making a will

clive0510

Hi all. Having spent over a week in hospital with a nasty water works problem, I was asked by my sister yesterday if I have made a will. (blunt and too the point.) I do not currently have a will in place, and its something up to this point that I've not thought about. so can I ask for any suggestions on making a straight forward will, which would entail leaving all that I have to be divided equally between my 3 nieces. (i  have no family of my own). the options I'm thinking of are to either do it through my bank, my pensions company or to buy a diy kit from w.h.smiths. any suggestions welcome.

HappyHarry

Solicitor.

lr1277

Further to @HappyHarry comment, a solicitor maybe helpful for the following reasons. BTW I am not an expert.

Are your nieces under 18? If so any money they get should be held in trust until they are 18. That could be the executor of your will or a separate trustee. You need to get advice on this.

What happens if your executor or one or more of your nieces dies either before or shortly after you do? Again take advice.

Edited to add: are there any assets to liquidate?

There maybe other things I have missed where having a will makes it easier  for whoever is dealing with your estate.

Marcon

clive0510 said:

Hi all. Having spent over a week in hospital with a nasty water works problem, I was asked by my sister yesterday if I have made a will. (blunt and to the point.) I do not currently have a will in place, and its something up to this point that I've not thought about. so can I ask for any suggestions on making a straight forward will, which would entail leaving all that I have to be divided equally between my 3 nieces. (i  have no family of my own). the options I'm thinking of are to either do it through my bank, my pensions company or to buy a diy kit from w.h.smiths. any suggestions welcome.

Better option: a solicitor. You need to think through various points such as who the executors will be; what would happen if one or more of your intended beneficiaries pre-decease you (horrible thought, I know, but still needs to be considered); and so on.

But above all - get on and do it. There are far too many posts on here about people dying intestate because they 'didn't expect to die' or 'were only in their 30s', with all the chaos and unintended consequences that all too often follow.

Hope you are fully recovered.

p00hsticks

And perhaps even more important than a will, have you thought about Power of Attorney, so that someone can act on your behalf for either financial or health and welfare matters if for whatever reason you are incapacitated and unable to act yourself ? 

kipsterno1

Good advice re POA. They are very straight forward to arrange online. 

See a solicitor to arrange your will and as already mentioned it takes a bit of forward planning.

jeahea

I am in the same process - my partner and I are finally looking at making a will and it's hopefully fairly straightforward, what we have to  be passed on to our three sons. We were looking at an online service (Co-Op) and I was filling out what I think was an initial form but they are looking for names/age/ addresses of my sons, and I'm uncomfortable giving out their information online in what seems like a normal web page - there's nothing to say my data is safe? I'd appreciate any advice.