Co-op Will Writing Service - Up-selling or Good Advice?

userdefinable

Apologies if this is the wrong section, but I couldn't find an area for discussion about wills.

My partner and I are in our 30s and expecting our first child. We've been together 5 years and are engaged. We wanted to get married this year (just an elopement), but that will likely be next year now due to Covid!
We both own property. We live in a flat he owns and I'm selling a flat I own. We hope to buy a house together in a few years time.
Before our child is born, we wanted to have simple wills drawn up, to leave the money to each other to ensure our child is provided for if anything happens. We intend to revisit these wills at some point when were older, so it's not a forever will and we're not really worrying about tax implications as we don't have over the threshold (and that won't matter anyway when we're married).

On the Money Saving Expert page about wills the Co-Op was recommended and a special price was offered, so I signed up and we had a video chat with someone from there. It really wasn't anything like I expected. I anticipated being asked some financial questions and what we wanted and getting something simple drawn up. Instead it felt instantly like a sales patter and up-selling from the start. The guy was very anti standard and mirror wills and was doing a hard sell for "trust wills". Of course these are much more expensive, after tapping at his computer for an inordinate amount of time he came up with a "great discount price" of over £650 for drawing up the wills (instead of under £200 for both single or mirror wills). He was also trying to sell us LPAs. I have some experience of those as my mum has Alzheimer's disease. Firstly, I know you can apply for them yourself very cheaply (although we chose to do mum's via a solicitor when she was first diagnosed to ensure there was no disputing she had capacity at the time). Secondly, I don't really think they're appropriate for younger people because I know the power my financial LPA seems to wield in regards to dealing with my mums affairs!

The whole experience has really put me off co-op because it felt so much like we were being sold to. I tried to glean some information about what trust wills actually are and he could only tell me positive things. That seemed very odd to me because in life I think everything has both pros and cons. I'm really not sure we want to add layers of complexity to our wills, and "perks" like ring fencing money away from care costs isn't something that seems relevant to us in our 30s.

Does anyone have any experience with co-op wills (positive or negative), or able to give me more information about trust wills (i.e. the downsides, as we've only heard why we *should* get them).

Also, are there any companies that just let you draw up your own will based on a template and then they review and store it for a reasonable price?

naedanger

userdefinable said:

Apologies if this is the wrong section, but I couldn't find an area for discussion about wills.

My partner and I are in our 30s and expecting our first child. We've been together 5 years and are engaged. We wanted to get married this year (just an elopement), but that will likely be next year now due to Covid!
We both own property. We live in a flat he owns and I'm selling a flat I own. We hope to buy a house together in a few years time.
Before our child is born, we wanted to have simple wills drawn up, to leave the money to each other to ensure our child is provided for if anything happens. We intend to revisit these wills at some point when were older, so it's not a forever will and we're not really worrying about tax implications as we don't have over the threshold (and that won't matter anyway when we're married).

On the Money Saving Expert page about wills the Co-Op was recommended and a special price was offered, so I signed up and we had a video chat with someone from there. It really wasn't anything like I expected. I anticipated being asked some financial questions and what we wanted and getting something simple drawn up. Instead it felt instantly like a sales patter and up-selling from the start. The guy was very anti standard and mirror wills and was doing a hard sell for "trust wills". Of course these are much more expensive, after tapping at his computer for an inordinate amount of time he came up with a "great discount price" of over £650 for drawing up the wills (instead of under £200 for both single or mirror wills). He was also trying to sell us LPAs. I have some experience of those as my mum has Alzheimer's disease. Firstly, I know you can apply for them yourself very cheaply (although we chose to do mum's via a solicitor when she was first diagnosed to ensure there was no disputing she had capacity at the time). Secondly, I don't really think they're appropriate for younger people because I know the power my financial LPA seems to wield in regards to dealing with my mums affairs!

The whole experience has really put me off co-op because it felt so much like we were being sold to. I tried to glean some information about what trust wills actually are and he could only tell me positive things. That seemed very odd to me because in life I think everything has both pros and cons. I'm really not sure we want to add layers of complexity to our wills, and "perks" like ring fencing money away from care costs isn't something that seems relevant to us in our 30s.

Does anyone have any experience with co-op wills (positive or negative), or able to give me more information about trust wills (i.e. the downsides, as we've only heard why we *should* get them).

Also, are there any companies that just let you draw up your own will based on a template and then they review and store it for a reasonable price?

I decided to look up trust wills and the first website was the co-op's. Having read that website I don't think in your situation it is worth paying an extra £450, especially as you envisage writing new wills when your circumstances change.

