Will, Storage & Trusts...

madfrenchg1rl

Hello MSErs!

I haven't posted on here for years and could not remember my original email address so had to create a new account.

I was wondering if you helpful folks could help me once more. My husband and I have contracted the services of Legacy4Life to draw a will.

Now we have already paid for the normal basic will to be drawn BUT...

We have been offered 2 extra services:
- one to securely store the will and cover for any later amendments at the tune of £300 ish
- the other to draw up a Tenant in Common Trust for £500ish

Now, from doing a bit of research, one can store their will with the Probate office for £20 per will. So that leaves us with paying £280 odd to cover the possibility of amending the will. Considering any amendments cost £80, you'd have to make at least 4 changes in your lifetime to make this service worth it.
You can tell I am not convinced. What do you think? Just want to check if I was on the right track.

The TIC into Trust service does interest us. It's the kind that puts your home into a trust passed on to the surviving party/OH so the children (nor the council) can force a sale. In essence, it's a case of protecting one another from people wanting to force you out to get the cash.
I struggle to find any quotes online, only explanations of the trust. Does anyone know how much this service costs normally? £500ish seems a bit steep.

Thank you in advance.

TonyMMM

Why are you using a firm of will writers ? If you can, cancel whatever arrangements you have made and contact a decent local solicitor who will provide a much better service and will store your will for free.

Whatever you do don't let them put themselves as executors ( that where they really make money).

madfrenchg1rl

Thanks for replying...Just to reasure you, hubby has recently served a executor so we knew better than to let Legacy4Life put themselves as executors.

I was mainly enquiring about the fees they were charging for storage and setting up a Lifetime Trust. It just seems they slashed the cost of will writing to fish hook into providing additional services.

Thanks for telling me that storage should be free with a local solicitor. However, this is my second will and no one offered me storage when I had the first one written and that was with a local sollicitor.

So I won;t be using them for storage.

What about the fees for the lifetime trust? Would a local sollicitor charge in excess of £500?

Yorkshireman99

madfrenchg1rl wrote: »

Thanks for replying...Just to reasure you, hubby has recently served a executor so we knew better than to let Legacy4Life put themselves as executors.

I was mainly enquiring about the fees they were charging for storage and setting up a Lifetime Trust. It just seems they slashed the cost of will writing to fish hook into providing additional services.

Thanks for telling me that storage should be free with a local solicitor. However, this is my second will and no one offered me storage when I had the first one written and that was with a local sollicitor.

So I won;t be using them for storage.

What about the fees for the lifetime trust? Would a local sollicitor charge in excess of £500?

Avoid anything they do at all costs. Go and see aproperly qualified solicitor instead.

izoomzoom

We went with a Will Writing Company. God forbid, everyone advises against them, but what is done is done.

Executors are friends / family, not WWC.
The Wills drawn up leave the first death portion in a trust for the children, with surviving partner still owning their portion of the house. (All to save forced sales / sideways disinheritance).

Our property was owned as joint tenants but they explained all the pitfalls of that, and quoted us about £200-300 to change it to CIT, but I lied and said I was already getting it changed.

I called around local solicitors and some quoted £250 and I was shocked and thought maybe I should go back to the WWC to change the JT to CIT.

Nevertheless found one solicitor who originally quoted £120 (think this included £50 fee for the registry office), so went with them. They did it within 10 days and refunded us £50 because the registry office had stopped charging, so it ended up only costing £70).

Also WWC wouldn't send up the Wills to sign, until the CIT had been sorted.

Edited to add, didn't sign up for the storage thing. Figured I am pretty good at looking after papers at home and have advised Executors of where to find said Wills. If the house goes up in flames, well it is going to be a hella mess, with or without a Will.

WYSPECIAL

izoomzoom wrote: »

Edited to add, didn't sign up for the storage thing. Figured I am pretty good at looking after papers at home and have advised Executors of where to find said Wills. If the house goes up in flames, well it is going to be a hella mess, with or without a Will.

Or for a one off £20 you can have it stored by the Probate Service and they will issue a certificate that you can keep with your paperwork. Should be safe with HM Courts & Tribunals Service!

SmlSave

madfrenchg1rl wrote: »

Hello MSErs!

- the other to draw up a Tenant in Common Trust for £500ish


The TIC into Trust service does interest us. It's the kind that puts your home into a trust passed on to the surviving party/OH so the children (nor the council) can force a sale. In essence, it's a case of protecting one another from people wanting to force you out to get the cash.
I struggle to find any quotes online, only explanations of the trust. Does anyone know how much this service costs normally? £500ish seems a bit steep.

Thank you in advance.

The big question here should be - is your property currently held by your partner and you as joint tenants or tenants in common?

Joint tenants - you own equally 50/50 and should one of you die the property automatically passes to the other

Tenants in common - you own the property as to what shares you agree and you can each decide by way of Will or Trust Deed (or both) what happens to your share when you die.

A Trust Deed normally costs (in my area) £200, you'd also have to make sure your Wills give your other half a 'right to reside' should you give someone other than your partner your share of the house in your Deed/Will. If you are changing your Title from joint to tenants in common there is also the Land Registry to deal with (easy enough to do on your own)

Have a look at this from the Guardian in 2014 which may be useful:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/28/tenancy-common-care-home-fee-solution

Mojisola

SmlSave wrote: »

Joint tenants - you own equally 50/50 and should one of you die the property automatically passes to the other

As Joint Tenants you both own all the property - there's no 50/50 split.

SmlSave

Mojisola wrote: »

As Joint Tenants you both own all the property - there's no 50/50 split.

Surely that's splitting hairs?

When two people own a thing equally it's therefore owned as to half each, aka 50/50, should they split and sell the property

Mojisola

SmlSave wrote: »

Surely that's splitting hairs?

When two people own a thing equally it's therefore owned as to half each, aka 50/50, should they split and sell the property

No. If you own as tenants in common you can own half of the property and leave it in a will to whoever you want.

When you own as joint tenants, you both own the whole property. When the first owner dies, the survivor still owns the whole property.