Making a will, what we need to know?

badmemory

My will only cost £120 with a solicitor not a will writer. It was very simple. When I die everything to my son, if he pre-deceases me then to my sister. Executor my son unless .... then my sister, this is all my family that still exists, if you have more then you may need it to read a little differently, but the basics are still the same.


Probate when you reach that stage is actually very easy if you can be organised. My mother's took less than 3 months but the house had already been sold but included a cheque from HMRC which had to be replaced (it went missing!) which alone took several weeks.


Does your father have a funeral plan & power of attorneys in place. The POAs were a godsend in the last 3 years of my mother's life. Enabled her to have access to the glasses & hearing aids she needed. Believe me hearing aids particularly seem to suffer if you need to be in a care home as she did. There is no way we could have spent over £3k of her money on these without proper access. Depriving people with dementia of sight & hearing increases their dementia & therefore shortens both their life expectancy & what is actually more important - the quality of that life.

Robin9

Whilst talking to your father discuss what he would like for his funeral - burial/cremation/ music/readings ............. Knowing his wishes will save you a lot of guesswork at what will be an emotional time.

pattycake

When my mother died, my father remade his will. I accompanied him to the solicitors’ office but after he had talked over his wishes with the solicitor in my presence, I was asked to leave the office whilst the details were finalised. I was perfectly happy with this as the solicitor was merely making sure my dad was not being coerced into something he didn’t want.

My brother and I were executors and sole beneficiaries. After dad passed away, we collected the will from the solicitor and did probate ourselves. It was straightforward and cost effective.

We had learned a lesson as my mother’s Will was handled through solicitors, took over a year and was costly even though it was simple and not high value.

donnajunkie

badmemory wrote: »

My will only cost £120 with a solicitor not a will writer. It was very simple. When I die everything to my son, if he pre-deceases me then to my sister. Executor my son unless .... then my sister, this is all my family that still exists, if you have more then you may need it to read a little differently, but the basics are still the same.


Probate when you reach that stage is actually very easy if you can be organised. My mother's took less than 3 months but the house had already been sold but included a cheque from HMRC which had to be replaced (it went missing!) which alone took several weeks.


Does your father have a funeral plan & power of attorneys in place. The POAs were a godsend in the last 3 years of my mother's life. Enabled her to have access to the glasses & hearing aids she needed. Believe me hearing aids particularly seem to suffer if you need to be in a care home as she did. There is no way we could have spent over £3k of her money on these without proper access. Depriving people with dementia of sight & hearing increases their dementia & therefore shortens both their life expectancy & what is actually more important - the quality of that life.

No, theres no funeral plan or power of attorney in place.

donnajunkie

Robin9 wrote: »

Whilst talking to your father discuss what he would like for his funeral - burial/cremation/ music/readings ............. Knowing his wishes will save you a lot of guesswork at what will be an emotional time.

I dont think he really cares about that stuff.

donnajunkie

pattycake wrote: »

When my mother died, my father remade his will. I accompanied him to the solicitors’ office but after he had talked over his wishes with the solicitor in my presence, I was asked to leave the office whilst the details were finalised. I was perfectly happy with this as the solicitor was merely making sure my dad was not being coerced into something he didn’t want.

My brother and I were executors and sole beneficiaries. After dad passed away, we collected the will from the solicitor and did probate ourselves. It was straightforward and cost effective.

We had learned a lesson as my mother’s Will was handled through solicitors, took over a year and was costly even though it was simple and not high value.

I dont understand the term probate and what it is and what it involves.

DigForVictory

donnajunkie wrote: »

No, theres no funeral plan or power of attorney in place.

donnajunkie wrote: »

I dont think he really cares about that stuff.

The (two)Powers of Attorney means if your dad has a stroke or something you can (a) run his finances &/or (b) make decisions on his health for him, depending on what's sorted. Not cheap, but much less expensive to have drawn up in case than try to sort later once competence is definitely lost.

He may well not care about a funeral but you may find it comforting to know he's made a few choices, expressed a mild preference, etc when the time comes and you have to deal with not just the estate but also the corpse.

It's a lot easier for the bereaved if it has been agreed in advance.

badmemory

Probate is just sending the will off to get it legally recognised/registered & is generally fairly straight forward & checks if any tax is due, which is not the case in most cases. Normally just a form filling box ticking exercise, with very good notes as to what should go in what box & when in doubt the lovely people on here will help.



A power of attorney can be invaluable. It can make sure that his loved ones can ensure that he can be taken care of if ever he can't take care of himself, rather than letting the LA take over his finances. Both the Finance & Welfare can be done on line - keep the requirements simple


Edited to add


It makes life a lot simpler for all to have these things in place. We talked about the POA & funeral thing with my mother in the January when she was still "firing on all cylinders" & fortunately she did not put off dealing with it. In June she had been in hospital 2 weeks after a fall & couldn't remember how to make a pot of tea! No stroke or anything like that they assured us. If it hadn't been sorted back then we would have been in real trouble. At that time I couldn't have even afforded to replace one of her hearing aids!

MovingForwards

Probate is when the person dies, the estate (assets) are calculated, debts are deducted and the figures filled into the form for the probate office to enable them to do the grant of probate. It costs and that depends on the size of the estate.

When the grant is received all the assets can be gathered up from banks, things sold etc, debts are then paid after that the beneficiaries get their money.

You sound like you are panicking, first thing is to make an appointment with a local firm to get the wills drafted, then signed on the second visit. The secretary or receptionist will be a witness, the solicitor will be a witness.

Funeral fees just require an invoice from the funeral home, that's given to the bank with a copy of the death certificate, if not already provided, and they pay the funeral home.

When you have your will and your dad's will signed, do another post about probate.

Also, ask your dad to consider a power of attorney naming you and someone else he trusts as a back up, to act on his behalf in case he becomes incapable of dealing with his finance.

Robin9

donnajunkie wrote: »

I dont think he really cares about that stuff.

He may not but - think about it - what would you do when that day arrives ? Would you know what funeral director to contact ? Would he want a wake- a big booze up ?

Even when a death which is expected there a lot of things which have to happen - doctor confirming death, death certs, people to contact. You will be mourning, in shock.