Simple will

Emmia

Misslayed said:

A solicitor will cover all the ‘what if’ scenarios, which are unlikely, but possible. For example - you die, wife inherits everything. Wife remarries but does not change her will. Wife dies, new husband gets everything, children get nothing. Something similar happened to my husband’s nephews, when their father died, second wife got everything, including his pension. They didn’t see a penny. 

The wife would need to die intestate in that example as wills are usually invalidated by marriage - this is the reason I did my second will.

RAS

OK

Scenarios

One spouse dies and the survivor inherits. They remarry, invalidating their will. Second spouse dies intestate and the new spouse gets most or all of the estate. 

One spouse dies, and survivor inherits. Survivor develops dementia, one of you children dies. The child's will leaves everything to their spouse. If SIL remarries her spouse will benefit, not so much your grandchildren.

Is what you want?

Emmia

The other common error is people leave a named property i.e. "I leave my house 100 Acacia Avenue to my son Bob"  to a named individual, but then sell the property and fail to update their will - the intended beneficiary (who the deceased may have wanted to leave the bulk of the value of their estate to) gets nothing.

Robin9

More  scenarios

If I should survive my wife I leave to son A and son B in equal amounts the residue of my estate ............  

Son A dies   then all passes to Son B.   But what of son A's  widow,  their children ?


On a similar theme have you thought of funeral arrangements  

Spendless

We had a similar situation but went to make our (mirror) wills because I read a thread on here where someone had died intestate and one of her adult children had applied for administration and was messing her sibling about with the estate. I decided not to leave things to chance, though I wanted who was to inherit to be exactly the same as if we'd died without wills 

Our solicitor fetched up the 'disaster clause' with us eg if all 4 of us died at once, then who would we want to inherit. That flagged an issue because if that scenario happened then relatives  we didnt wish to inherit would do so.
We  named 5 different people as who we'd want to inherit in that case with diff amounts (percentages) allocated to them. Less than a year later one of our children had an unexpected change of circs and we wished to change our disaster scenario beneficaries as a result removing one person and increasing the share of the others as a result.

This is the sort of thing that a will will do and a solicitor make you aware of. We paid a few hundred £s for our wills. 

poseidon1

Liberal said:

Hi. My wife and I need a will. We have 2 grown up children. Own our own house. No other wills. No complexities. Everything will be left to the 2 children. My issue is that I do not want to pay out hundreds to a solicitor for what is a straightforward document . Is there a simple site where I can just copy an existing will and change names and addresses? I thought this would be a simple thing to copy and paste. Has anyone done this and where did they find it? I know about the charity route but this still involves solicitors. Thanks

I think you may be a victim of a bit of mixed messaging on this forum.

In a previous thread you posted ( below ) you queried the basis upon which a solicitor should be used to assist in a probate matter you were handling. Some of the posters advocated completely doing it yourself and cutting out a solicitor! Seems you felt you had valid reasons for using a solicitor in that circumstance.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6502079/using-a-solicitor#latest

Now in this thread where you now wish to DIY your will, posters here are saying ( quite rightly),  use a solicitor don't DIY.

Simple as your testamentary requirements seem be to you, the law relating to wills is not, and there  are plenty of traps for the unwary.  

Quite simply, if you were prepared to incur a  potential four figure sum  for a solicitor assist in a probate matter (albeit not your personal money) you owe it to yourself and family to pay a low 3 figure sum for  properly drafted wills.

FlorayG

If you have no problem with using a solicitor then get a charity will. It's free and it's done by a solicitor who knows what s/he is doing. Where's the problem with that?

madbadrob

Liberal said:

I actually have no specific issue with solicitors if someone can tell me , in simple terms, why this can't be done without using 1. Surely other people have been in the exact same position so wills should basically be the same? 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing it yourself we are just being cautious as to advice.  If you and your spouse can be sure that neither will remarry on the first death this is not going to be an issue however if you cant say that then as someone else as pointed out it could well be.  Mutual wills are also fixed in law so you would want that tied up legally.  If you dont want to pay for it and would like a solicitor drafted will find a solicitor locally who will provide a free will under the charity scheme.  As I had pointed out to me some do this completely free and hope you will leave a little to the charity some will want that to be a matter of fact but its worth a try.  

The Heir Hunting industry is finding an increase in estates being deemed intestate because of home wills and those written (by far this is the biggest issue) by will writing companies all because the will had something not correctly completed.  So if you do go it alone make sure you follow how a will should be written, witnessed etc.

Rob

Savvy_Sue

madbadrob said:

Liberal said:

I actually have no specific issue with solicitors if someone can tell me , in simple terms, why this can't be done without using 1. Surely other people have been in the exact same position so wills should basically be the same? 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing it yourself we are just being cautious as to advice.  If you and your spouse can be sure that neither will remarry on the first death this is not going to be an issue however if you cant say that then as someone else as pointed out it could well be.  Mutual wills are also fixed in law so you would want that tied up legally.  If you dont want to pay for it and would like a solicitor drafted will find a solicitor locally who will provide a free will under the charity scheme.  As I had pointed out to me some do this completely free and hope you will leave a little to the charity some will want that to be a matter of fact but its worth a try.  

The Heir Hunting industry is finding an increase in estates being deemed intestate because of home wills and those written (by far this is the biggest issue) by will writing companies all because the will had something not correctly completed.  So if you do go it alone make sure you follow how a will should be written, witnessed etc.

Rob

This, especially the bit in bold. I'd say DH and I were reasonably intelligent people, able to read and understand complex documents. Yet when we first set up EPAs we managed to make a complete pigs ear of it, which I only realised once it was too late to make another - only our eldest was over 18 at that point, and we did just want a stop gap. With fingers crossed we hung on for a couple of years, until all the boys were 18+, at which point we got our solicitor to draw up LPAs. Whether we'd have managed to do those successfully on our own is unclear, but we weren't risking it! 

No way would I write another will without using a solicitor.