Free Template Will & Testament?

welshcakes

Hope someone can help, I'm searching for a good free template to draw up my Will. I have very defined and straight forward wishes with my property etc and am competant enough to word a document clearly however I want to ensure that I include the essential clause phrases so that it is legally acceptable.

I don't anticipate any contestation however if it is possible to avoid costly solicitors fees this would be preferable. Thanks

mountainofdebt

welshcakes wrote:

I don't anticipate any contestation however if it is possible to avoid costly solicitors fees this would be preferable. Thanks

Why leave it to chance?

The only people who benefit from a home-made will are the solicitors who deal with any problems afterwards. One wrong or misplaced word and they are laughing all the way to the bank.

Not worth the risk in my book......especially if the will is straight forward.

seroxat_chick

It's not really the wording of a will that causes problems, the most important aspects to get absolutely correct are that it is signed and dated correctly.

pickledtink

NO! NO! NO!
Do it properly with the aid of a specialist. I'm a partner in a legal services wills and trusts provider. Believe me it is worth spending £50-£100 to make sure everything goes exactly where you want and often more importantly doesn't go where you definitely don't.
Most people don't realise how the law works on this point alone.
For example:
If a person works hard and rears a child with no help from the ex absent partner then said child dies within 28 days of the persons death the ex can claim the lot.
Loathed siblings can do likewise.
A parent you've never even met could grab your hard earned whereas a beloved grandchild has no claim.
It's not worth the risk. Even a dispute over wording could end up with the bulk of your estate being wasted in legal wrangling all paid for out of your estate.
Make a proper will. The biggest cause of permanent rifts in families come about due to lack of correct legal wills.

My own reason for ending up in this business is because my Mother 'trusted' my half sister to share out her entire estate after she was dead as she didn't want to 'waste' any money on an expensive will.
Half sister kept every penny of my share and the fall out has ripped our family to shreds.
Make a proper will and give it considerable time and thought. You can enter exclusions and memorandum of wishes to even spell out the little bequests that can get people at each others throats.

pickledtink

seroxat_chick wrote:

It's not really the wording of a will that causes problems, the most important aspects to get absolutely correct are that it is signed and dated correctly.

Sorry but it is the wording which is important!

seroxat_chick

pickledtink wrote:

Sorry but it is the wording which is important!

With respect, my husband has dealt with wills written on kitchen paper, which basically say " I leave everything to my wife" and as long as it has been witnessed, signed and dated correctly, then it is a valid will.

I suggest you read The Wills Act 1863 if you wish to be successful in your business.

pickledtink

seroxat_chick wrote:

With respect, my husband has dealt with wills written on kitchen paper, which basically say " I leave everything to my wife" and as long as it has been witnessed, signed and dated correctly, then it is a valid will.

I suggest you read The Wills Act 1863 if you wish to be successful in your business.

Oh for goodness sake.
What a lot of dangerous rubbish to be telling people when their whole estate is at stake.

If 'my wife' dies in the same car crash or whatever what then?
Stupid foolish advice.
Please ignore this posters airy suggestion that scribbling your will on a bit of kleenex is a clever idea. It isn't. Most people these days have a property worth at least £100,000 when they die. This is not peanuts! Get your will made in a foolproof manner to do what you want it to do.

seroxat_chick

pickledtink wrote:

Oh for goodness sake.
What a lot of dangerous rubbish to be telling people when their whole estate is at stake.

If 'my wife' dies in the same car crash or whatever what then?
Stupid foolish advice.
Please ignore this posters airy suggestion that scribbling your will on a bit of kleenex is a clever idea. It isn't. Most people these days have a property worth at least £100,000 when they die. This is not peanuts! Get your will made in a foolproof manner to do what you want it to do.

I just wanted to say that I'm very upset by your response.
Of course I wasn't advising people to write wills on bits of Kleenex or offering airy suggestions. I was merely stating a fact to try and help people to see that it's a misapprehension that wills have to be worded in any set fashion or using any fancy words.
I have been giving people advice on here based on 17 years of working in Probate, but I shall refrain from doing so in the future.

Savvy_Sue

seroxat_chick wrote:

I have been giving people advice on here based on 17 years of working in Probate, but I shall refrain from doing so in the future.

Which is a shame ...

although I seem to remember an expensively contested will which read "I leave everything to Mother", where the deceased's mother argued that he meant her, and the deceased's wife (and mother of his children) argued that he meant her, and always called her mother once the children came along. This is perhaps an urban myth ... although I am sure it pre-dates the internet ...

Hopefully a solicitor would avoid such ambiguous wording, but it's not necessarily the case! Parents are re-doing theirs at present, and the drafts which have come back are pretty shocking! :rotfl:

welshcakes

Well, I thank everyone for their input on this and take every view on board. I was considering one of the Will softwares you can purchase at Staples but will give it some more thought. Thanks to all posters

kelloggs36

My dad died this year and he had a Will which he bought off the shelf. However, this has led to some problems which have only just come to light. Firstly, his real intentions have not been adhered to because he did not understand what he was doing (according to my mum!) He and she owned their house outright and he just left everything to her which is fine as it stands. However, my mum said that he wanted me and my sister to benefit from their deaths and not pay too much inheritance tax. So what he SHOULD have done was to sever the tenancy on their house to tenancy in common and leave his half of the house to my sister and I and the other half belongs to my mum anyway. She then would leave her half to us or whomever she wanted to. That way, his half of the house forms part of his estate and is independant of my mum's so that upon my mum's death (a long time off I hope!!) her half of the house is only taken into account for IHT purposes and should mean no IHT to pay. As it stands, as the entire house now belongs to my mum, upon her death, my sister and I face a large IHT bill. Oh well, I guess it is better that the Tax man gets it rather than an insurance company which could be the case if she takes out one of those equity release things.