Will worries

[bespsol]

Morbid subject I'm afraid and I've tried searching PH but it's down ... I'm at that point in my life now with 2 x children, 1 x wife, 1 x house etc and should be making a will to stop mr taxman taking the lot when I go. We have no complexities (e.g business/exes) and I just a few quick questions which i would appreciate some help with.

How easy is this to do yourself and how did you go about it?
How much would I expect to pay a solicitor to 'validate' the will if we did it ourselves?
Is it just more hassle than it's worth and I should just use a solicitor?
Are there any gotchas with Wills or things to pay particular attention to?

thanks in advance

[-Pete-]

DIY (WH Smiths Kit etc) around £25 or solicitor around £150, the most difficult thing is deciding what would happen to your children if you both died, and how they would eventually inherit your estate. We paid for a solicitor...

[Jespin]

I'd pay a solicitor to do it tbh, not worth doing it yourself and doing something that causes more problems. Not like it's that expensive.... look into getting some power of attorneys written while you're at it.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

I've just got a Will-writing pack through my bank account. As a premier client with Barclays they offer a will-writing service. Got the pack over the weekend (like I've got 3 kids, the wife, house etc etc and nothing organised) so not examined it yet.

Maybe your bank does something similar? As an alternative?

[petemurphy]

im in the same position - question - do you nominate who looks after the kid(s) in your will?

[S6PNJ]

If you've nominated God-Parents - that would be their role. Though I don't believe most would understand this element of the 'job' when being asked to be God-Parents.

[condor]

It's quite useful to get a diy one so you can work out what you want to write then get a solicitor to fine tune it.I bought a diy one for £10 from WH Smiths though that was a few years ago now
diy ones ask for how you'd like your funeral to be arranged - cremated/buried - songs/hymns - private family only etc.
Useful to have a list of financial institutions you deal with - bank account -pensions - shares - premium bonds - credit cards - other savings
Good idea to have percentages for those who are to be the benificiaries as opposed to lump sum payments.

[bigandclever]

S6PNJ said:

If you've nominated God-Parents - that would be their role. Though I don't believe most would understand this element of the 'job' when being asked to be God-Parents.

Nope, you need to specifically state in your will who will become legal guardian in the event of your shuffling off.

[S6PNJ]

bigandclever said:

S6PNJ said:

If you've nominated God-Parents - that would be their role. Though I don't believe most would understand this element of the 'job' when being asked to be God-Parents.

Nope, you need to specifically state in your will who will become legal guardian in the event of your shuffling off.

I didn't say it wouldn't need to be stated, I just said who 'should' be responsible for them. I'd always nominate EVERYTHING possible in the will - saves any room for ambiguity.

[Deva Link]

bespsol said:

....should be making a will to stop mr taxman taking the lot when I go.

The taxman doesn't take the lot in any circumstances.

For a "normal" family the spouse gets the property and the first £250K of any money etc. Any further money is divided amongst the kids.

If someone dies without a will, and no relatives (there's quite a long list) then the estate goes to the Crown.

[Deva Link]

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:

I've just got a Will-writing pack through my bank account. As a premier client with Barclays they offer a will-writing service. Got the pack over the weekend (like I've got 3 kids, the wife, house etc etc and nothing organised) so not examined it yet.

Maybe your bank does something similar? As an alternative?

Watch that this doesn't require the bank to be nominated as Executor.

There are all sorts of warnings about this as their fees are tremendously expensive. The OFT recently warned banks about this practice.

[The Leaper]

I agree with the warning about banks being an executor. I've been an executor seven times now. I have had quotes from banks usually in the region of £30,000 or so. I've mostly done the job fully at my own expense, charging those expenses against the Estate, usually a cost of maybe £500. Once I needed to use a solicitor to help me fulfil the exector role and it cost around £14,000 for a modest estate that did involve a property; a lot less than a bank quoted.

Personally, wife and I have a reasonably messy but not untypical state of affairs etc. involving childen and grand children. We used a solicitor for our wills and these included setting up various trusts. All up fees were around £600.

R.

