£900 for a will!!

Ellie2758

alyth wrote:

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.

Dont suppose you know how much they paid for the Will and the POA combined do you?

alyth

One will and PoA would come to £225 plus VAT and the registration fee to the Public Guardian's office which six months ago was something like £65 - I'm sure the total was around £314 all told. I know it sounds a lot, but anything other than a fairly simple will does take a bit of time, and we all know how much lawyers can cost! I guess especially if there are children involved and you want to appoint guardians for the children it's definately worth seeking a lawyers' advice and a Power of Attorney is fairly important, if nothing else in that if you have separate bank accounts it enables you to be able to access your partner's money, especially if they hold money for paying bills, etc.

jennyjelly

Does anybody have any experience of a company called WDS Associates, based in Kingswood (Bristol)? They are a specialist will making company rather than a solicitor.

I ask because we have an appointment with them in a couple of weeks and would like to know whether we should consider them seriously or cancel the appointment now!

stamford

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

Try here I got them to do a will and enduring power of attorney, reasonable fees

https://www.willsandtrusts4u.co.uk

Nuttytich

I am pretty sure this is far too much. Many solicitors have set fees for wills,but even if they charged you upto £200 per hour this still is too much. Shop around.

Colin2511

we have just had 2 wills done (me and hubby) £250ish. This includes sorting out looking after the three kids with guardians, the assets of the house in trust, but a provision for guardian to have some money to bring kids up, writing in there about our business and who needs to look at that to sell/ manage/ disolve it

this was not the cheapest but I felt comfortable - the down side is I went in on the will aid month to give the money to charity, and they said it was too complicated for that, so the money never went to charity -

but overall the cost was good and they are looking after the original will

Firefly

Just a quick reminder that if you've got a Barclays Additions account then you get a will written for free! :j In comparison to the OP mine is very straightforward but I feel so much better now I've taken the plunge and got one; it's a scary thing to do for the first time (as if it could tempt fate!). I am sure other enhances bank accounts give you a similar option too.

Nicki

£900 sounds a lot but on the other hand the will may be more complicated than some of the others discussed here. OP did say she needed advice on IHT and Jake's Gran who had a similar quote needed to set up discretionary trusts, which will take some time and research by the solicitor as the budget changed all the previous rules.

I would get a few quotes from other solicitors, and go with the one you feel most confident in, whether or not they are actually the cheapest. At the end of the day if you get it wrong, it will probably cost you more than £900 in overpaid tax and/or aggravations. In your shoes, I wouldn't touch a DIY job or a will-writing service with a bargepole (and I am a qualified solicitor!) I did have an experience last year with a financial adviser who drafted a trust document for me, which I could see from reading it was completely unsuitable for my needs, but he refused to accept any of my comments as valid, until I had them ratified by a qualified solicitor dealing in this kind of law, when the only response really was "oops". It is definitely a false economy to get cheap but poor advice in situations like this!

stamford

Nicki wrote:

£900 sounds a lot but on the other hand the will may be more complicated than some of the others discussed here. OP did say she needed advice on IHT and Jake's Gran who had a similar quote needed to set up discretionary trusts, which will take some time and research by the solicitor as the budget changed all the previous rules.

I would get a few quotes from other solicitors, and go with the one you feel most confident in, whether or not they are actually the cheapest. At the end of the day if you get it wrong, it will probably cost you more than £900 in overpaid tax and/or aggravations. In your shoes, I wouldn't touch a DIY job or a will-writing service with a bargepole (and I am a qualified solicitor!) I did have an experience last year with a financial adviser who drafted a trust document for me, which I could see from reading it was completely unsuitable for my needs, but he refused to accept any of my comments as valid, until I had them ratified by a qualified solicitor dealing in this kind of law, when the only response really was "oops". It is definitely a false economy to get cheap but poor advice in situations like this!

I'd be wary with certain solicitors over trust funds I heard a horror story of a dodgy one working with a rogue financial advisor - it cost the victims more in legal fees to sort out the mess than the original set up fees. Solicitors are not the b all and end all

Nicki

stamford wrote:

I'd be wary with certain solicitors over trust funds I heard a horror story of a dodgy one working with a rogue financial advisor - it cost the victims more in legal fees to sort out the mess than the original set up fees. Solicitors are not the b all and end all

No, but they are covered by indemnity insurance (have to be) so if this does happen you have come back, and should not end up out of pocket.