Will/ Testament template

Savvy_Sue

Emmia said:

nemo_193 said:

New here and seen it mentioned a few times now about not using a will writing company. I haven't yet but was wondering what the problem with them is? My circumstances are quite straightforward and everything will be left to my wife is she's still alive, otherwise split 50/50 between my two children. Looking into getting my will created soon, I'm at the very first step of finding out the best way to do it. I also wanted to leave something more personal behind and have used heavenly-messages.com so that personal messages can be sent to my wife and children at various points in the future, which I thought was a beautiful idea

They aren't trained to the same standard. I didn't find my solicitor drafted will to be expensive, and did it with face to face meetings and by commenting/checking on drafts emailed to me.

My will is also straightforward, and covers the scenario where everyone mentioned predeceases me.

Not only are they not trained to the same standard, they don't have the same requirements for professional registration and ongoing safeguarding of client documents.

Anyone can call themselves a will-writer, but only a properly qualified person can describe themselves as a solicitor. And to be 'practising', they must be registered. And if they stop practising or a firm goes out of business, then arrangements are made for records to be passed on.

Whereas will-writers may belong to a professional body, but they are not required to do so, there's more than one such body, and they can just stop practising with no arrangements for passing on files.

eastcorkram said:

Keep_pedalling said:

waveneygnome said:

OP - look up Coop Legal Services - its listed on this MSE site.

£100 for a single Will, drafted by a Solicitor, processed by legal executive, pretty simple process. 

Please don’t, use a local solicitor with a face to face meeting. Don't be tempted to use will writing companies either.

Is there something wrong with using Coop legal services? Will it be invalid or something? At the time, obviously, I'm not going to know. Likewise, if I'd used a solicitor, and there were problems, I wouldn't know either!

It probably won't be invalid, but it's likely to rely on less qualified staff. For example, 'drafted by a solicitor' doesn't necessarily indicate much if it's an unqualified person who looks at the answers you provide at the start of the process. A personalised q&a session with a solicitor who then drafts your wishes should deal with all the things you didn't know you needed to think about.