Free and Cheap Wills discussion area

andi1872 wrote: »

Hi guys,

I keep seeing cheap will writing services in the newspaper for £49 and wondered how i can know if they can be trusted?

Im 39 and was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. My partner and i are not married so as it stands he won't be looked after come the time so i pretty much just want to leave everything to him with the exception of my part time business which i want to leave to my business partner (non official).

If you want the estate and your wishes covered correctly then it will not be covered properly for £49.

You must seek proper advice especially given that you are unmarried and you are looking to leave a share of a business.

TiaBaby wrote: »

Myself and DH have a child together (young teenager). He has 2 children from a previous conviction but they are now adults in their own right and haven't been in touch for over 10 years, until recently. I am suspicious of the motives and would like to update my will as a safeguard to my childs' inheritence. They obviously have their mothers estate to look forward to as well as a stake in their fathers!

Is there any way I can (if it is that I 'go' first) protect my portion of our estate for my child alone?

Yes it can be done and very simply. It depends on whether your estate consists of a property as then you will need to ensure that the property is owned in a specific way, with your wills being written to reflect the correct treatment of the property on your death but yes it is very possible to do it. It's difficult to be precise though without knowing all the relevent facts.

Andrew

This probably sounds like a silly question. We are in Scotland by the way.

My husband and I need to write wills at some point, however we've not been in any hurry as we're 36/37 and no kids. We do know we should do it though.

It has been mentioned (by another relative) that we need to have a plan for if something happens to both of us (while we are on holiday was mentnioned ha ha), but being serious I guess we are going to each have wills saying we are leaving everything to the other, then if they are no longer alive then to xxxx. etc. Am I right in saying that, it would be a will each, with each other first, then a second person which would cover the fact if we are both then dead?

Now the difficult part is working out the scenario for if we are both dead, as we have no children, and as we aren't planning on going anywhere anytime soon....so the beneficiaries in that sense is very likely to change over the years. Would we both be putting the same thing exactly?? It would probably be a bit wrong to put something different, should probably be something we both agree on I guess?

lesley74 wrote: »

Now the difficult part is working out the scenario for if we are both dead, as we have no children, and as we aren't planning on going anywhere anytime soon....so the beneficiaries in that sense is very likely to change over the years. Would we both be putting the same thing exactly?? It would probably be a bit wrong to put something different, should probably be something we both agree on I guess?

I'm guessing that in Scotland as in England, the presumption if you both die together is that the eldest died first (you should check this).

If I'm right, then if your wills say "I leave everything to my wife / husband Freda / Fred, and is s/he dies before me then I'd like it to go the cat's home / dog's home" what actually happens is that the older person's half passes to the younger person, and then the whole lot goes to the cat's or dog's home, depending on who is assumed to have survived longest.

In that situation, then agreeing on whether the cats or the dogs inherit is probably something you should aim to agree on, although the chances of both of you dying together are actually not that large, are they? I mean, unless you like nothing better than hang-gliding together, for example ...

You might find that looking up the intestacy laws for Scotland helps, you'll get an idea of what happens if you DON'T make a will, and that might encourage you to get on with it, or give you ideas of cousins / nieces and nephews you could be generous to.

Then if things change (eg you have children), you re-write your wills!