Updating a will

WSB

Myself and my wife had mirror wills drawn up in 1998 prior to having kids. Although, they were listed as beneficiaries in the situation that we have kids. 

We now want to get the wills updated so that our new adult kids are now the executors as well as beneficiaries.
Also, our address change. 
The company I originally paid to draw up the wills said it will cost £150+Vat altogether to make these modifications to both our wills.
Does that sound expensive?
Would we be better off shopping around and getting the wills done from scratch?
Thanks 

Keep_pedalling

Wills are  not something you should penny pinch on, and I would be looking at starting from scratch on 25 year old wills, which will cost quite a lot more than £150. Most on here would recommend using a regulated local solicitor rather than an unregulated will writer.

SiliconChip

I paid £100 + VAT to have my sole Will updated last year (previously created 5 years before that by the same solicitor) so £150 + VAT to update 25 year old mirror Wills seems very reasonable. I do think you should consider @Keep_pedalling's point about rewriting rather than updating, it might not cost a great deal more.

WSB

Fair point regarding having it re written.
Out of interest though, what would be the reasons?
Change of legal language?
Just wondered what the advantage would be.?
Thanks 

Marcon

WSB said:

Fair point regarding having it re written.
Out of interest though, what would be the reasons?
Change of legal language?
Just wondered what the advantage would be.?
Thanks 

Change of all sorts of things eg the introduction of the Nil Rate Residence Band.

Savvy_Sue

WSB said:

Fair point regarding having it re written.
Out of interest though, what would be the reasons?
Change of legal language?
Just wondered what the advantage would be.?
Thanks 

Change of legislation, as well as change of situation. Advantage is you also get it future proofed from your current position with solicitor asking the What If questions.

WSB

Was looking into the residential nil rate tax band but couldn't find anything to state that old wills would need changing in this regard. 
It just said that direct lineage would be able to claim this on the property. 
Or am I missing something??? 

poppystar

It doesn’t need to go in a Will. It will apply if property in your estate goes to any children or grandchildren. It’s an allowance against IHT so will be claimed by your executors if applicable in the same way your personal IHT allowance will. 

WSB

Thank you. 
Am. I correct in saying that any properties don't need to be specifically stated on the will.? Just as part of the estate.

In my case, we also have a rental property but guess my kids will get stung for that one? Not much I suppose I can do about that

poppystar

Definitely don’t be specific about a property - that can cause problems if you later sell that one and buy another. As long as you own a property (or even if you’ve downsized, gone into a home) then, if it’s left to the direct descendants, your executor can claim the allowance against your estate. Not sure about rental property, I’m sure someone else can answer that one.

Savvy_Sue

Properties can be stated, but don't have to be. The big problem with identifying them happens if you leave them in different directions, eg "my home at 99 West Street" to Fred, and "my rental property at 99 East Street" to Freda. Maybe when you wrote the will they were roughly the same value, but then you sold East Street because too much hassle, and Freda gets nothing, or you sell West Street to go into residential care and Fred gets nothing. Or either property doubles in value compared to the other.