Am i stupid spending thousands in getting a new will and POA when we haven't been on holiday for over 20 years?

[JacknDiane]

Money is tight here. But we own our home outright. We never had inheritance money and we want to ensure something is left to our kids. We want the sort of will where the title deeds are changed to tenants in common. We also want POA done for both of us. Im not entirely sure why this is needed but Martin lewis says it is so...

All this will cost 1000s. And we could so do with a holiday.

What would you spend the money on? We are both early 60s, kids are single adults, both renting.

Powers of attorney you apply for through the government portal, they are a set price around £85 per type per person. Changing your house to tenants in common is a separate matter and straight forward, speak to a few local solicitors for quotes. Once this is in place simple wills can be written taking into consideration your tenants in common arrangement, they are not expensive, shop around

If the patient does not have a LPA (for health/welfare) and has lost capacity (therefore cannot appoint a POA themselves) a Guardianship order needs to be applied for which can take a long time. This is in Scotland, not sure of the process in England but as it requires assessments and as it is done through the courts it isint a quick process. So if the patient needs long term care like a care home for example, they remain in hospital until the guardianship order has been granted.

Haven’t read whole thing but got mirror wills for 250 donated to our local hospice. We also changed our deeds to tenants in common and for that paid another £200 direct to solicitor. Look up local hospice and wills week! POA you can do without a sollicitor directly online. Don’t waste your money but do sort it out

If you become 'Tenants in Common' rather than 'Joint Tenants' then you can decide, in your will, what will happen to your half of the house.

You can check this (and change it) here Joint property ownership: Overview - GOV.UK
We did it some years ago and I don't recall there being a cost for the change. Once you have changed it, you should amend your mirror wills to reflect this and define where you want your 'half' to go. You may be able to do this with a Codicil.

Look at this Making a will: Update your will - GOV.UK '
You cannot amend your will after it’s been signed and witnessed. The only way you can change a will is by making an official alteration called a codicil.
You must sign a codicil and get it witnessed in the same way as witnessing a will.
There’s no limit on how many codicils you can add to a will.'

Once completed you should have enough money for your holiday! 🕶

A will and power of attorney doesn't cost £1000's.

You can get both done under £500.

Get it sorted and then see if you have enough left over to have a holiday this year or next.

You can do POA for health and welfare and property and finance on the GOV UK website for £92 each.

And do read the P of A instructions very carefully, particularly as regards signing and dating. Any mistake means it’ll be rejected, and you’ll have to start (and pay) again.

Wait for Nov And will aid

Why do you want to do this? Is your house and other assets worth over £1m?

It is not a good idea to give your kids 50% of the house in case they get divorced .
But you should get LPAs asap but can do these yourself.

I did mine that way. It’s not difficult. Cost hardly anything by comparison to doing it with a solicitor.

Wills are cheap (and can be done yourself if simple for free). POA is the fee (£92) and nothing more.
What you seem to want, though, is a Trust to protect your assets for your children if you die. That does need a solicitor, and does cost a few grand. But shop around and make sure you get someone you trust and that they know what they are doing.

Any reason in particular?

Im struggling to see why someone in their 60s would change their will in order to avoid a remarriage meaning their children wouldn’t inherit…if we really needed to set wills up to protect children in that way then don’t the vast majority of people have unsuitable wills right now?

I appreciate you may disagree, but calling something terrible advice without offering an alternative or a reason is just lacking in effort. Thanks for the feedback though.

And while I’m on, the OP isn’t even saying she wants the kids to inherit her half, just that she wants them to inherit her half if her husband remarries, which makes it even less worth making a will to try to cover this point…the surviving spouse can literally cover this at the time of remarriage by redoing their will then. It would mean only one needed changing (likely neither given the rate of people widowed at 60+ remarrying) so saving money

https://www.willaid.org.uk/ You are just in time for Will Aid.

LPAs are pretty easy to do yourself.

Just ask your husband not to remarry. That is what we have agreed to protect our children.

😆 and how exactly are you going to police that?

Don’t do this. If one parent dies and the other remarries, just the simple act of forgetting to do a new will in the favour of the children means that the new spouse gets it all. Mirror wills are useless. If you want your children to inherit, you need to write them into the will. Agreements not written in stone mean nothing.

No you can do it with the normal LPA too, I've worked as a stroke doctor in my early career so it was a common thing we dealt with

(most people don't lose capacity in their life time, and if they do, you rarely need to say sell cars/property etc within 6wks of that (in the instance of say a disabling stroke as the medical care is more pressing).

In the instance of dementia its not a "bang" has capacity/no longer has capacity overnight moment so you can register it when memory begins to fail

May save you the £92 if is never needed

There’s no reason it should cost more than a few hundred.

It won’t cost that much. Each POA is £92. So £104 each ad a couple £208.

will. For mirrored wills we paid £250.

so £500 max. Not 1000s

So would you advocate for the vast majority to redo their wills? Because currently most have mirror wills

Hehe ! I know my husband and we have seen awful outcomes to these situations so I consider ourselves on the same page and we both want to protect our children. But you are right, he could remarry if he wanted but I doubt he would.

There's a statutory waiting period of 4 weeks which cannot be waived. If you expedite an application it may take 6 weeks to register if you are lucky. In the meantime you have no LPA in place.

Yes of course you can leave the drafts in a drawer if you can be sure you won't need the LPAs within 6 weeks. Very unwise though. A coma from a car accident is usually fairly sudden.

I am in Scotland.

And we have mirror wills already, its a different type we want.

Marlow wills are fantastic i agree but unfortunately dont cover Scotland.

Exactly