Will Aid: Get a free will in November

System

I have just contacted a company in my area and have to say the lady was very helpful, I asked whether I can chose someone as an executor of my will myself and she said that would be no problem. They said to bring a cheque made out to Willaid when we come for our appointment.

Very helpful and very polite.

strawberry_laces

I don't have anything to leave. I am in council rented property (which we would like to buy but has age is against us).

OH (unmarried but have 3 children together) has a decent pension when he retires. We have joint savings of around £3k but this goes up by £3k yearly.

Can we just make a will, make someone executor, not put anything in it, but update it accordingly??

Savvy_Sue

strawberry_laces wrote: »

Can we just make a will, make someone executor, not put anything in it, but update it accordingly??

No, you can't make a blank will. You can certainly update your will if and when circumstances change, this CAN be done by a codicil but is usually better done by re-writing the whole will.

As you are not married, it's particularly important that you do each make wills, because (I think) the rules if you die without making a will is that everything goes to the children, which could leave the surviving spouse in a tricky spot.

Think what you would like to happen if you died soon, and write your will on that basis. Ours, for example, state that everything goes to the surviving spouse, and on the second death everything goes to the children. We wrote these when the children were young, so we also made provision for if we all went together, eg in a terrible car accident. Now the children are grown up, the chances of us all going together are considerably reduced. Therefore it's (long past!) time to rewrite our wills.

One thing you might want to check is the terms of your council tenancy. If it's a joint tenancy, that's not a problem, but if it's in one name rather than the other it would be worth checking with your Housing Officer what would happen if the other one died. A cheery subject, I know, but nevertheless.

System

I've just noticed on my last will that solicitor wrote "i appoint as my executors my husband and the partners at the date of my death in the firm of solicitors (that wrote the will) and I express that the said partners shall prove this my Will and act initially in its trusts.

Do you have to have their details in there aswell and is this standard wording or can you just have your partners details alone?

Also if you don't have children is it possible to state the names of nieces/ nephews if your partner has passed away?

I just wanted to be sure at what point solicitors find wills "complicated" and therefore are likely to start charging you more. I don't want a complicated set up, just for the money to be split in equal between those I list.

Any advise appreciated as this is new to me as the last will was a free one through a scheme and is very simple and vague..

ukmaggie45

Summer01 wrote: »

I've just noticed on my last will that solicitor wrote "i appoint as my executors my husband and the partners at the date of my death in the firm of solicitors (that wrote the will) and I express that the said partners shall prove this my Will and act initially in its trusts.

:eek:
:mad:
:mad:
:eek:

Make another will. They will charge 1-2% of the Gross Estate, and charge at any rate per hour they choose. At least ask what their charges are.

We had our sol draw up more or less mirror wills for us. Their firm is not named as executors - we have each named the other, and our 2 daughters.

If you want to see what a mess sols can make over acting as Executors see my thread Solicitor slow over probate.

Best wishes,

Maggie

Edit: we now have a very good sol who is sorting stuff out from the mess the first one made of both my parents estates (they died 6 and a half weeks apart). Expensive but excellent - the mess was so complicated there's no way we could have sorted it out ourselves after original sol messed up more or less everything - including IHT being late paid and what's more overpaid.

System

Maggie thanks so much for your response, I really appreciate this. That will was from 2005 so it's time to replace it as it's out of date but I'm so glad I checked and asked the question...

I just took a quick look at your other post, I'm very sorry you had to go through that and will take time to read through the pages later properly.

I did ask the solicitor if I could have someone else as executor and they said no problem so I will ensure it's family only.

I am seeing them on Monday but might postpone if I need to make a better list/notes before I go to see them.

ukmaggie45

Summer01 wrote: »

I just took a quick look at your other post, I'm very sorry you had to go through that and will take time to read through the pages later properly.

LOL you will be reading all night! :eek:

Do look very hard at the Will before signing. Our new sol sent us a draft to look at, and then we decided there were a few changes to make (nothing major) so we asked for those, and then went in, read it through, and signed.

Hope you can get things sorted out to your satisfaction.

I'm afraid I do now tend to leap in on stuff I find to do with Wills and Estates and Probate etc, as I hope others can learn from the mistakes we made (mainly being too trusting) and that my parents made when they made their Wills. They neglected to ask what the charges would be, and that solicitor didn't tell us when they took on the Estate.

But there are good solicitors too - look for a STEP practitioner for good advice, but not cheap. But still moneysaving for us. :money:

Maggie

SU51_3

joshm wrote: »

Suspect this is just the writing service. Your solicitor will most likely charge if you ask them to be listed as executor. They will keep a copy on record, I would expect, but again may charge if asked to (re)produce? Not sure about that one though.

Solicitors actually keep the original and give you a copy. Thats the normal practice anyway. l think its because if the original gets lost it can cause havoc. You are then l think supposed to make a person or persons aware you have made a will and where you have kept your copy or just keep it among your possesions where it can reasonably be discovered in the event of your death. Your copy will have the solicitors stamp on it so your next of kin/executor will know where the original is held to start the ball rolling to carry out your wishes. Hope this is some help

Errata

Solicitors actually keep the original and give you a copy. Thats the normal practice anyway

No they don't and no it isn't. A solcitor will offer to store the will for the willmaker, but sensible people will use the Probate Office safe storage facility for a one off fee of £15.

wise_fool

SU51 wrote: »

Solicitors actually keep the original and give you a copy. Thats the normal practice anyway. l think its because if the original gets lost it can cause havoc.

No it's not. The only reason why a solicitor would want stuff taking up valuable storage space is so that when you die your executors (if you haven't already appointed the solicitor as one of them) will be invited along to the offices where the solicitor will tell you just how complicated and time consuming probate is and how he "can take care of all that" - for a percentage of the estate and an hourly rate of course.

Solicitors view drawing up wills as a 'loss leader' - which is why they jump at the chance to get involved with Willaid because the probate work is where the real prize is. Their client will usually be dead and won't be in much of a position to quibble about the fees coming out of the estate or how long it's all taking.