[Rude-boy]

If it helps you to decide which option to take the most profitable work our probate department undertakes is usually in relation to contested Wills and those which have been written using home kits.

If you think the fees charged by Solicitors appointed as executors I can tell you that we are amateurs compared to what banks charge, and usually they are not using people who have a wide and varied knowledge and know all the different was to skin a cat.

IMO, and what I have done personally, the best idea is to see a solicitor and get them to draft your Will and one for your Wife at the same time, especially if they are ‘mirror’ Wills.

As for who you appoint to be your executors that is a matter of personal choice. I have to look at mine again as it was about 5 years ago I last checked it and I think that I appointed my Best Friend and my Brother as my executors. The way I would look at is it two fold:-

1. You should chose two people who are not likely to be in the same car on the way to the family get together...
2. You should choose two people who you trust implicitly. They will be in control of EVERYTHING you own, from you old love letters in a case in the loft to your house.
When the time comes your executors can then decide on if they deal with everything or if they hand part or all of it over to a Solicitor to deal with.

[mcflurry]

Jespin said:

I'd pay a solicitor to do it tbh, not worth doing it yourself and doing something that causes more problems. Not like it's that expensive.... look into getting some power of attorneys written while you're at it.

I did one with Will Aid last year. £80 donation to charity and the solicitor does the will for free

http://www.willaid.org.uk/

(no connection, but seems like a win/win to me)

[Rude-boy]

mcflurry said:

Jespin said:

I'd pay a solicitor to do it tbh, not worth doing it yourself and doing something that causes more problems. Not like it's that expensive.... look into getting some power of attorneys written while you're at it.

I did one with Will Aid last year. £80 donation to charity and the solicitor does the will for free

http://www.willaid.org.uk/

(no connection, but seems like a win/win to me)

It is, although there is an expectation that you will be leaving the charity a gift in the Will and these sorts of Wills tend only to be for the easiest of Clients with straightforward affairs and smaller estates.

[Deva Link]

Rude-boy said:

t is, although there is an expectation that you will be leaving the charity a gift in the Will and these sorts of Wills tend only to be for the easiest of Clients with straightforward affairs and smaller estates.

Will they also be hoping to steer people towards making the solictor the executor? A bit more expensove than having a private individual do it, but not necessarly a bad thing, although we have a very simple and clear-cut estate in progress at the moment and the solicitor is being staggeringly slow.

[rfisher]

Just how much more complicated is this if you are not married, but live with your partner, shared mortgage and have kids together?

[Beardy10]

bigandclever said:

S6PNJ said:

If you've nominated God-Parents - that would be their role. Though I don't believe most would understand this element of the 'job' when being asked to be God-Parents.

Nope, you need to specifically state in your will who will become legal guardian in the event of your shuffling off.

Absolutely and you also need to decide what happens to any money that you leave your kids should you and your wife die before the kids are 18 etc.

Ideally you don't want the guardians also being trustees as that is a huge conflict of interest however mcuh you trust those guardians, they may also might not be the best people to decide what to do with the money.

Our kids are both under three so we have two sets of guardian nominated (something could happen to the guardians), a trust set up which doesn't totally distibute assets to the kids until they are adults and separate trustees to adminsiter the trust.

God parents have zero legal standing!

Deciding who you want to look after your kids is very hard...at least it was for us.

[Rude-boy]

rfisher said:

Just how much more complicated is this if you are not married, but live with your partner, shared mortgage and have kids together?

No more so really than it is if you were married, the only issue, as I understand it, is if the Male partner isn't the father, or on the birth certificate of the children. But even that might be different these days, Will's are not something i am 100% uptodate on!

So far as appointing a solicitor as your executor is concerned this can be a very good idea if you are unsure that the people you would otherwise appoint might not be up to the task for any one of a number of reasons i can think of off the top of my head.

Above all else Wills should be kept as simple as possible IMO.

[Deva Link]

rfisher said:

Just how much more complicated is this if you are not married, but live with your partner, shared mortgage and have kids together?

It's potentially very messy without a will as there's no automatic right for unmarried partners to inherit.