Moosey Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Your bank may have a scheme to provide wills cheap - I know some do. As with anything this important, I'd recommend getting it done properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Shaw Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Just a tip. Whatever you do, don't make the executors beneficiaries of the will. Or if you do, just a token gesture. I know this to my cost! Are you confusing that suggestion with the prohibition on a witness to the Will being a beneficiary? The Wills Act 1837 [yes, still the main Act on this topic] says this: 15. Gifts to an attesting witness to be void. If any person shall attest the execution of any will to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment, of or affecting any real or personal estate (other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt or debts), shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will, or the wife or husband of such person, or any person claiming under such person or wife or husband, be utterly null and void, and such person so attesting shall be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of such will, or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof, notwithstanding such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment mentioned in such will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Do I go to a solicitor..( expensive?) would it be better for my hubby and me to have separate ones or a joint one. Am I right in thinking we could DIY it?. It is costly? Definately see a solicitor. If you are (like many of us) just "Joe Bloggs" we tend to put it off as something for the future. It wasn't untill we had a health scare we did it. A properly drawn up will by a solicitor cost us £170. Money well spent. It wasn't untill seeing a solicitor we realised the obvious...... We had a mirror will drawn up...what's hers is mine and what's mine is hers. Then comes the questions..... Once the surviving partner leaves this earth who gets what? Easy to say the children....but what if one chld is no longer living? Does it go the surving child? Does it go the deceased childs children? At what age do they get it? Who is the trustee untill set age? I'm not talking millions here....just "Joe Blogs" with a few quid in the bank and a house owner. A couple of hundred quid to be sure your wishes are carried out is not expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Are you confusing that suggestion with the prohibition on a witness to the Will being a beneficiary? The Wills Act 1837 [yes, still the main Act on this topic] says this: 15. Gifts to an attesting witness to be void. If any person shall attest the execution of any will to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment, of or affecting any real or personal estate (other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt or debts), shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will, or the wife or husband of such person, or any person claiming under such person or wife or husband, be utterly null and void, and such person so attesting shall be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of such will, or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof, notwithstanding such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment mentioned in such will. No Jeffrey, there is absolutely no confusion. The executors of my late aunts will were not even blood relatives. The witnesses were the solicitor who they instructed to draw up the will, and a friend of theirs. My late aunts sister, my mother as an only surviving relative should have inherited. These thoroughly dislikeable people (the executors) had total control over my late aunt (she was 90 years old). They have denied acces to any and all records, documentation, previous wills, medical records, bank records. In an attempt to stop us from proving (or trying to prove) how she was manipulated into drawing up a new will, drafted under instruction from them shortly before she passed away. We're having to go down the road of a court order to have documentation released for our scrutiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 No Jeffrey, there is absolutely no confusion. The executors of my late aunts will were not even blood relatives. The witnesses were the solicitor who they instructed to draw up the will, and a friend of theirs. My late aunts sister, my mother as an only surviving relative should have inherited. These thoroughly dislikeable people (the executors) had total control over my late aunt (she was 90 years old). They have denied acces to any and all records, documentation, previous wills, medical records, bank records. In an attempt to stop us from proving (or trying to prove) how she was manipulated into drawing up a new will, drafted under instruction from them shortly before she passed away. We're having to go down the road of a court order to have documentation released for our scrutiny. That sounds like a deeper issue than executors defrauding a will....In the normal run of things executors have to execute the wishes in the will...the fact that they persuaded someone to make the will in their favour is a diffetent matter..sorry if I've got it wrong.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 That sounds like a deeper issue than executors defrauding a will....In the normal run of things executors have to execute the wishes in the will...the fact that they persuaded someone to make the will in their favour is a diffetent matter..sorry if I've got it wrong.. My case is definitely a bit complex. Apparently, it's the third occasion that they have befriended an old person and subsequently been the sole beneficiaries of the estate AND executors. They've been very clever and tried to cover every angle possible. Unfortunately, there's a very fine line between 'persuasion' and coersion, and it's very very difficult to prove the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JtotheC Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 If you check the local paper, they have companies that will come and do a will with you at home for about £100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Overall Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 If you check the local paper, they have companies that will come and do a will with you at home for about £100 Are these companies proper solicitors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Are these companies proper solicitors? I could come and do it for you, as long as I get to be executor and beneficiary! :hihi::hihi: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Shaw Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Are these companies proper solicitors? No, they're mostly "Will Writing Companies": probably uninsured and currently unregulated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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