DIY Will Kits - which is best?

Mojisola

Irony wrote: »

" If we die together":eek: I hope your not thinking...
anyhow,if you die together the younger of the pair is deemed to have died last &their next kin of will get all.

Your will should have a clause covering this possibility so that your stuff goes where you want it to go if you die together.

Torby

use a solicitor....if you get one that comes highly recommended by friends and family...go there

strewth

Go to 10min wills.£35.00 for basic will. Takes about 20mins.

moongarden

U've_been_framed wrote: »

If you don't do it properly then the state decides what happens.

I am just dealing with this at the moment. My father passed away on 21st October and we have been unable to find a Will (although we believe one exists).

In our circumstance, I as his eldest child and next of kin, am responsible for administering his estate now under grant of a Power of Administration from the court. His partner of 16 years has no legal claim over any of his estate other than items in joint names.

So, rather than the state deciding what happens in every situation there are two ways things can go. Either the next of kin come forward and request administrative powers or no-one comes forward in which case the state would probably decide.

moongarden

Having thought through this further perhaps it would be possible to use one of those cheap will writing services and then take it to both a tax accountant and a decent will practicioner for amending.

Also, a Will is entirely useless if it cannot be found. There is an online service for registering the existence and location of your will which sounds like a sensible idea to me. Having a note of where yours is located sent round a number of relatives could be a good idea too.

chirpy007

So to summerise then no one can guarantee a will thats any good. I might as well DIY it then

Be_Happy

I don't want to cause offence by jumping into someone else's post, but my question seems relevant to this topic.

My husband and I have wills drawn up several years ago by a solicitor. We want to remove one of the executors (the original solicitor) from these.

Is it possible for us just add a handwritten note, or to rewrite the wills exactly as before, with the alteration. I understand the importance of being correctly signed and witnessed. The wills we hold are 'originals', so I don't think the original solicitor is still involved. Does he have any copywright over the wills? Do we have to register the wills anywhere or notify anyone (apart from next of kin).

dzug1

Just adding a hand written note is no good - you either need to do a formal witnessed codicil or an entirely new will.

You don't have to register the will anywhere - not even tell next of kin though it's wise to do so. There are voluntary registration schemes - eg the Probate Office has one.

Not sure about copyright, but it's probably a non-issue. After all you paid him for use of it first time round..... And they are likely to be stock legal phrases rather than his own

Errata

Wills aren't copyrighted and if they were the copyright would rest with the person who made the will, in the same way as an author holds copyright for what they've written not the firms who print and publish it.
Copying the original will exactly but with an executor removed should be ok providing there is at least one executor left. An elderly relative of mine wanted to make a similar minor change to their will - I copied out the original exactly, making the minor changes. This is what a solicotor, willwriter, online willwriting sevice would do.
Wills can be stored with the Probate security service for a one off fee of £15
details on their website.

EdInvestor

strewth wrote: »

Go to 10min wills.£35.00 for basic will. Takes about 20mins.

Whether or not you use this service it's useful to have a look round the site, tells you a lot about how to do a will.

http://www.tenminutewill.co.uk/

Having run across quite a few badly written solicitor's wills, I'm afraid I have little faith in that approach.