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.

Do the POA forms yourself. My elderly parents were quoted an absolutely extortionate sum by solicitors, but I did it for them and it really was a piece of cake. I was expecting complexity, but it was very straightforward. Then, as others have said, you just have to pay the £90 ish per application. For 2 people, applying for both kinds of POA (Finance and Health/Welfare), that’s just £360.

It’s up to individuals how they want to leave their money. I’m just pointing out that those people who want their children to inherit, but are trusting to their spouses to ensure this, in the case of their own death and the spouse possible remarriage, are being naive.

@JacknDiane you can do a power of attorney yourself online (it is easy ) for £92 per doc
so one for health and one for financial

I did a will with an online company for £30- but it was simple
In november many charities are doing a will writing thing hoping for a donation
eg
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/donate/leave-legacy/will-aid/

@JacknDiane if you’re in Scotland you will need to see a solicitor to arrange all this. The PoA is different than in England. Look for a reputable firm locally.

a lot of the advice and terms used above relates solely to England.

Also, don’t get one of the ones with no office, go to a proper bricks and mortar firm

You can go to Gov.uk website and fill in Power of Attorney forms there. It costs £92. I've heard it's best to get a solicitor to check that you have filled them in correctly, because if not, they're not valid. Martin Lewis emphasises that the POA is even more important than the will. I'm getting both done with DH through a solicitor. Mirror wills are pretty straightforward so costs will vary but may be cheaper than you realise.

Come back and haunt him!

Shades of Benny Hill's Ernie, and the ghostly milk bottles a-rattling in their crates!

Will do, thanks.

This is terrible advice.

You specifically said not to do what I had suggested, and that mirror wills were useless.

I think that having to pay to change your will to protect against your husband giving your combined assets to someone other than your children says a lot about the type of man you’ve married. In their 60s after a lifetime together it feels like an unnecessary step, if he was that bad of a man then I would hope they wouldn’t still be together

Ikr, for the sake of saving £92 too

LPA's are essential. The poster above saying dementia comes on slowly with plenty of time is, sadly, wrong. Often dementia is easily masked and looks like normal forgetfulness (treated as such by both the person and family etc). It's easy to think you've lots of time, but in reality, by the time it's clear that it is dementia, the person may have already become confused, distrusting, etc., and non co-operative. You also need an independent witness to confirm that the person understands what they are signing/agreeing to, which isn't easy when, say, a neighbour already knows the person is confused. We had this with my MIL. Between her being fairly "coherent" and appearing forgetful, to her being diagnosed with dementia and being very confused to the extent of not recognising her own son was less than six months.

You can choose to do LPAs yourself online, in which case you’ll need to just pay the £92 per document Office of the Public Guardian fee.

A life interest trust Will (as you describe) is more complex than a simple Will. As it includes a trust provision you’re much better getting proper legal advice from a solicitor rather than a ‘Will writer’ (fwiw, anyone can call themselves a Will writer and it requires no qualifications!) as the last thing you want is something that doesn’t do what you want!

I’d expect you to pay approx £1000 for life interest trust Wills done by a solicitor, and around £800 if you use them to do LPAs too

Basic/Simple mirror wills are indeed useless. The surviving spouse is free to change their will at any time, even before death of the first spouse and the other spouse has no legal right to know! We all like to believe that we trust our long term spouses to "do the right thing" by the children, but in the real World, it's not always like that. People do get re-married. On re-marriage, the original will becomes invalid anyway. So even the most trustworthy spouse can find themselves leaving their entire estate to the new spouse simply by the mistake of not realising the original "mirror" will became invalid and instead dying intestate. Even with the best intentions, if someone remarries, they may initially want the deceased spouse's share to go to the children, but as time passes, and years/decades pass, the children grow up and become adults themselves, and the surviving spouse may then think the new spouse is more deserving - even moreso as the decades pass. Why take the risk when an interest in possession will trust is so easy and cheap to make?

Nope, we got life interest wills done by our solicitor for around £350, for both. The interest in possession part is simply a couple of extra copy and paste paragraphs.

I’m genuinely amazed you managed to get that done for that price, I know nowhere around me that would charge less than £800 for that kind of work

POA
Will
Changing the house deeds

different solicitors charge different prices

Run down deprived seaside resort in a run down deprived region. They'd have no clients if they tried to charge £800!

No idea why obtaining a Will and POA would cost you thousands. You are going to the wrong people if so. Stop and change.
And as to tenants in common ? Why not joint tenants. If one of you dies the other automatically inherits. Tenants in common do not, I think.

Posters! The op is in Scotland so there’s no such thing as tenants in common, and you need to see a solicitor to do a power of attorney

It’s good really, as it’s so important to have all the powers you need in the power of attorney, I see some rubbish ones at my work. Mine is several pages long

Redcar?

Not called Tenants in common but there is an equivalent in Scotland

People usually only start think about POA as they get older but everyone needs to remember that anyone of us can loose capacity at anytime (even temporarily) I've seen the devastating consequences of brain injuries where families have been unable to pay the bills because they have no access to their partners finances,unable to sort car insurance,unable to move to a more suitable property , not even be able to sort issues with broadband providers,cancel holidays ,unable to make sole decisions re ongoing care the list is endless and it can cause no end of administrative nightmare s for the partner trying to deal with this at an already stressful time - I've seen it so many times with people in their 20's and 30's - if anyone takes anything from this thread,its that we should all get a LPA sorted ...

I'd agree, but with a caveat. I tried one of the charity wills and it seemed fine until they started pushing me to pay several hundred pounds for a POA. The woman became quite aggressive and told me the will was virtually worthless without the POA. She was so objectionable that I never signed that will and instead did one online. I will do my own POA online which costs less than £100.

yes but that’s why it’s necessary to see a Scottish solicitor and not use the wrong terms

You can’t do this POA in Scotland