DIY Will - Omissions?

patchyX2

I don't have a Will. My situation is relatively straightforward, so I've attempted to do a DIY Will based of several templates I've seen. 

In short I want to:
- Give everything to my wife (house, cash, investments, the lot) 
- If she's not around, give everything to my two kids, split evenly
- Define who should be guardians for my kids should the need arise
- State that the trustees can invest and/or spend money as they see fit to help bringing up my kids 

I was wondering if anyone could cast their eye over my attempt to see if I've missed anything? 

1.   REVOCATION

I, XXXX of XXXX revoke all earlier wills and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament.

2.   APPOINTMENT OF EXECUTORS

I appoint my wife, XXXX, of XXXX to be the Executor and Trustee of my Will, provided she shall survive me by 60 days.

 

If she shall predecease me, or otherwise fail to survive me by 60 days, or otherwise be unable or unwilling to act, then I appoint:

My father, XXXX, of XXXX

and

My father-in-law, XXXX, of XXXX

as Executors and Trustees of my Will in her place.

3.   APPOINTMENT OF GUARDIANS

I appoint XXXX and XXXX of XXXX to be the Guardians of any of my children who are minors at the time of my death, if I am the sole surviving parent at the date of my death.

 

4.   DEFINITION OF ESTATE

My estate shall mean all my legal and beneficial interests in property, money and possessions.

 

5.   DISTRIBUTION OF ESTATE

5.1.   I give all of my estate to my executor to pay all the expenses of my estate, my funeral and all my debts, including any mortgage and taxes due in respect of my estate, and to divide my residuary estate among the following in the shares specified.

5.2.   I give my residuary estate to my wife, XXXX, absolutely.

5.3.   If my wife predeceases me or fails to obtain a vested interest then instead I give my residuary estate, absolutely, to my children living at my death in equal shares subject to each obtaining the age of 18 years.

5.4.   If any of the gifts set out here fails to pass to a named beneficiary, it should be added proportionally to the gifts that do not.

 

6.   TRUSTEES POWERS

6.1.   My Trustees may from time to time invest in addition to their powers under the general law the balance of my estate or any part or parts thereof in any way in which they in their absolute discretion think fit in all respects, as if they were the beneficial owners of such monies and may from time to time vary or transpose such investments.

6.2.   While a child is a minor my Trustees may at their absolute discretion use all or any part of the income of the child's share for the child's advancement, education, maintenance or benefit.

6.3.   No Trustee shall be liable for any loss to the trust fund unless such loss arises as a result of the Trustee’s fraud or dishonesty.

 

7.   FUNERAL INSTRUCTIONS

I desire that my body be cremated and the expense thereof shall be a first charge on my estate. I also request my ashes scattered in the sea.

 

8.   FINAL DECLARATIONS

I confirm that

a. I am mentally capable of making my own decisions about my Will;

b. I am voluntarily making this Will;

c. I have considered everyone I might reasonably be expected to be provided for by my Will;

d. I understand the contents of this Will and it is a true reflection of my wishes.

SIGNATURE

I XXXX the within named Testator have to this my last Will set my hand. I declare that this instrument is my last Will and that I am of the legal age to make a Will, and that I sign this Will freely and voluntarily.

Signature:   _________________________________

Date of signing: _____________________________

 

Witnesses

We confirm this Will was signed first by XXXX in our presence and then by both of us in the presence of XXXX.

Signature: __________________________

Full name: __________________________ 

Date of signing: ______________________

Address: ____________________________

                 ____________________________

                ____________________________

                ____________________________

Keep_pedalling

You own property and have young children it would be foolish to DIY something so important.

elsien

Agree. Someone on here could spout something that sounds very impressive, but still be wide of the mark. 

When it comes to your kids you want to get it right.

cymruchris

I wouldn’t do DIY - too many variables - I’d get it done properly by a solicitor. Make a mistake and it could be costly for those inheriting down the line. What if you all go together ? 

tacpot12

I think that is a great attempt at a DIY will, but I do think the advice to get professional advice is right. The ommissions seem to be:

• about what happens about the guardianship of your children if you are not the sole parent at the time you die, and your wife dies at the same time, e.g. in a car accident.

• similarly, what happens to the residiary of the estate if your children also die in the same accident? 

You also need to consider whether you own anything jointly, other than your house. Most jointly owned assets do not pass automatically to the other owner (money in joint bank accounts does though) , so you need to consider what to do with your share if you have any such assets. My Will passes any such assets to the co-owner(s).

