Advice on where to get a will

wallofbeans

Hi All,

I am looking at getting wills made. I obviously don't want to spend a fortune doing it. And I hope that it will all be quite simple. Everything going to my daughter, looked after by my wife until she is an adult, or my brother if my wife is not around either.

Can anyone suggest the best way to go about it, and get it at a good price but done well.

Thanks all.

krlyr

If you can wait until November, it's Will Aid month. You'll find a list of participating solicitors on the Will Aid site - http://www.willaid.org.uk/

Suggested donation is £95 for a single will. The solicitors do it just like if you went to them for a will, but you just make payment out to Will Aid instead.

wallofbeans

krlyr wrote: »

If you can wait until November, it's Will Aid month. You'll find a list of participating solicitors on the Will Aid site - http://www.willaid.org.uk/

Suggested donation is £95 for a single will. The solicitors do it just like if you went to them for a will, but you just make payment out to Will Aid instead.

Thanks for that, but November is quite a long way away and would rather get it sorted sooner. What is the typical rate for doing this? And is £95 significantly cheaper?

mum2one

I had mine done with my solicitor - simple will -

Naming - legal guardian (alos my executor)
In trust till DD 21.

If your wife wants a will at same time - same arrangement - ask for a mirror will,

Should be around £150 / £200

x

Linda32

I just wanted to second the Willaid.

We had a pair of mirror wills (myself and OH) using the Willaid scheme, it cost £140

wallofbeans

mum2one wrote: »

I had mine done with my solicitor - simple will -

Naming - legal guardian (alos my executor)
In trust till DD 21.

If your wife wants a will at same time - same arrangement - ask for a mirror will,

Should be around £150 / £200

x

Sounds exactly the kind of thing. I just don't know where to start with finding a good solicitor. Any advice?

TBagpuss

Call a couple of local solicitors, or ask friends for recommendations.
Prices will vary a bit due to location. Around here you'd pay about £175 + VAT for a straightforward will.

WillAid is intended to raise money for charity - ideally, you ought to donate the full value of the will, rather than taking advantage and paying less.

Savvy_Sue

Second the advice to call round local solicitors and see what they're charging and how helpful they seem.

wallofbeans wrote: »

And I hope that it will all be quite simple. Everything going to my daughter, looked after by my wife until she is an adult, or my brother if my wife is not around either.

Just a pointer, but I'd expect any competent solicitor to check that your wife is a lady of independent means, because on that wording she apparently gets nothing ...

AnnieO1234

If there's any potential for inheritance issues, including cutting someone out or Inheritance Tax - remember any pension pots, life insurances, homes in your calculations, then please see a solicitor and not a will writer. There are too many services who are basically cut n paste and don't and can't deal with the intricacies of estate of value or difficulty.

I know it won't affect you directly, but it could cause years of problems and a severe dwindling of your fortune for your daughter.

You'll need to know how your property is held, whether as tenants in common or joint tenants as that will also affect the legacy.

Xxx

susancs

OP, usually wills if married and property, finance in joint names then the survivor will get be entitled to anything in joint names without the need for the will to come into force. When my father died as everything was in joint names mum just filled in forms and sent in a copy of the death certificate to get it all into her own name. They had mirror wills and in the event of them both passing it is all shared between their four children.

I would advise that you think carefully about executors as orginally my parents had the solictors as executors and they would have taken a sizeable 1.5% of the estate for dealing with it.

zagfles

susancs wrote: »

OP, usually wills if married and property, finance in joint names then the survivor will get be entitled to anything in joint names without the need for the will to come into force. When my father died as everything was in joint names mum just filled in forms and sent in a copy of the death certificate to get it all into her own name. They had mirror wills and in the event of them both passing it is all shared between their four children.

I would advise that you think carefully about executors as orginally my parents had the solictors as executors and they would have taken a sizeable 1.5% of the estate for dealing with it.

Yes, do not make the solicitors the executor whatever you do! Then they have the monopoly, if they're slow, expensive or incompetant there's nothing the beneficiaries can do. Plenty of stories about people waiting years for the estate to be sorted and massive charges etc.

Make a trusted beneficiary(s) the executor(s), they can always pay for legal help if they need it, but they'll be able to shop around, sack an incompetent/slow solicitor etc. They're not stuck with a named one to use. If the estate is straightforwards and the executor is capable of a bit of online research a solicitor won't even be neeed.