Own Hand written Will in plain English

It actually is perfectly legal as long as it's totally clear and unambiguous,

And that is the nub. No one who made a will that proved to be problematic set out to write a will that would be problematic. They set out to write a simple will that was 'clear and unambiguous', but, no matter how careful they were, there was something, probably very minor, that they overlooked.

Just because some, possibly most (depending on how you define 'most') home written wills are OK, doesnt, mean that an awful lot aren't and that is how solicitors make theor money.

When you compare the cost of paying a solicitor to write your will, with the confidence that if they make a mistake, there will be a professional indemnity insurance behind them to make sure none of your legatees will be out of pocket, with the many thousands of pounds it may cost your executors to sort out a will with just one tiny error. Is it worth beib so cheese pairing?

By the way, Moggycuddler How can you be 100% sure that your will is 'clear and unabiguous'?

Used the services of a well known consumer magazine for Will and POA both free and dealt with by solicitors. Will can be your own version but you do run a risk of slip ups using your own format. PoA has to be signed by professional (eg solicitor, Dr) who has assessed you are compos mentis in making your decision and of course not coerced into doing so. Solicitor charged £100 for signing mine and DHs. Also has to be registered with appropriate official body.

It’s a simple will with no clauses in it, it will be perfectly legal. You’ve done everything you need to. Paying a solicitor to look at it would be waste of money. You do however need to have a lasting power of attorney which you can find in the internet. You can give your son power of attorney. This will make getting money, insurance etc much easier. You should also have a power of attorney in case you become incapable of making your own decisions. This would be for bank accounts and also one for health. You can do this on the internet. Your son can be given the power of attorney for all these.

Sorry POA doesn’t have to be signed by a solicitor, or some in office. You can do both money and health POA online. I didn’t have to get a solicitor or police officer to witness my signature

My mothers will cost thousands to put right as she had spelt names incorrectly and also it was not clear to anyone but her exactly what her intentions had been when she wrote it after my brothers death. I had mine done by a solicitor free of charge and donated to the Stroke Association instead of paying. Lots of organisations do that.

It was not clear to anyone but her. Precisely.

Thank you GSM. I appreciate your advice and words of caution. Surely we should be grateful for members expertise and not sniffy about it.

It’s a simple will with no clauses in it, it will be perfectly legal

How can you know that Jjana1?

It’s comments such as Jjanal’s which worry me. The words ‘what can possibly go wrong?’ spring to mind. The absence of clauses would worry me for a start. Is there a previous will which isn’t revoked? Is there a proper ‘attestation clause’ (apologies for legalese) proving that the document has been properly signed and witnessed? One long string of words is not what I would expect to see. Hey ho, you pays your money (or not) and takes your chance. Why should I comment? Home made wills bring in lots of money for lawyers.

I too value the help GermanShepherdsMum gives us.

We have had wills and PoAs drawn up by our solicitor who works together with our accountant and financial advisor.

Thank you very much Lottie and dragonfly. Much appreciated. I try to point out the pitfalls of DIY wills and the dangers of using unregulated will writers. If someone wants to risk what happens to all their worldly goods rather than pay a solicitor then that’s their privilege.

GSM It is sinking the ship for a ha'pence of tar.

Neither Jjan nor Moggycuddler have come back to tell us how they know so confidently that their home-written wills are without error.

Let me say that I would not, and did not, write my own will. It needs the objective eye of a specialist.

This depends on where you live. If you are not resident in the British Isles then you would be well advised to write down what you want and go along to the Public Notary with it.

I believe you may draw up your own will both in Scotland and in England, but do please check this with Citizen's Advice, or in Scotland either the local registrar's office or the Procurator Fiscal's office at your local Sheriff's court.

You used to have to use a will form, printed by HM Stationary Office and available at any book-shop.

You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses, both of whom must not see the contents of the will, or be beneficiaries, and both must be of legal age and mentally competent.

Unfortunately, what you and I call plain English may not be so in eyes of Probate, so you would be better to write down what you wish, including funeral arrangements, and then get a solicitor to draw it up for you.

If you go ahead and draw up your own will, it would be best to lodge it in your bank - a will left in your home, may not be readily found by your executor. Worse, even although to do so is illegal, it could be destroyed if any of your relatives found it and were dissatisfied with the terms of it.

If you only have one child, the matter is reasonably straight-forward, if, as I assume, you own your house and it is not mortgaged, In any other case, it is not as simple as you imagine.

Do you have insurance policies that someone will benefit from?

Do an online search and find out which firms offer reasonable terms for drawing up a will in your area.

I think bequests should be left as percentages. You could leave fixed amounts to more distant relatives and your immediate family get less if money has been spent for care or other.
Also charities ( I have been told) can harass the executer for quicker payment.
No one wants a minefield.

One thing Grandtant said struck me. In process of doing a new will at moment and were struck by difference in pricing re wills.so get some prices

Fernbergien I quite agree with you on percentages - and this is what we have done.

