Free Wills month

Cressida100

I have an appointment with a local solicitor tomorrow to make my Will under the Free Wills month scheme. When arranging the appointment I was told that they expect a minimum donation of £100 to the chosen charity. Has anyone used the scheme and if so how do we pay the charitable donation side of it. My Will should be straightforward with everything being left to my only child. Part of my union benefits include a 'free will' but after reading some disaster stories on here I feel I should do something a bit more official. Any advice welcome. 

poppystar

I used it several years ago and gave the solicitor a cheque for the charity and got a receipt. I expect it’s bank transfer rather than a cheque these days! They will tell you …and I don’t think it’s compulsary … but I felt it was very reasonable to get a good Will drawn up so was happy to give. 

Cressida100

poppystar said:

I used it several years ago and gave the solicitor a cheque for the charity and got a receipt. I expect it’s bank transfer rather than a cheque these days! They will tell you …and I don’t think it’s compulsary … but I felt it was very reasonable to get a good Will drawn up so was happy to give. 

Thank you I appreciate you taking time to respond. 

elsien

It’s a suggested minimum not an absolute. I paid less than the £100  and it wasn’t paid via the solicitor. 

Mine was Will Aid, I paid online to Will aid  and they emailed to say that payment had been made before the appointment and told me to take a copy of the email with me to show the solicitor.
My email did say the amount I paid, but it didn’t affect the solicitor completing the will despite being lower than they might have liked.

Stubod

When we did ours (a few years ago), we were not asked to pay anything up front, they just gave us a list of charities involved and expected us to leave a proportion of the "pot" to one or more of them...

strawb_shortcake

Our solicitor made it very clear we didn't have to pay anything or expected to make a donation to any charity either at the time or via our will. 

Cressida100

Just an update. I had the appointment and it went really well. No pressure at all re the donation. It was good to be able to discuss my options with a professional. For my circumstances It was definitely the right way to go rather than a do it yourself Will. 

stuartp2000

I did my first Will those using Will Aide this month and was really simple and as per yourself Cressida no pressure at all for a fee / donation. 

I did though decide to leave a % in the Will to the charity but would have done that with or without Will aide.
definitely a good idea to have free Will month as sure it does generate lots more people to both consider the need for a Will and for the charities to get some extra donations.

I would also say whilst my Will was start forward there as also from the solicitors no overselling or trying to get things added that might not have been needed.
Good experience through out

Cressida100

stuartp2000 said:

I did my first Will those using Will Aide this month and was really simple and as per yourself Cressida no pressure at all for a fee / donation. 

I did though decide to leave a % in the Will to the charity but would have done that with or without Will aide.
definitely a good idea to have free Will month as sure it does generate lots more people to both consider the need for a Will and for the charities to get some extra donations.

I would also say whilst my Will was start forward there as also from the solicitors no overselling or trying to get things added that might not have been needed.
Good experience through out

Same for me no hard sell. I have Executors in place and the solicitor did mention that I could appoint them as a back upjust in case the Executors could not do the job. The fee for the solicitors doing this was 1.5% of my total estate so I declined with no problem. I am considering asking them to prepare my lasting powers of attorney. I know I could do this myself but I'm not sure when I would actually get around to doing it! If I instruct them they will also advise the nominated attorneys free of charge if there issues in the future.