What about wills and estate planning?

Question 11039.

Estate planning feels like a subject for solicitors rather than sermons, and that assumption is precisely why so many Christians die intestate and leave their families a mess.

Scripture does not contain a chapter on probate. It does contain a great deal about provision, about planning, about honesty and about the numbering of our days, and every one of those bears directly on whether you have a valid will in a drawer somewhere.

Why estate planning is a spiritual matter

Paul’s statement that a man who fails to provide for his household has denied the faith does not stop applying the moment he dies. Provision that ends abruptly because nobody wrote anything down is still a failure of provision, however good the intentions were.

Proverbs commends the prudent man who sees danger and takes refuge, while the simple go on and suffer for it. Estate planning is one of the most ordinary applications of that proverb available to a modern believer, and it takes an afternoon.

There is also the matter of “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Numbering our days is not morbid. It is realistic, and the person who cannot face writing a will has usually not faced his own mortality either.

What happens without estate planning

If you die without a will in England and Wales, the intestacy rules decide. They have a fixed order that takes no account of your church, your convictions, your stepchildren, your unmarried partner or the friend who cared for you for a decade. Rules in Scotland and elsewhere differ, which is another reason to get local advice.

The practical result is delay, expense and often conflict. Families that had been holding together through a bereavement start arguing about a house, and the arguments are rarely really about the house. I have sat with more than one family in that state, and it is a wretched thing to watch.

None of that honours God, and almost all of it is preventable by a document that costs less than a decent holiday.

What good estate planning involves

A valid will is the foundation, drawn up properly and witnessed correctly. Home-made wills fail on technicalities with depressing regularity, and the saving is a false economy when the estate then goes to lawyers anyway.

Guardianship for minor children matters enormously and is frequently forgotten. If you have young children, naming who would raise them, and having spoken to those people first, is arguably the most important paragraph in the whole document.

A letter of wishes alongside the will lets you explain reasoning that the legal document cannot carry. Why one child received the house, why a particular sum went to the church, why a piece of jewellery went where it did. Explanation prevents a great deal of hurt.

Giving through your estate

Estate planning gives most believers their single largest opportunity for generosity, and a great many miss it entirely. A legacy to a local church, a mission society or a Christian charity is a final act of stewardship over what was never really ours.

In the UK there are also tax reliefs on charitable legacies which mean that giving can cost the family less than the headline figure suggests. That is not the motive, but there is no virtue in ignorance, and a good adviser will explain it.

This connects directly to how a believer thinks about giving generally. If generosity has been a pattern in life, it is fitting that it appears in the will. If it has not, the will is an odd place to start pretending.

Fairness, honesty and family

Deal honestly. Estate planning that involves concealing assets, misleading executors or dodging obligations is theft with paperwork, whatever the accountant calls it. Let your yes be yes.

Be careful with unequal provision. There are legitimate reasons for it, such as a disabled child, a child already substantially helped, or an estranged relationship. Where you do it, explain it in writing and if possible in person. Silence gets interpreted, and rarely charitably.

And talk to your executors before naming them. Being appointed executor by surprise, at the worst moment of your life, is a considerable burden to hand someone without asking.

Beyond the will

Estate planning is wider than a will. Pension nomination forms usually sit outside the estate entirely, and an out-of-date form can send a substantial sum to an ex-spouse regardless of what the will says. Check them.

A lasting power of attorney is the other half of the picture, and arguably the more urgent one. Losing capacity while alive is more common than sudden death, and without a power of attorney your family faces a slow and expensive court process to do anything for you.

Keep a simple list of accounts, policies and passwords in a place your executor can find. Modern estates are scattered across institutions, and the search alone can take a grieving family months. Related questions about the state of believers after death are covered where I discuss what happens between death and resurrection.

Estate planning and the local church

Churches could serve their members far better here than most of us do. An evening with a Christian solicitor explaining wills, powers of attorney and probate would be one of the most practically useful things a congregation could offer, and it costs almost nothing to arrange.

There is also a duty of care towards those with nobody to help. Widows, single members and the elderly frequently have nobody to talk this through with, and the church that visits faithfully but never asks whether there is a will has left a real need unmet. James 1:27 defines religion that is pure and undefiled partly in terms of visiting widows and orphans in their affliction.

Where a church member asks a leader to act as executor, tread carefully. It can be a genuine kindness, and it can also create conflicts of interest that damage relationships and reputations. My general counsel is that a minister should decline unless there is no realistic alternative.

Common estate planning mistakes

The most frequent is simply having no will at all, and the second is having one written thirty years ago that names deceased executors and forgotten beneficiaries. The third is assuming that everything passes automatically to a spouse, which under intestacy rules is often untrue for larger estates and never true for unmarried partners.

Another is a will that conflicts with how assets are actually held. Property held as joint tenants passes by survivorship regardless of the will, and pension nominations usually sit outside the estate entirely. Estate planning that ignores these mechanics can produce an outcome the opposite of what was intended.

And a quiet one: leaving no record of what exists. Executors regularly spend months tracing accounts, policies and digital assets. A single sheet listing institutions, stored safely, saves a grieving family an extraordinary amount of work. That is not administration; it is love expressed in a way that will only be noticed later.

None of this requires you to become an expert. It requires an appointment, an honest afternoon and a willingness to think about a day you would rather not think about. Estate planning is one of those duties that looks heavy from a distance and turns out, once begun, to be surprisingly light.

One closing practical suggestion. Keep the will, the letter of wishes, the powers of attorney and the asset list together, and tell at least two people where they are. A perfectly drafted set of estate planning documents that nobody can find has achieved very little, and it happens more often than you would think.

There is one more thing worth saying about timing. People put estate planning off because it feels like an admission, and then it is done badly under pressure during an illness, when capacity may already be in question and family are hovering. A will written calmly at fifty is a better document than one written anxiously at eighty.

It is also worth reviewing after any significant change. Marriage revokes a will in England and Wales unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage, which surprises a great many people. Divorce, a new grandchild, a house move or the death of a named executor should all prompt a look. Good estate planning is a habit rather than an event.

So, now what?

If you have no will, book the appointment this week. Not this year. This week. You are not too young, the estate is not too small, and the paperwork is not too complicated for someone else to handle for you.

If you have one, check the date. Marriage, divorce, births, deaths and house moves all change the picture, and a will written before your children were born is doing very little for them now.

And treat the whole exercise as an act of love rather than a grim chore. Good estate planning is one of the last kindnesses you can do for the people you leave. Who would be sorting through your affairs, and what would they find?

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12 (ESV)