Specific beneficiaries
When you are leaving gifts to people in your Will, it is important to make sure that the intended recipient can be clearly identified. In the case of family, you can usually do this by describing them (‘my children’, ‘my sister’ and so on).
But there are plenty of reasons why you might want to leave specific property to others, and it is not so straightforward to identify them unless you name them specifically. For example:
a cash gift or some personal item to your godson or goddaughter;
your stamp collection to a friend who shares your enthusiasm; or
your antique violin to your old music teacher.
It is always sensible to give the name and any other details of the person you are intending to benefit. Although a reference to ‘godson’ may seem specific, if you have more than one godson a gift without the name of the recipient may be void because it is uncertain.
Friends as a group
It is theoretically possible to give a gift to your ‘friends’ generally, and the court has upheld such a gift. If you include a gift or some other benefit to your ‘friends’ as a group, your Executors will have to decide who qualifies to receive the gift. Friends would include people who have had a long-standing relationship with you, outside of work, who met up with you frequently if possible. However, even with that guidance, proving or disproving friendship would be a very uncertain thing, and other courts have completely disregarded references to friends (such as in the phrase ‘friends and relations’).
If you wish your friends to benefit, but you don’t wish to identify them specifically in your Will, you can leave possessions to your Trustees to be distributed according to a letter of wishes (which remains private after your death). This will allow you to give a fuller explanation, and will also give the Trustees some leeway on how to distribute the assets.
While it may be helpful to give gifts this way where the items are of low financial value, or where there are a large number of items, if the gift is of greater financial value we recommend that you specify precisely who you would like to benefit from your Will. Not only will it help reduce the burden on your Executors, it may help reduce conflict after your death, and will mean that you retain control over how your assets are distributed.