Do I _really_ need a lawyer to write a will?

Enigmaman

I think it is about time I updated my will and am wondering if I really need a solicitor?    
Can you teach yourself using online resources and save £150-200?  

henry24

You can do anything yourself but unless your assets are worth less than £200 is it worth it 

Mojisola

Enigmaman said:

I think it is about time I updated my will and am wondering if I really need a solicitor?    
Can you teach yourself using online resources and save £150-200?  

The problem is that you will never know if your will achieves what you want it to do.

It's very easy to think that you are making yourself clear, only to have your executors puzzling over your intentions and possibly interpreting them in way you didn't intend.

At worst, your will may be invalid.

Martin_the_Unjust

Depends on how complicated you want your will to be, have a look here https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will. If that distribution is what you want you don’t need a will at all.

Robin9

Enigmaman said:

I think it is about time I updated my will and am wondering if I really need a solicitor?    
Can you teach yourself using online resources and save £150-200?  

You might save yourself £200 but get it wrong and you could cost your beneficiaries a lot more in legal fees.

If you are single maybe - but any family, adopted family, step family , complex estate then go to a solicitor.

blue.peter

Enigmaman said:

I think it is about time I updated my will and am wondering if I really need a solicitor?    
Can you teach yourself using online resources and save £150-200?  

In theory, yes, you can. In practice, I strongly recommend that you use a solicitor, and preferably one that specialises in wills and probate. It'll be money well spent.

A good way to start is by creating a flow chart setting out what you want to happen, and giving that to your solicitor.

During my working life, I must have read something like 1,500 wills. They varied in quality enormously. With some overlap, the quality (in descending order) was

1. Wills drafted by solicitors;
2. Wills drafted by will-writing companies;
3. Wills drafted by testators.

The problems I found with poor ones were manifold, but the worst problems were those that failed for certainty. Whilst the testator probably knew what he or she intended, the language used was often ambiguous to anyone else. In quite a few cases, circumstances arose that were simply not envisaged by the text. For example, someone might leave a legacy - up to and including the whole estate - to a person, but that person predeceased the testator, and the will simply didn't say who was to benefit in those circumstances.

Writing your own will is a false economy.

missile

Many charities offer a free will writing services. 

Martin_the_Unjust

missile said:

Many charities offer a free will writing services. 

If you do take advantage of a ‘free’ charity will writing service and feel obliged to leave them something please, for your executors sake, make sure it’s a set amount rather than a percentage.

Farway

Normally I'd have said DIY, but I note OP is taking about updating and that may be where something goes wrong, so in the instance I agree with the other posters, get a solicitor to do it

Keep_pedalling

Farway said:

Normally I'd have said DIY, but I note OP is taking about updating and that may be where something goes wrong, so in the instance I agree with the other posters, get a solicitor to do it

Unless the estate is a simple cash only one DIY is probably OK, otherwise the most important document you are going to draw up in your lifetime should be done by a professional, who will make sure it is drafted correctly and will guide the client through all the what if situations they had not thought about.

Going by a previous thread the OP financial situation has been boosted by a recent inheritance, so he should not be scrimping on doing it properly.

Enigmaman

Not sure how I ave the impression I had had an inheritance but I do have a significantly !!!!!! pension pot than I did.