Using the same text from an old will to create a new one

DinoT

Brie said:

In my opinion (but I am not a lawyer) I would have thought that anything that is drawn up and witnessed properly would suffice.  I don't understand why it costs so much to have a lawyer do anything when it's straight forward.  Even when it's tricky if it's a case of everything the same but now it Biff instead of Bob being the executor that shouldn't make any difference.  

I think here the crucial thing is whether your niece with needs is sorted, nowt else matters.  

You might enquire whether this qualifies under a "free will" for charity thingme.  

The free Will thing only covers a simple will without a trust or anything else non-standard sadly.  Shame as I am leaving a fair amount to charities listed under the Free Will Scheme and others.

DinoT

Marcon said:

DinoT said:

I have a Will drafted by a solicitor 10 years ago, signed and registered with the National Will Register.  Things have changed and I now need to update the beneficiaries, the executors and the percentage split of the assets.  I don't have children so it will go to other family and charities.  I do have a niece with disabilities so there is wording in the existing Will for a trust so that her benefits are not impacted as she is a beneficiary.

Can I just copy the existing text from the original solicitor's Will and create a new Will myself and just change the names, percentages etc and then get it witnessed by neighbours and lodge it with the National Will Register? 

I know I need to add a clause to 'revoke all previous wills'. 

I kind of feel annoyed to have to pay a solicitor each time I want to redo my Will or do a codicil.  Sadly due to my niece, I can't have just a straightforward simple Will as it needs a Trust.... so starts to add up to ££££ over the years (as it's likely that Executors will need to change over the coming years and maybe other things), especially as I don't have direct beneficiaries such as children/grandchildren etc to act as Executors too.  I even looked at the Free Wills Month but the solicitors will only do simple Wills under this scheme and will charge for anything more complicated like a Trust.

It would be fairly unwise to do what you're suggesting - things are never static in the land of wills and IHT (and might be even less so after next Wednesday).

Not sure why you 'kind of feel annoyed' about paying for expert advice? The alternative could be much more expensive/less satisfactory for those you leave behind, especially your disabled niece. Might you feel a bit better about the fees if you think about it as an investment for her future financial security?

I suppose I am annoyed because the (reputable/recommended/award-winning) lawyers I have just approached have asked for my existing Will and said they will use much the same wording but just change the beneficiaries and executors.  So essentially they are doing very little that I couldn't do myself... no additional 'expert' advice will be given.

DinoT

Savvy_Sue said:

I might be tempted to do this IF the previous will was a lot more recent than 10 years old, AND I was certain that nothing significant had changed in relation to wills, probates and trusts in that period of time. 

In the actual situation described, I'd definitely want to take 'proper' experienced advice, and use that to future proof the will as much as possible: when we're young it's not a problem to appoint people of our own generation to act as executors, but as we grow older it's better to choose them from a younger generation, or at least have youngsters as named reserves. And a decent solicitor will help you consider things like this - perhaps with a final 'backstop' of professional executors. 

Sadly will probably have to go with 'professional executors' as no-one younger to take this on.  But for now will have someone my age until things change in their lives or they die!  Hence why I may have to keep on making little changes with executors and the cost then starts to clock up with solicitors.

Keep_pedalling

You could appoint the solicitors as back-up executors.

Savvy_Sue

Keep_pedalling said:

You could appoint the solicitors as back-up executors.

That's where I was going - it future-proofs indefinitely and means you don't have to change your will every time something changes with your potential executors. 

DinoT said:

I suppose I am annoyed because the (reputable/recommended/award-winning) lawyers I have just approached have asked for my existing Will and said they will use much the same wording but just change the beneficiaries and executors.  So essentially they are doing very little that I couldn't do myself... no additional 'expert' advice will be given.

See if you can devise a few questions to check they are worthy of that reputation ... "Can you please confirm that the trust for my niece still enables ... without adversely affecting her ability to ..." etc. "Is there anything else I could do to limit my estate's exposure to IHT without adversely affecting my family beneficiaries?"

And if your niece's living arrangements have changed since you wrote the will, or might be expected to change, that's another area I'd want them to consider. 

DullGreyGuy

DinoT said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Ultimately it depends how much you care. Some think they're dead and so who really cares? Others want to have absolute certainty their Ex won't get a penny. 

Lawyers make mistakes too but much less often than people that try to DIY legal documents. 

True indeed although somehow the lawyers that put together my first Will made a ton of mistakes (spelling mistakes in names, gender pronouns etc) in it.  Not sure how I missed all that as I do remember reading it and I'm usually a good proof reader.  Must have been distracted in my life at the time to now see them as very obvious now!

not all lawyers are good. Many years ago met up with an ex-colleague who was an ex partner of a big law firm and mentioned my new client was using them. He asked who we had and mentioned we were working with X and they'd offered him on a secondment for a 50% discount. His response was that no matter how much we were paying for him it was too much. At the same time the other guy we had from them he said no matter how much we were paying he was worth more. 

On the former he quickly proved himself to be totally useless. Even I, as someone who's total legal training is a single module with 30 questions at the end, could run rings around him. 

Willeri

DIY a new Will at your risk and peril as copy/paste is not the way! Yes it costs to do a new one via a professional but so many professionals charge, do you service your own car, do your own plumbing and electrics, or pay professionals?