Writing a will-is there a cheap and easy way?

Narla

Hope someone can please give me some advice.....

Me and hubby have never written a will but we are about to go on a cruise to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary and this is something I am now having a panic about - just in case!

Our two children are 22 and 19 years old. I think our situation is very straight forward as there are no ex partners or other children to consider. Therefore could we simply put in writing our wishes that our children are left everything that we own and everything is split between them? I presume we'd have to get this piece of paper signed with witnesses to our signatures but would this be enough?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

getmore4less

There is more to think about.

How big is your estate, individualy and joint, do you need IHT planning.

Who will administer the estate(s)(one of the childrem might be a good idea).

What if one/both of the children dies before you.

What if theone marries a partner you do not like.

What about care, you may want to try to reduce the risk of all your assets going on care.

Simple mirror will can be done properly for around £100-£200.

there is a MSE guide.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/free-cheap-wills

Newly_retired

You need to write separate wills. You cannot do a joint one, but you can write "mirror wills" ie identical except for the name of the spouse.
It is a good idea to have two executives and this could be the two children or someone else. Avoid naming a bank or solicitor as executor as that will cost the estate a lot of money needlessly.

You can always update your wills later if situations change eg marriage, death of any relevant person.
it is possible to get will stationery from WH Smiths for example which may be OK for your needs but using a solicitor is preferable as they will make sure it is unambiguous and has covered all your needs, even those you have not thought of.

Narla

getmore4less wrote: »

There is more to think about.

How big is your estate, individualy and joint, do you need IHT planning.

Who will administer the estate(s)(one of the childrem might be a good idea).

What if one/both of the children dies before you.

What if theone marries a partner you do not like.

What about care, you may want to try to reduce the risk of all your assets going on care.

Simple mirror will can be done properly for around £100-£200.

there is a MSE guide.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/free-cheap-wills

Thank you for your reply. There are so many more things to consider that I hadn't thought of. It doesn't sound as simple as I'd thought. Thanks for the link to a very good guide about wills.

elsien

And purely on the cheap front, are either of you in a union as some of them do a free will writing service.
(Although I don't know if they could deal with anything complicated.)

Mojisola

Narla wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. There are so many more things to consider that I hadn't thought of. It doesn't sound as simple as I'd thought. Thanks for the link to a very good guide about wills.

That's what part of the cost of will goes on - the expertise of the solicitor/will writer who should give you lots of suggestions and options of things to think about.