Is writing an online will a good idea in my situation? Also looking for general will advice

bluehydrangeas

Hi. I couldn't see a forum for wills specifically so I am hoping this is the best place to ask. I currently do not have a will. I am in my early 30s, single and have no children. I also do not have any siblings. I would like to make a will in the near future. I do not want to be left in intestacy, which I understand to be what happens when a person dies with no will. I have a solid idea of what I would like to be done with my money and possessions. I have also thought about my funeral arrangements. I have looked at this page on MSE which mentions cheap will writing services. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/free-cheap-wills/

It mentions makeawillonline.co.uk, which allows you to write a will for £60. I am trying to decide whether this is a better option for me than the traditional route of going to a solicitor in person and drafting a will. MSE estimates the cost of this to be around £200. My concern about writing an online will is that no one will know about it as it would only be stored online. I also wanted to ask about appointing an executor. I have given this quite a lot of thought, and I do not want my mum to be the executor. She would be one of the beneficiaries, but I would prefer for her not to be the executor. She has some mental health issues which I do not wish to discuss in detail here. There are no other relatives or friends whom I trust enough to be an executor. In this case, would my best (or only) option be to appoint a solicitor to be the executor? Does anyone have experience of this?

Also, I wanted to ask about Power of Attorney. As with the executor, I do not have anyone in my life who I trust enough to give POA to. I am asking about POA as I'm wondering what would happen if I became mentally incapacitated whilst living. Would the will still be valid as long as I was mentally competent when it was written? It all seems a bit of a minefield to me at the moment but I'd like to get it sorted. Any advice would be welcomed.

badmemory

Personally I feel if you have enough to make it worth making a will then it is worth going to a solicitor.  They should ask all sorts of questions about what you want, many of which will never have occurred to you & they could be the executor although it can be costly.

As for the POA, well that is easy enough to DIY, but knowing who to appoint must be difficult in your circumstances.

poppystar

Personally I would use a solicitor. I did my first Will during one of the cheap charity Will weeks and felt confident in the solicitor I was given an appointment with and have stayed with them subsequently for a new Will and other services. 

Like you there was no obvious executor and one bit of advice I was given on here that helped me was to look at who I was leaving my estate to and consider asking one of them or the largest beneficiary for the task. I have done this but may still have to consider using a solicitor as executor in the future. It is not easy and does bring up some discomfort to think there is no one close enough to just easily appoint.

I have no POA and do worry about this somewhat but like you my circumstances are such that there really is no one to take the task on. What to do about that remains a work in progress! 

Keep_pedalling

I would only DIY this if you don’t own property and have little in the way of savings, otherwise you very much need to use a solicitor.

As your mother has mental health issues and there is a reasonable chance that she may die soon after inheriting your estate, you may very well need to leave you estate in trust rather than directly to her.  That would control what it is spent on while she is alive and control what happens to any remainder after she dies.

user1977

I think you’ve misunderstood "online" Wills. The Will itself is a paper deed, which can be stored anywhere, it’s only the drafting of it which you arrange online.

anna42hmr

I am in a similar situation as i am single and have no children, i did my first will a few years back when i bought a flat, which was a solicitor drawn will at a local firm .  however i have since redone my will as i wanted to add a new niece and nephew and an executor needed removing.  

In this instance however i did mine online as such, but in a half way option, by using Which magazines legal services (which due to the offer they had which was actually promoted on MSE a couple of months back) only cost £58.  

I was very happy with the process as you complete the information online, they then review it and if there are any concerns their legal time will contact you to go through them, and once they've checked and all ok, they mark it complete.  At which time you can then print off the will to be kept (as the hard copy does need to be signed and witnessed to be valid).  All in, it took two weeks for my will be to completed through Which! and was very happy with the service.  

anna42hmr

in fact have noticed there is another offer at the moment with Which up to 3 May

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/free-cheap-wills/

ps you don't have to do the will the date you purchase the service, as you then get an online portal set up which you can use to log into and start up at your convenience

Sarahspangles

There are a couple of ‘official’ places you can store a Will, including HMCTS.  If you Google the main ones are near the top of your hits and I’m sure there will be reviews which look at the pros and cons. Or if you use a solicitor they may store it for free or a fee.  Then you just need to write WHERE your will is in places you think people would look if something happened.  For example if you have an address book or wherever you store papers.

TBagpuss

It would probably be sensible in your situation to meet with a solicitor to get your will drawn up, if only to make sure that you are very clear about the process and effect.

In terms of who you appoint as executor, this depends a little on who the beneficiaries apart from your mother will be - it's fairly common to appoint the residuary beneficiary or beneficiaries, so if you will be leaving money to your mother but also to (say) a charity or local organization you support, you can appoint the charity / officers of the organisation as executors.

Your will is valid provided you had the necessary mental capacity at the time you signed it - losing your capacity later doesn't invalidate the will. 

Powers of Attorney: - there are two types - one for health, and one for finances. They are valid as long as you have mental capacity when you make them. For a health and welfare poa, if you lose capacity,  then they can use the power to make decisions on your behalf - they can't use it unless you have lost capacity to make your own choices.

With a financial POA you can chose to allow them to use it even when you still have capacity , so in that case, you and they can both deal with finances (this can be helpful if someone needs help dealing with financial institutions, for instance) or you can specify that they can only use it if you lose capacity.  

A POA doesn't enable your attorney to change your will - there are cases where an attorney can apply for a Statutory Will but these are relatively unusual.  
You can appoint professionals to be your attorneys but they will then normally have to be paid for their time. You can also appoint more than one attorney and require them to both/all agree on decisions,. You can have different attorneys for health and for finances (so you might, for instance, chose a friend to be your health and welfare attorney if you feel they would know what you would want in terms of care, treatment etc, and appoint a lawyer or accountant as the attorneys to deal with financial matters

In both cases, you can include some guidance in the POA itself fabout your wishes to give the attorneys guidance.