Recommendation for writing a will?

techno79

Okay, thanks for all the advice. Anyone know roughly how much it'll cost for a local solicitor? Only a rough ball park so I know whether I'm being completely ripped off or not?

Ilona

My Will was free, and drawn up by a solicitor face to face.

https://freewillsmonth.org.uk/

How it works. Solicitors and charities sign up to be a part of it. You look at the list of solicitors in your area and pick one which is convenient to you. You look at the list of charities and decide which one you might like to support. It is explained that you might like to include the charity as one of the benefactors, you don't have to, no pressure.

My solicitor is in Gainsborough and I chose Blue Cross. I have other animal charities in my Will so I was happy to add Blue Cross to the list.

This may only work for simple Wills, if yours is too complicated it may not qualify for a free one. Check the small print.

ilona

Primrose

PasturesNew wrote: »

My parents went to a proper/local solicitor .... 25 years later when we pulled it out, it had errors on it and made it "intestate", although, in our case, that didn't actually matter as the values were so low and the solicitor managed to get it "reinstated as it was intended, despite the mistake, because it didn't fundamentally change much of any significance and nobody was omitted by doing this".

Part of the thing with wills is: depends how complex your life is and how much value you've got rattling about ....

What the solicitor had managed to end up doing, with two mirror wills, is not doing Find/Replace properly - and dad ended up leaving everything he owned to himself and not to mum! He tried to take it all with him which, you can't do.

That isabsolutely disgraceful. The trouble is with solicitors legalese
Its only too easy to miss something like this when reading though it yourself before signing.

Probably best, if using a solicitor to write your thoughts about legacies and beneficiaries down on paper first. I did this simply in good plain English and handed it to the so,icitor to draft. By the time I got the final version back in their legalese,it was virtually unintelligible and I,d paid a lot of money into the bargain!

Keep_pedalling

Toby_Tucker wrote: »

The problem with will is the mistakes/problems often don't come to light until after the testator has died.

That is true, but at least if a solicitor has made the error then beneficiaries who have lost out are able get their losses back, not the case with a DIY will or one made by unregulated will writing companies.