Making a Will

Myosin

Any advice for making a will?? Instead of going to a solicitor for it that is! I've heard about some do it yourself kits available from stationery shops. Are these ok to use and is it tricky to make a Will?

I've also heard about witnesses needing to be present at the same time to sign the thing together. Sounds a bit daunting to me - has anyone here done a will before without consulting a solicitor's office?

superscotsman

The kits will tell you how to make the will, and what the legal requirements are. I personally would not advise doing it without a lawyer. What you can do is ring round the lawyers and ask them what they will charge. Occasionally, they will do a special offer: we got our wills half price that way.

---lee---

Some banks also do will writting, often as part of the 'free' enhanced accounts services. May be worth upgrading your account for a while to benefit and then downgrading again once you have it sorted.

Regardless of who prepares your will, it still needs to be independently witnessed by two people who do not benefit in any way from it's contents. At least, that's how it works in England.

The people who witness your will should not read it, they are just signing to say that they have witnessed your signature. Details like this are all included in the packs.

I guess they all operate in pretty much the same way, in the case of my bank, you get a pretty simple form to fill in and a helpline number to ring if you need help completing the form. You send off the completed form and then get a will back that’s full of unintelligible glorified legal speak which appears to fulfil your instructions (but you can never quite be sure without a law degree)

Becles

Myosin wrote:

Any advice for making a will?? Instead of going to a solicitor for it that is! I've heard about some do it yourself kits available from stationery shops. Are these ok to use and is it tricky to make a Will?

I've also heard about witnesses needing to be present at the same time to sign the thing together. Sounds a bit daunting to me - has anyone here done a will before without consulting a solicitor's office?

There have been 2 DIY wills in my family. My Uncle wanted to leave everything to his sister due to a nasty divorce after which his children never spoke to him again. He forgot to sign his will, so it took lots of hassle sorting it out as the children appeared back on the scene after his death to make a claim.

An Uncle on the other side died suddenly and wanted to leave everything to his second wife. He made a mistake on the will, which got messy as his estranged children claimed everything should be passed to their children. That Uncle got a small sum of money when my Grandpa died, which he spent on a new car and home improvements. The children claimed a sum equivilant to that should be split between their children. Everything was frozen until it was sorted leaving my Aunt with very little money to live on.

I would advise seeing a solicitor to make sure everything is passed on to who you want it to go to with the minimum hassle. I got a new will drawn up when I divorced and I'm sure it was only around £50. A small price to pay for peace of mind.