How do you make a DIY Will legal?

[gra_farmer]

Reaching out to the collective here.

So after dealing with a solicitors, that really should know better, I have decided to draft mine and my wife's own Will's.

So a simple question, without using a solicitor, how do you make your Will legal in law, how do you back it up electronically and store the hard copy?

There is so much conflicting information and no straight answer on the Internet.

Is it simply for the hard copy, get it witnessed by two individuals (name, sign, address and date), whom are not beneficiaries in the Will, and not family.

As for electronic copies, scan the hard copy as a protected pdf and email to yourself and / or the beneficiaries, with a note stating this is my last Will and testiment from this date.....etc

As for storage of hard copy, in safe at home, a safety deposit box, or????

I have also drafted a letter of wishes, as far as I am aware this does not have legal power, by does have to be taken into consideration.

Cheers Gra

 

[saxonaxe]

Any replies which are not 100% accurate, up to date and given with full knowledge of the relevant.. current.. legislation are A. Misleading B. Worthless and C. Possibly very expensive in their consequences should you take that advice.
I speak with some experience as my older Sister has been diagnosed with Alzheimers and her Will is self constructed (with her late Husband) witnessed, signed, stamped etc: as they were advised by friends.
It transpires the Will document is useful as a fire starter only and she is incapable, because of the diagnosis, to legally change it or dictate a new Will.
I am awash with Solicitors.
Tread carefully.

 

[Broch]

I second saxonaxe's comments above. A reasonable family law solicitor should be able to draw up a legally binding will for £200 - £300; if it's more complicated it could be as much as £500. However, consider implementing a power of attorney at the same time.

If total peace of mind is not worth that much (the price of a decent outdoor jacket) then you'll have to go down the route you've proposed and hope.

I say all this somewhat hypocritically as I am well overdue revisiting mine

 

[Deleted member 56522]

Reaching out to the collective here.

So after dealing with a solicitors, that really should know better, I have decided to draft mine and my wife's own Will's.

So a simple question, without using a solicitor, how do you make your Will legal in law, how do you back it up electronically and store the hard copy?

There is so much conflicting information and no straight answer on the Internet.

Solicitors make a lot of money from telling people things are far too complex for them to do on their own.

Is it simply for the hard copy, get it witnessed by two individuals (name, sign, address and date), whom are not beneficiaries in the Will, and not family.

I did my own will in January 2021 when I saw covid coming. I have very simple affairs, I wrote out carefully what I wanted to happen, slept on it, came back, checked it, got someone else to read it to make sure it was not ambiguous and got a couple of neighbours to witness me signing.

 

[swyn]

Enduring Power of Attorney.
Only way forward first.
Then get your will sorted by a good solicitor.
There are some out there. There are a lot of yahoos too!
You have to look hard mind.

 

[slowworm]

What about someone like Which? They offer a will writing service and I would have thought that would be legal.

Buying and selling property over the years I met some very good solicitors and some very bad ones. Is there any guarantee a will written but a solicitor will be trouble free? The last one I was involved with still had problems.

 

[Chainsaw]

Had 3 close relatives die in the last 2 years. 2 had lawyers wills, 1 was home made. 3 different lawyers and only had trouble with one of the 'lawyer' wills as it was overly complex. Eventually escalated to a parter who basically said "it's clear what she was trying to do, let's just do it"
A will is a more enforceable version of a letter of wishes and the hierarchy is; the law, a will then a letter of wishes. Eg in scotland you can't write anyone out of your will. Well you can but if they contest it they will win.
Bottom line, you can do your own if it's simple ie I leave everything to my wife or all to my kids but anything more complex (like shares of the estate to diff folks, it can get messy) In that case get a lawyer in they have more experience about the best way to implement what you are trying to do.

To saxonaxes point, someone, (a ex-carer) attempted to change one of the above wills but thankfully the lawyer said no as the person was not capable and they would require PoA to change it.

