Do it yourself wills.... anyone done one?

1) More estates have been wasted on lawyers fees because of DIY wills than for any other reason. Use a solicitor to draw up your will. In the long run it will be cheaper.

2) If social services think you have disposed of or spent your personal wealth (including your house) in order to avoid paying care home fees they can override your disposal and act as if you still had the money and expect you to pay your own fees or place a charge on the assets of the person you passed the money/house to.

3) When you make your will also make a Lasting Power of Attorney giving somebody you trust the power to act on your behalf if you are incapacitated by sudden illness or dementia. For someone to get such powers after you are incapacitated is time consuming expensive and everything they do will be monitored by the Court of Protection, a continued cost and considerable inconvenience.

Has anybody thought about reserve beneficiaries?.
My will is in favour of my children but I am considering passing some of my wealth directly to my grandchildren through my will as my daughters are reasonably well off to avoid inheritance tax.
The only slight problem I can see is we tend to go somewhere by ferry or aeroplane as a family at least once a year.
We have written our wills with reserve beneficiaries in case all of our part of the family passed away if the boat or aeroplane went down and we are reserve beneficiaries for wills in other parts of the family.

We have just re- written our wills using a will company. We were very impressed with the service and we paid them to store our wills. This includes free lifetime changes to the wills; them contacting us if the law changes and affects our wills and also support for the executors.
There are lots of things to consider even if you don't think you have very much to pass on. The house is our major asset and we wanted to make sure we could pass on as much as possible so they were able to give us invaluable advice. The basic service was in fact quite cheap and such companies will come to your house and give you advice. They also told us that lots of wills are turned down for probate.
It's amazing how many people don't make a will. We made them as soon as our children were born and I made sure my two children had wills before they disappeared for their gap year travel. My husband's aunt changed her will at least twice a year - it was her favourite hobby.

DH & I made a will through a will company.. fee similar to a solicitor but slightly more, but any changes etc we wish to make are done free of charge. They are all legal and sound... had it checked before we did it! any changes to law are also automatically sent to you.

Thast what we though Barrow but we were wrong its still needs careful wording.

yes Barrow that is about it in a nutshell...(although DH is 20 yrs older than me and not in good health)..so got me thinking..with me being out on the road so to speak.....but I will now give it some serious thought...

I agree that a Will is best drawn up by a Solicitor but if say, you just wanted your partner to have everything and in the event they died before you, your children have everything shared equally between them. You could just write this on a piece of paper, appoint your partner as Executor or in the event they died before you, one or more of your children. Then date it, sign it in the presence of TWO witnesses who are not beneficiaries who should then add their addresses and occupations. Make sure to put in the full names of the beneficiaries and their addresses.

Absentgrana, I think you will find you will need to make a Will for any assets in this country and another for any assets in the country you are moving to as each country has a different set of rules.

hmm yes thankyou absentgranagood luck and best wishes with the "emmigration" and susiecb yes I think really it should be done legaly(solicitors etc)..I will have a ponder..

We did our first one ourelves but when we moved recently and retired we decided they needed lookiing at. We redid them with some on line solicitor advice for about £100 and then registered them with the Proabte Office for £40. Apparently we had made some fundamental errors and we were only making a fairly straightforward will.

Hi bikergran You are sensible to make a will. Loads of people put off doing it and then die intestate, often leaving horrible problems for their families. I made a will, with legal advice, some years ago and really need to make a new one as I want to include my grandchildren and my own circumstances have changed. Also, as I shall be emigrating, I need a will that works with the laws of my adoptive country.

I am quite doubtful about d-i-y wills as wishes can be twisted and distorted in ways that the layman would never think of. Not all solicitors are hugely expensive but, of course, they all charge.

As far as monies from a house sale and fees for a care home are concerned, you really would need a solicitor's advice, especially as this is an issue currently under discussion by the government.

Good luck.