Making a will

richh

I've been putting this off, and need to just get it done.  Can anybody make any suggestions on how to get it done reasonably quickly and without spending a fortune on solicitors?

I don't think things are that complicated in my case, but equally I don't want to be a skinflint and do a DIY thing that is not going to be of any use in the end.

Thanks!

fretmeister

Get a solicitor to do it. Some will do a £99 simple one.

Why? Because they have compulsory levels of insurance to cover an errors in the drafting of it.

Some banks will offer to do it for a low price, or even for "free" - usually that means the bank has inserted themselves as Executors into the will meaning they can charge for the work in administering the estate after you die.

Do not use "Will writers" and other such unregulated services where insurance is not compulsory.


Many people do their own wills. A huge amount of those wills end up being at least partially defective where there is partial intestacy and then there are additional costs to deal with that will be payable from your estate when you die.

There's a good chance you will never know if your will is valid because they don't get challenged until after you are dead. But the cost of defending any challenges comes out of your estate, lowering the amount you eventually leave to your loved ones.

Get a probate solicitor to do it. Don't think of the fee as the fee for preparing the document - think of it as buying access to a massive insurance policy that might benefit your loved ones if the will hasn't been done properly.

tone1

I waited til Free will week and made a donation to a charity 

richh

Thanks, that sounds very sensible.  As long as the cost is £500 or less, this is fine with me.  I'm always a bit concerned about solicitor costs running away with 'per hour' costs, and charges to send a letter or make a phone call at very high rates.

So probably best to get a clear agreement on costs from a solicitor at the outset.

fretmeister

Most solicitors have a fixed fee for preparing wills.

It usually only hits hourly rate work for complex estates with uncommon pensions / investments etc

£500 budget should be plenty in most cases - with a caveat that London firms are often a bit more expensive to cover the overhead.

fretmeister

richh said:

Thanks, that sounds very sensible.  As long as the cost is £500 or less, this is fine with me.  I'm always a bit concerned about solicitor costs running away with 'per hour' costs, and charges to send a letter or make a phone call at very high rates.

So probably best to get a clear agreement on costs from a solicitor at the outset.

Also - the updated costs rules mean that they absolutely have to provide full and clear costs information at the outset, and the rules now have some serious teeth for breaches.

boogieman

Unless it’s a massively complicated will it shouldn’t be that expensive through a solicitor. Mrs B and I had ours done a couple of years ago. Neither was a simple straightforward one (we both have children from previous marriages and there are caveats over who inherits money and property) but they still only cost about £300 for the two.

As above there’s a Will Aid service that runs every year where you can get it done free in return for a donation to charity. You’ll need to sign up in advance as it gets busy. https://www.willaid.org.uk/

Grunfeld

This one is on my things to do list too.  Cheers for the info. 

Meeting with solicitor arranged!

Nitefly

We used the Saga Legal Services website, as we have no complications - what's mine is hers, what's hers is mine, what's left goes equally to the kids.

I think we paid about £60, but that was some years ago.

axisus

£500!!!! bloody hell that's a lot of money to some of us! 

Having said that, me and the Mrs need to do something. I was hoping for more like the £50 mark ....

JerkMoans

I usually steer clear of anything 'legal' on t'interweb because, ya know, reasons.

But, as a chap who spends a considerable amount of professional time dealing with the financial chaos attendant upon death, in which badly or wrongly drafted wills are frequently implicated, I would observe that it is likely to pay dividends to your successors to get it done properly

Blueingreen

Certainly in Scotland some lawyers will do it very inexpensively (or they did, few years since I've thought about this).  They basically view it as a loss leader - it means that if you do need a solicitor for something else you're more likely to go to them and when you die they would hope to get any legal work relating to your estate.  If you shop around I'd be surprised if you needed to spend anything close to £500.

Jimbro66

My advice is DON'T go to one of the Will Writer companies if you want the job done properly. It costs very little more to get a will prepared by a solicitor and they will almost certainly draft it to your precise requirements rather than just bunging in a shedload of generic clauses of unfathomable meaning.

BloodEagle

I got mine done recently, I went to a Solicitor Ive used before and it cost £350. It wasnt at the really cheap end of the spectrum, but I know it was done properly and with tailored well to my specific requirements

Iamnobody

Thanks for posting this - it’s a reminder for me to get round to it. Fairly simple one for us as well the other half gets everything or if we both perish together the kids get it all.

The main thing we want writing into the will is if we do happen to go together while the kids are young, under no circumstances can her family look after the kids. We both want my sister to have that responsibility - I’m assuming that’s doable?

boogieman

Iamnobody said:

Thanks for posting this - it’s a reminder for me to get round to it. Fairly simple one for us as well the other half gets everything or if we both perish together the kids get it all.

The main thing we want writing into the will is if we do happen to go together while the kids are young, under no circumstances can her family look after the kids. We both want my sister to have that responsibility - I’m assuming that’s doable?

Yes, you can nominate who you want to take care of your children in the case of you both dying. In fact any solicitor worth their salt would ask you exactly that question. 

BigMonka

I did mine a few months ago using the online service called Farewill. They had an offer in The Metro for a free will so my wife and I did it - only because ours is really straight forward, anything more complex and we would have gone to a solicitor.
I just tried the link I used for a free will and it seems like it’s still active: https://farewill.com/?utm_source=metro&utm_medium=newspaper&utm_campaign=metro&utm_channel=dmgt_metro
 There’s no doubt that a proper solicitor would be beneficial if theres anything in your will that could be contested by anyone.

Tone71

tone1 said:

I waited til Free will week and made a donation to a charity 

That is exactly what we did, made perfect sense. Have since had to pay to update it but thats always going to be the case.

Lord_Spanielchip

To give you an idea, my professional fees are £100 plus VAT for a simple single Will and £150 plus VAT for simple mirror Wills - ‘simple’ generally meaning appointing executors and beneficiaries in the first instance along with substitution clauses. If there’s anything oddball in there then we’re onto a chargeable time basis but even then I rarely get beyond £200 plus VAT.

The firm I work for tends to see Wills as a loss leader in an effort to build up their Wills bank and be instructed on the probate or administration.