To answer your question; Get a lawyer involved as anything else is speculation on our behalf but you can get by with mulitple dated, signed and witnessed paper copies. For a couple of hundred quid, do your family a favour and get a lawyer in, they don't need any more stress after you have died, they just want a lawyer to sort it. PoA is a very good idea.

 

[Winnet]

Part of the issue is that new or updates laws can have an impact on older wills. This is part of the reason they should be reviewed on a frequent basis by the person themselves and someone that actually knows the legal aspects of wills and inheritance.

G

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[gra_farmer]

Thank you everyone. Just to update with a few more details of my personal experience with our Wills.

We employed a solicitor to draft our Wills over a year ago, they drafted something (copy and pasted a template), we had to pretty much write the thing ourselves!!!

My wife's cousin is a solicitor, and she do not think much of the Will draft from the other solicitor, so she provided a template too. Problem is that the cousin is so busy, we are very low priority...so it was left.

Last week, I finished the draft, which was a combination of the two solicitors drafts, and our content/details/wishes. So the wording is correct, and states what we want, particularly when combined with our letter of wishes. This has been signed and dated by two witnesses, for the Wills and letter of wishes.

So within reason, we have Wills, they have been signed, witnessed, dated.

So we have a hard copy, how do we back it up electronically????

Also, how do we store the hard copy?

I completely agree, that Wills are something that must be reviewed often.

Cheers Gra

 

[Deleted member 56522]

In Scotland, the idiot politicians have done nothing about the "law" which says that if a married person dies and does not have a will transferring the house to their spouse, and then the spouse also dies, then it all has to go to court to sort it out.

This happened to the house we bought ... which delayed our purchase for almost six months. It also happened to the house next door recently. It happens a lot!

Obviously, it is a totally idiotic bit of nonsense invented by lawyers to make money. The law should default to: if a married person dies without a will, then all the property automatically transfers to the spouse. But the lawyers are too busy making money from such situations and the politicians are too busy interfering in our lives to sort out such real problems, so it remains.

My will basically says: "if I die and my spouse lives more than 30 days after my death, then they get everything, and if not, my children get everything."

However, I also wanted to include a few things for changes in circumstances in case I don't update it: such as what happens if my children marry and have children and what happens if my spouse dies and I remarry, and there is a whole clause for what happens if everyone who might inherit dies (got to stop the Government getting their grubby hands on it).

 

[gra_farmer]

My will basically says: "if I die and my spouse lives more than 30 days after my death, then they get everything, and if not, my children get everything."

However, I also wanted to include a few things for changes in circumstances in case I don't update it: such as what happens if my children marry and have children and what happens if my spouse dies and I remarry, and there is a whole clause for what happens if everyone who might inherit dies (got to stop the Government getting their grubby hands on it).

Mine is similar, it goes to my wife....if both of us goes, it goes in trust to my children (they are under 18 years), with my wife's sister to look after the children and the estate, until the youngest child is 18 years old

 

[Deleted member 56522]

Mine is similar, it goes to my wife....if both of us goes, it goes in trust to my children (they are under 18 years), with my wife's sister to look after the children and the estate, until the youngest child is 18 years old

The only problematic thing with "it goes to my wife", is if you intend your money to eventually go to your children, your wife dies, you remarry and then you die.

Assuming you own your house, you wouldn't want your children to turf out your future wife when you die, but nor do you want your future wife to remarry and divert all your inheritance to an entirely new family. But what if you have more children by a second wife?

I put in something, just in case I forgot to update the will, but I think it would need revisiting if the situation arose.

 

[grizzlyj]

When I last paid a solicitor to draw up a will they stored it, I assume for ever, for no extra cost. As long as all involved know which solicitor then do you need to worry about storing anything?

 

[Chainsaw]

In Scotland, the idiot politicians have done nothing about the "law" which says that if a married person dies and does not have a will transferring the house to their spouse, and then the spouse also dies, then it all has to go to court to sort it out.