You could ask a solicitor if they are prepared to give you advice about your draft rather than writing a new Will. I think you might find one or two opening minded solicitors would be prepared to not go back to their own templates. 

patchyX2

Thanks for the feedback folks.

The main reason to go down the DIY route is cost. If it was just a one-off, then that would be fine, but I'm quite young and I expect my Will will change numerous times before I eventually croak. It's also a cost/pain for the executor. A lot of the Wills I've read are barely legible unless you're familiar with 'legal-talk'. I know the executors in my Will wouldn't be able to decipher a Will written in such a style, so they'd have to go through the hassle of finding a solicitor to 'translate' it for them.

Whereas my example I think is in plain enough English that my Executors would be able to understand and act on without having to work out what the hell each sentence meant!

I trust everyone in my family, and obviously the executors, so I have no concerns about anyone challenging the will. If I had any inkling of this, then yes, I'd definitely go down the solicitor route. Similarly if my estate/family became more complex, then I'd go down that route too.

Maybe I'm being naïve about how the whole probate/executor process.


To answer some of the other points:

"What if you all go together?" 
Happy for the rules of intestacy to kick in.

"What happens about the guardianship of your children if you are not the sole parent at the time you die, and your wife dies at the same time, e.g. in a car accident."
My wife will have a mirror Will, so the children would remain in care of the survivor, or pass to the guardians specified in point #3 if neither of us survive.

"You also need to consider whether you own anything jointly, other than your house. Most jointly owned assets do not pass automatically to the other owner (money in joint bank accounts does though) , so you need to consider what to do with your share if you have any such assets. My Will passes any such assets to the co-owner(s)."
I don't think we own anything jointly other than the house, but I will think about that

Keep_pedalling

The cost of a professional will is nothing compared to the potential cost of getting it wrong, and the reason wills are written the way they are is to avoid blunders that ‘plain’ English can lead too. We have professional wills and reading through them there is actually nothing that is not really obvious to a layman in it.

I know this is a money saving site but you have to way up risks against initial cost, Although the chances of making a big blunder might be quite low, the consequences if it happens can be disastrous. 

Daniel54

I won’t comment on your diy will and that is not an area of my professional competence.But let me make a few observations:

If your first will is sound,then there is no obvious reason why you should need to frequently revisit it.Changes in law and personal circumstances would be the main triggers for review.I’ve had two wills in 40 years.

The professionally drawn wills I have been involved with are not a mass of tangled legalese.They have been relatively easy to understand,but have been written using formal words whose meaning has been established in U.K. law

By attempting to use “plain English “ you are risking using words that might be legally ambiguous

As is often said on this board,your will is one of the most important documents you will ever put your signature to.

Bear in mind that if you pre- decease your wife then she might well in any case seek professional advice

Is it your  intention that to suggest to your wife that she mirror your home made will ? You might wish to establish her view on this.

Mojisola

Daniel54 said:

By attempting to use “plain English “ you are risking using words that might be legally ambiguous

I would second this.

I gave our solicitor an explanation of how I wanted my estate distributed if my husband predeceased me and any of our children had also died before me but left a partner and/or offspring.

He wrote the clause and it was obvious my explanation was ambiguous - I meant it one way; he'd interpreted it the other way.  Easy to remedy at that stage but could have lead to problems if I'd written it in a home-made will.

Our wills were written in fairly clear English - they certainly don't need legal knowledge to understand them - quite different from some of the older wills I've found while doing family history research.

patchyX2

Daniel54 said:

... 
By attempting to use “plain English “ you are risking using words that might be legally ambiguous

.... 

Bear in mind that if you pre- decease your wife then she might well in any case seek professional advice

I think this is the issue I've overlooked. In my head, I'm thinking "who cares if it's legally ambiguous, when it's obvious to my wife and the executors what it means, and they're the ones that would be be making the decisions" (I know they understand it, because we worked on it together).

But if for whatever reason, a solicitor gets involved, then I understand why things could be get a bit murky. 

What sort of reasons would someone other than your named executors get involved when it comes to assessing a will? 

Daniel54 said:

Is it your  intention that to suggest to your wife that she mirror your home made will ? You might wish to establish her view on this.

That's correct, and yes, of course I'd discuss it with her first! She has helped create the above copy, so we both agree on all of the points. 

msb1234

You’ve said that if your wife predeceases you, your father and father in law will be trustees / executors. There’s far more likelihood that they will die whilst your children are still minors as they presumably are over 20 years older than you? 

I would have someone similar in age to you to be the other executor ‘ trustee.