Free Template Will & Testament?

Savvy_Sue

kelloggs36 wrote:

As it stands, as the entire house now belongs to my mum, upon her death, my sister and I face a large IHT bill.

Well, not necessarily. There are other things she can do, like she could give you half the house now but continue to live in it. And my mum and dad have mentioned something called a 'Deed of Variation', which means that you can effectively NOT do what the deceased said in their will was to happen.

Of course the main thing she has to do is survive for 7 years after any major gifts ... and there are disadvantages to having 3 people have an interest in a house in which only one of them is living, so it something you should get specialist advice on.

kelloggs36

The only problem there is that upon divorce, my husband or my sister's husband would have a claim on my mum's house, thus technically making my mum sell her house!

pickledtink

Sorry if feathers have been ruffled here but seroxat should refrain from making snippy personal remarks about other posters and making sweeping statements about such matters. I bet your will isn't written on a vaguely worded scrap of paper is it seroxat?
Neither I nor anyone else should be glibly dishing out advice on a message board frankly. This is far too important to mess up.

Most basic wills start at £25-30 which would at least mean you definitely don't die intestate. If that happens it takes months and costs a lot of your money to sort out. Also as nothing is released until it is that could mean your loved ones are left without any money to survive on or even that the family home ends up having to be sold to pay the fees.
I urge everyone to go to an informed adviser and get your own personal will made up according to your own circumstances and wishes.

welshcakes

I've decided that I'm going to bullet point out the specifics of what I want contained in my Will and take that along to a local Writer in person so we can read through it together and hopefully that will ensure that the resulting document precisely reflects my intentions.

Thank you all for your replies, it has certainly changed my mind about drawing up my own will unaided.

pickledtink

welshcakes wrote:

I've decided that I'm going to bullet point out the specifics of what I want contained in my Will and take that along to a local Writer in person so we can read through it together and hopefully that will ensure that the resulting document precisely reflects my intentions.

Thank you all for your replies, it has certainly changed my mind about drawing up my own will unaided.

Good choice. You can always have a bit of fun with your 'memorandum of wishes' too.....;)

Mrs-Clements-to-be

seroxat_chick wrote:

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

I'm sorry I just had to respond to this: it's actually the Wills Act 1837 which I think Seroxat Chick meant! (Seroxat, you sounded quite patronising when you said the above - did you mean to?)

Also can I just add my own (admittedly biased view) about the quality of training for Will writers versus solicitors (and especially STEP - Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners - a group of specialists in Wills and related work, including inheritance tax advice - solicitors)?

I should say that I'm a solicitor and member of STEP and specialise in Will preparation and related work. It took me 6 years to qualify as a solicitor, and a further 2 1/2 to take the STEP exams.

One of my in-laws has recently taken a course to become a Will writer. It lasted 3 days! The costs for him to do a Will (once you add in the 'hidden extras' most solicitors include in their overall cost, e.g. safe storage) work out roughly the same as my firm's. I would encourage people to draw their own conclusions as to which of us is better value for money...:rotfl:

seroxat_chick

Mrs-Clements-to-be wrote:

I'm sorry I just had to respond to this: it's actually the Wills Act 1837 which I think Seroxat Chick meant! (Seroxat, you sounded quite patronising when you said the above - did you mean to?)

No, I meant what I said - 1837/1863, splitting hairs really, but the latter is what is used most often by hubby.

I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about Will writers. My husband was invited to go and give a talk to a Will Writers' Association and he returned quite shook up and said that it was scary what little knowledge they had.