I worked briefly as a typist at a solicitors and my first will attempt was sent back to me with red pen as I had put in punctuation which apparently can make a will read differently to what was intended. It was hard just typing with no commas etc. It was a very long time ago so I might be mistaken but you had to lay out the bequests and at the end say who the residue was going to be left to. Also I think each page was initialled at the bottom so nothing could be added. I have also read somewhere that you should leave something like £1.00 to people you are not bequeathing anything to, so that they cannot claim they were mistakenly left out and lodge a claim but not sure if it's true. My solicitor boss also tightly sewed the pages together so nothing could be easily inserted or taken away but others used plastic binders. It can be a bit of a minefield.

Germanshepherdsmum

Thank you very much Lottie and dragonfly. Much appreciated. I try to point out the pitfalls of DIY wills and the dangers of using unregulated will writers. If someone wants to risk what happens to all their worldly goods rather than pay a solicitor then that’s their privilege.

Our legal documents are all accomplished and up to date. We actually hope to leave this earth having paid for all our care and with empty pockets. However, that can't be predetermined.

Out of interest, what if worldly goods were very limited, at what point does a person actually need a professionally drawn will?

It seems to me that a very basic will could be hand written, using special will forms, following the instructions, IF the writer could read with some degree of comprehension. No?

There is a free will writing service offered by solicitors during November. Their services are free and all you have to do is make a donation to charity. Most of the major charities are part of this scheme. Win win - you get a free will and your charity benefits,

The problem is Norah that we all unconsciously make assumptions about what things mean. We can write a sentence that seems basic simple and correct to us, but anyone coming from outside can put an entirely different meaning on it.

The classic example is the use of personal pronouns, someone mentions names in different contexts and then writes a sentence using 'she' or 'he' or 'they'. The will writer knows exactly which he, she or they they mean. But when someone comes to read it later, especially someone who doesn't know the testator, it is not exactly clear who he, she or they are. They are probably person A, but it could just be person B.

So when you die, unless you get on well with everyone, and the ncest people turn nasty if money is in question, your descendants will be in court arguing it out.

It is not the blindingly obvious mistakes in complicated cases that clutter the courts, it is the tiny thing missed or the three words that are not entirely clear in otherwise simple wills that end up with half the estate going out in legal fees.

I agree absolutely with Germanshepherds mum's very first statement. My DH was a solicitor and he despaired of the mess made by DIY wills. Lots of charities have will weeks which are always worth looking out for.

Someone we know planned to leave the two houses (inc. their residence of 20 odd years) which he owned outright, to a charity, with the proviso that his wife could live in either for X years. Yes, I was utterly 😱, but that’s beside the point here. I knew this because he’d been open about it to dh, who was going to be executor.

The sol. told him to leave the actual houses to the charity, not the proceeds of the sales, because otherwise the widow would get endless hassle from the charity - why hadn’t they sold yet, why hadn’t they sold for more money, etc.

TBH that’s something I’d never have thought of. So this sort of bequest must be more common than I’d imagined.

Though eventually, some months after he died, the widow did get a letter from the charity, saying basically, ‘Oh, by the way, it’d be much easier for us if you could just sell the house yourself and give us the money.’

As if the widow didn’t have enough to cope with! I’m pleased to say that dh wrote back, telling them in somewhat more polite language, to eff off.

Shortly before he died the bloke did make the smaller house over to his wife, and she was left comfortably off, but we’d had no idea beforehand how much cash there’d be, since he was notoriously tight with money. I was still 😱 about that will, though.

I would urge you to get your will done by a solicitor. My husband and I did ours for ‘no cost’ at a solicitor as part of a charity scheme. A donation (of our choice) will be taken from our estate and given to one of the participating charities. It’s written in the will. The donation can be a small, token amount - ours will be £50 from each of us. I can’t remember what the scheme was called but you can probably Google it. It was DEFINITELY worth it! Our affairs are very straightforward - only one AC & two GC - but the solicitor came up with key points that we hadn’t thought of. For instance what if your AC pre-deceases you? Who will inherit your estate then? It actually took a weight off my mind when we’d done it, knowing it was all correct. As others have said on this thread, writing your will isn’t something to ‘skimp’ on and, via the charity scheme, it can be done for minimal cost, which can be taken from your estate, so no up-front cost at all.

Norah

Whether you need a will if you have little of monetary value depends on what your estate is worth and what the assets consist of. It used to be the case that you didn’t need a probated will to distribute an estate worth not more than £5k but that figure may have changed. If only cash in the bank is involved, many banks will release the deceased’s money to the next of kin on proof of death, but they all have their own rules on how much they will release without seeing a probated will. People also need to consider who their next of kin is for the purposes of distributing an intestate estate - there are strict rules as to the order of participation. If for instance you have no spouse or children but have more than one sibling you may favour one in particular but they will be equally entitled. If you have no close family then make a will leaving what you have to a friend or to charity - otherwise it will go to distant relatives (minus the cost of tracing them) or to the Crown. Charities are grateful for the smallest of gifts.

As to whether you could fill in a printed will form, yes you could but whether you end up with a valid will depends on whether you have completely understood the accompanying instructions, filled in and signed the will entirely in accordance with them, and expressed your wishes clearly and unambiguously. You might think that what you’ve written is crystal clear because you knew what you meant when writing it. Someone looking at your will after you have died might consider that your wishes are capable of more than one interpretation. It’s a fact that we recognise others’ mistakes more readily than our own. Don’t risk it for the sake of paying a solicitor to make sure your will says what you mean it to.