This happened to the house we bought ... which delayed our purchase for almost six months. It also happened to the house next door recently. It happens a lot!

Obviously, it is a totally idiotic bit of nonsense invented by lawyers to make money. The law should default to: if a married person dies without a will, then all the property automatically transfers to the spouse. But the lawyers are too busy making money from such situations and the politicians are too busy interfering in our lives to sort out such real problems, so it remains.

My will basically says: "if I die and my spouse lives more than 30 days after my death, then they get everything, and if not, my children get everything."

However, I also wanted to include a few things for changes in circumstances in case I don't update it: such as what happens if my children marry and have children and what happens if my spouse dies and I remarry, and there is a whole clause for what happens if everyone who might inherit dies (got to stop the Government getting their grubby hands on it).

There is a law for what happens when an estate goes intestate (ie no will.) It always has to go to court as that's where laws are executed/enforced. In scots law it's under the succession act which basically says estate owner > children > estate owners parents and sibling > etc etc right down a.n.other ancestors/descendents. Also note that the above can overrule whatever you put in your will. The house is specificially excluded so as not to have the wicked spouse turf the children out onto the street. There is also a movement to update this law to included second marriages, thirds, divorces with kids etc etc. But that is going to be gnarly as hell to figure out the best thing to do and then how to do it, that's going to be years of work! Peter Sellars' case is a good example of what can go horribly wrong.

Our kids are over 18 now so technically the whole trust thing is not relevant and my wife's sister is no longer on the hook to look after them. In speaking to our lawyer we asked if we should change it and he basically said nah I wouldn't bother, the interpretation is clear to what was intended.

 

[Mesquite]

Thank you everyone. Just to update with a few more details of my personal experience with our Wills.

We employed a solicitor to draft our Wills over a year ago, they drafted something (copy and pasted a template), we had to pretty much write the thing ourselves!!!

My wife's cousin is a solicitor, and she do not think much of the Will draft from the other solicitor, so she provided a template too. Problem is that the cousin is so busy, we are very low priority...so it was left.

Last week, I finished the draft, which was a combination of the two solicitors drafts, and our content/details/wishes. So the wording is correct, and states what we want, particularly when combined with our letter of wishes. This has been signed and dated by two witnesses, for the Wills and letter of wishes.

So within reason, we have Wills, they have been signed, witnessed, dated.

So we have a hard copy, how do we back it up electronically????

Also, how do we store the hard copy?

I completely agree, that Wills are something that must be reviewed often.

Cheers Gra

To answer your question without looking at the aspects of drafting your own will I would suggest one thing you could do is look at storing it securely.

Mine is held at my bank which I pay a small fee for that privelage. In addition I keep electronic and hard copies of the will at home.

Copies of a sealed letter, which is marked to be opened in the event of my passing, are held both by my executors and a family member which instructs them where the original will as well as the copies are held along with how to access them in the case of my death.

One aspect to remember is you really should have more than one executor named in your will just in case the main one is unable to fufill their duties.

 

[gra_farmer]

The only problematic thing with "it goes to my wife", is if you intend your money to eventually go to your children, your wife dies, you remarry and then you die.

Assuming you own your house, you wouldn't want your children to turf out your future wife when you die, but nor do you want your future wife to remarry and divert all your inheritance to an entirely new family. But what if you have more children by a second wife?

I put in something, just in case I forgot to update the will, but I think it would need revisiting if the situation arose.

Wife is named directly, we have agreed, that in the very unlikely event one of us will remarry, it goes to the children first.

 

[British Red]

.

So we have a hard copy, how do we back it up electronically????

Also, how do we store the hard copy?

I completely agree, that Wills are something that must be reviewed often.

Cheers Gra

Registering a will should be done with HM Courts (probate service) - it's really very straightforward

Store a will with HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS)

A guide for people who want to store their will or codicil (an update to the will) with HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

www.gov.uk