4. Talk openly with your loved ones about life and death

Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen if you talk about death. Death can still feel like a taboo subject in our society, yet all of us will experience the death of a loved one or a friend in our lives.  Talking openly about these experiences – and the loss and sadness caused them – helps it seem less scary and honours those people. Talking opportunities allow us to share worries, fears or wishes that we have. 

Your dashboard on Kwaetus is designed to help start these difficult conversations. To help everyone feel empowered and confident to talk about death, letting you share the things most important to you and to clearly tell our loved ones what we would like to happen when death comes; how people should celebrate our lives and think of us in the future.

There is no right or wrong way to start a conversation, it will be different for everyone, but Kwaetus is designed to encourage us all to start talking about death and legacy.

START WRITING YOUR WILL WITH KWAETUS

For more information contact [email protected]