What's the best way to do your WILL?

[Gems567]

Hi, as the title says really.

I've decided that I need to do my WILL and just wondering which is the best way to go about it.
For those who've already done theirs, did you just make your own will and get a couple of witnesses to sign it at the same time you did?
Or did you do it through a Solicitor? , which would obviously cost more money.

Please do it through a solicitor, don’t do it yourself - I’ve seen some horrors of DIY wills which don’t make sense, don’t work or do the opposite of what the testator wanted.
It’s not that expensive and certainly cheaper then having to sort out a terrible mess later.

Should say I’m a wills and probate solicitor, so tend to see the DIY wills which go wrong.

I went to a solicitor

Frenchfancie for a no-complications will for a couple is £300 the ballpark fee? Or less? (Hoping not more!) Thank you.

We went to a solicitor. Couple of hours and it was all done. We seemed to by chance choose 'Wills Week' where it was half price at £150 for a normal mirror will.

There's a Mumsnetter who advertises in Small Ads who does Wills.

See a solicitor. Too much can go wrong with DIY options.

Solicitor. Wasn’t extortionate and gives peace of mind.

Depends on where you are in the country (don’t ask about central London rates!) but £300 should certainly cover simple mirror image wills for a couple, hopefully it will be a bit cheaper.

We went to a solicitor. It was £300 for a mirror Will. I didn't feel confident doing one online and we ended up with a list of questions for the solicitor and she explained exactly what everything meant and made us think about what we were committing to. She also told us useful info about our estate and thresholds for various things. It's such an important document that we didn't mind paying more for it.

Definitely go to a solicitor. They ask the questions you never knew you needed to answer.

It depends on how complicated your will is. If you decide to do eithwoth a solicitor/whatever please be aware of executors fees. They often wrote themselves in to execute the will and take tens of thousands of pounds for the privilege.

It depends on how complex it is. A simple "everything to spouse, if they are deceased everything equal split to kids mirrored to each other" will can be done without a solicitor as long as independently witnessed and you let your would be executors know where it is. But if you have more complexity use a solicitor, many have a set price - contesting a will does happen.

Thanks all, it seems the best option is definitely through a Solicitor!

I did presume that my circumstances were quite straight forward, hence my wondering if it's easy to just go down the 'd.i.y route', as long as I followed the rules of having two witnesses present when I signed my Will.
On seeing your comments though, I do think it's best to ensure my Will would be 'water tight'. I'm not wealthy by any means, but I do have a house to leave my dc's, and as one of them is only 15 I need to ensure that I have every based covered properly with regards to her being looked after.

The only problem I may have if I use a Solicitor, is if both witnesses would have to attend the Solicitors with me to witness my signing (we all tend to work different days and shifts to each other), so would I be able to basically draft my own Will, get it signed at a convenient time for myself and the witneses, and then take it myself to a Solicitor, have the Solicitor check it over and store it?

What do posters think of doing it through the bank? Lloyd’s offered to do mine for about half the amount a solicitor would do it for.

Gems - the solicitor provides the witnesses - usually secretaries and / receptionists. Don’t worry about getting anyone else there.
And we don’t write ourselves in as executors unless asked to be. Lloyd’s bank, as with other banks, tend to ask that you appoint them as executor, as that’s how they keep their charges down. You can always so no.

Thanks FrenchFancie, I hadn't thought of that.
Presumably if and when the Solicitors eventually close down (and I've hopefully not yet gone to meet my maker!), I take it then any documents stored would be transferred into the care of another Solicitor's building?

What do posters think of doing it through the bank? Lloyd’s offered to do mine for about half the amount a solicitor would do it for.

I don't know about Lloyds, but HSBC had a similar offer about ten years ago In the small print they wanted a small percentage of the estate. Of course if you are likely to leave almost nothing this wouldn't be a problem, but if a house is involved you would end up paying many thousands of pounds just to make a will,

I went to a solicitor. It cost around £100. It is very straightforward though, it's probably more expensive for more complicated wills.

Yvonne at Marlow Wills is excellent - I approached her through the MN ad and was very happy.

..

I'm in the Midlands and I'll definitely be shopping around tomorrow to sort out who to go with

You want @mumblechum1

Definitely go through a will writer or solicitor. It shouldn't be expensive for a simple will but they make sure that you have considered every situation and more importantly put those wishes into the watertight legal language that you need.

mumblechum0 of marlow wills gets good recommendations on here and although I haven't used them for wills I have used them for LPAs and can recommend them.