You may have recently come across the term “ethical will.” If you are someone with a strong sense of ethics, or who cares about the environment, you might think that this will be a natural choice for you in the same way as you might have kept your money with an ethical bank rather than a traditional one.
If so, you’d be misunderstanding what an ethical will is. It is not a replacement for a traditional will, rather it is a term for an accompanying document that has no legal standing. People use these documents as a kind of last communication with their loved ones and beneficiaries.
What might you include in an ethical will?
What you put in is up to you. However, you should not put in anything that could cause confusion about what you want to happen to your estate by appearing to contradict legal choices you made elsewhere. This is not about your assets. Rather, it is about any messages, thoughts or philosophies you might want to hand on.
For example, you could ask your son to try and visit their mother more frequently, now that you won’t be around to take care of her.
You could ask your grandchildren to think carefully about what they do with the money they will receive on turning 18. You could warn them they are going to face a lot of pressure to use it to go to college, but they need to be true to themselves. If their dream is to travel the world or try and make it in the music industry, they have your blessing to use the money for that, no matter what anyone says.
You can also use it to pass on family secrets that might otherwise be lost forever. For example, you could reveal the secret ingredient in your home cooked chili that no one ever managed to work out.
While an ethical will is not a legal document, having your legal team read through it to check it won’t cause any legal problems by mentioning something it shouldn’t is wise.