£900 for a will!!

frankie

Went to see local solicitors re making will for myself and OH.

Need to consider IHT so need to set up trusts etc.

Solicitor said this was very complex area and would cost about £900 for the wills to be written up.

The costs do seem somewhat hight to us, what do others think?

We're not keen on going down that DIY route, don't mind paying, but don't want to be ripped off.

Cheers

JennyW_2

Cant comment about the IHT but my husband and I have just had our wills done and it cost £120. This was done through a will company and not a solicitor.

Justie

sounds expensive - I'd get a quote from another couple of solicitors as well to see if it's competitive. Ours were about £150 for our joint wills but were straight forward I know it is more expensive if you need trusts etc and you also need to check where administrative costs for trusts come from, if it's all upfront then it's probably not a bad deal but you'd need to do some homework.

Kizzy001

yes get a quote for a few solictors. My friend is a lawyer and she olnly charges between £75-£150 for a will.

Ellie2758

oh dear, me and OH need to do a Will. We wanted to include a joint Enduring Power of Attorney, hope it doesnt cost £900.

Jake'sGran

frankie wrote:

Went to see local solicitors re making will for myself and OH.

Need to consider IHT so need to set up trusts etc.

Solicitor said this was very complex area and would cost about £900 for the wills to be written up.

The costs do seem somewhat hight to us, what do others think?

We're not keen on going down that DIY route, don't mind paying, but don't want to be ripped off.

Cheers

I asked a few of them for prices and mostly it was £400-500 but there was one at £900 because he said he had to farm it out as they did not have enough expertise of IHT wills. We visited a solicitor the other week to talk about using both Nil Rate Bands and having a discretionary trust. Her price was £450 plus VAT but she seemed a bit thrown by the fact that I did know a bit about the subject and she also said something that I have since been told by one of the regular contributors on here that she was wrong. So, I may go back to her or one at £500 but certainly not to one charging the amount you mention. Loads of good articles on the Internet about IHT. Have a look at Bestinvest's site. Their article seemed easier to follow.

Ivrytwr3

at £900 because he said he had to farm it out as they did not have enough expertise of IHT wills

The fact that they said they had little experience in this area would have caused me to walk out the door immediately. But for them to charge you for them to then give the work to someone else is scandalous!!

alyth

It could be about right - when I was a legal sec, and that was only 6 months ago, to put in what's a Nil Rate Band Discretionary Trust into two wills could cost as little as £600, we frequently billed clients over a grand for doing wills and powers of attorney if they were complicated. Unfortunately the rules keep changing regarding trusts and IHTs, so not every lawyer could be up to speed with the changes, despite the fact they should of course be - but if that's not their specialist area of law then they may pass the work onto to another law firm, and of course that costs more money. Contact the Law Society in either England or Scotland and ask for a specialist Private Client lawyer in your area. My parents had a similar experience with a small-town lawyer recently, was told they couldn't do powers of attorney when they obviously can (can't remember the reason why but it was totally rubbish) and I downloaded stuff from the internet and they toddled off to another bigger law firm and got all the stuff they needed done properly.

frankie

Thanks for all your comments.

I'll be shopping around more for sure.

[Deleted User]

we have just made wills and enduring power of attorney with this company. Very professional and cost under £80 in total. They also do discretionary trusts

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

Jake'sGran

kittie wrote:

we have just made wills and enduring power of attorney with this company. Very professional and cost under £80 in total. They also do discretionary trusts

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

This subject does come up regularly but one poster balled me out about DIY.
"for goodness sake woman.....if you have some money to leave have it done professionally." He may be right but I did have a look on the TenMinuteWill site the other night and may have a look again because the one lawyer I did see seemed a bit agitated when she saw me armed with all my information.