I also would be put off by the bait and switch tactics. 

Savvy_Sue

Phone a few local solicitors and see what they are offering for reasonably simple wills. Yours aren't completely simple because you're not married and there are (at least currently) two properties in the equation.

I agree you don't need 'trust' wills, but I would think about LPA sooner rather than later: you never know when catastrophe may strike, and that is precisely NOT the time you want to be worrying about your partner's finances and your ability to draw on them. Just because you have them doesn't mean that you agree to them being used. 

I'd also consider whether it's worth waiting to marry - if you only want to elope, in my experience much simpler to organise a quick trip before baby is born than when you've got an infant in tow. And while it wouldn't much reduce the need to have a will, it would reduce it slightly: your spouse and child would be your beneficiaries if you died intestate, whereas at the moment your partner would not be on the list of beneficiaries ... 

Mojisola

userdefinable said:

My partner and I are in our 30s and expecting our first child. We've been together 5 years and are engaged. We wanted to get married this year (just an elopement), but that will likely be next year now due to Covid!
Before our child is born, we wanted to have simple wills drawn up, to leave the money to each other to ensure our child is provided for if anything happens.

As Savvy_Sue says, try local solicitors first for the will and think about just getting the marriage done.

If you are going to do the deed fairly soon, the wills can be made 'in contemplation of marriage' - if you don't do this, marriage will invalidate them and you'll have to make new wills.

If you aren't married when the baby arrives, you will both have to attend the registration otherwise the father's name can't be put on the certificate.

sheramber

   You could be seriously injured or become seriously ill and unable to conduct your own affairs. An LPA would allow someone else to pay your bills etc.
An LPA once registered does not need to be used unless necessary. My sons have LPA for m  but have never used it. But it means if necessary they can step in.
You also ned to think about appointing a guardian for your child when they arrive, again in case anything happens to you and your partner.
A neighbour of mine had a 2 year court battle over who should look after her  nephew  after both parents die in an air crash.
 

Malthusian

There is no such thing as a "trust will". There are Wills and there are Trusts and there is no information in your post that suggests any particular kind of trust arrangement is needed. (I'm not counting the possibility of a bare trust for your child if you both predecease them; the kind of "trust" being flogged by the Co-op is likely to be more complicated, especially as irrelevant care costs are being mentioned.) It sounds like the Co-op attempted to sell you something overly complicated for your needs to inflate the price.

As others have said, try a local solicitor for the Wills and then DIY the LPOAs.

userdefinable said:

Secondly, I don't really think they're appropriate for younger people because I know the power my financial LPA seems to wield in regards to dealing with my mums affairs!

Not true. If you still have mental capacity an LPA gives the attorney zero power over the donor's affairs; if the attorney does anything the donor doesn't like, the donor simply countermands them and removes the attorney. The time to get LPOAs done is when you don't need them and are in a stable family situation, i.e. now. Not at the point when it's "appropriate", because by then it's often too late.

Also, are there any companies that just let you draw up your own will based on a template and then they review and store it for a reasonable price?

Do not attempt to DIY a Will unless you love solicitors more than your partner and child, as they are the beneficiaries if anything goes wrong. See a local solicitor.

t0rt0ise

If you're in a union, many of them do a basic will free. Mine did.

userdefinable

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided not to bother with CoOp. We used a simple and cheap online will writing service (Kwil). It's very basic but I was able to freehand write a small section of it. For this I referred to my mum's (solicitor drawn up) will to ensure it was properly worded.

naedanger

If there is any significant chance your will might be challenged or if it not straightforward then it would probably be worth paying for a basic will from a solicitor.

Also taking wording from another will sounds a bit risky to me, unless it is understandable in plain English as well.

And I am not someone who rushes to suggest getting professional advice for every issue. But the consequences of a badly written will can be huge.

Dox

userdefinable said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided not to bother with CoOp. We used a simple and cheap online will writing service (Kwil). It's very basic but I was able to freehand write a small section of it. For this I referred to my mum's (solicitor drawn up) will to ensure it was properly worded.

Right...and your mum's will provided for the guardianship of a child yet to be born? 

Malthusian

userdefinable said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided not to bother with CoOp. We used a simple and cheap online will writing service (Kwil). It's very basic but I was able to freehand write a small section of it. For this I referred to my mum's (solicitor drawn up) will to ensure it was properly worded.

You entrusted your Will to a serial entrepreneur who (apparently) dabbles in everything from cranes to gambling to debt collection. Good luck. (That's directed at your partner and child, not you.)