Wills?

[Chloebw]

I'm wondering if anyone can help with this. I am only 23 so don't have many assests yet but I'm a single mum to 9 month old dd. I have had a thought in the back of mind that if something happened to me there would be a nasty legal case over custody of my daughter with my parents and her dad. I would always want her care to go to my parents. How can I insure this? Do I need to write a will, if so how do I go about doing this?

What would happen depends initially on whether your daughter's dad has parental responsibility; was he named on the birth certificate?

If there was a dispute then the court would be asked to make a decision on what was in your daughter's best interest. If you have appointed a guardian in your will, this would be a clear message but if your ex has parental responsibility and there was a dispute, the court would not be bound by the appointment of the trustee.

It's always a good idea to write a will because apart from the guardianship aspect, the chances are that by the time you die (statistically when you're in your eighties ), you will have accumulated some assets.

Hi, no he's not named so kind of invisaged a messy dispute for my parents if something awful did happen. Is it worth getting one written up for a "just in case" senario?

I would say definitely, for the reasons set out in my post above, but I'm a professional will writer and would say that!

Feel free to ask more questions or PM me if you'd like to keep it private.

Mumblechum1 I can't work out how to send private messages! Do you know much about Scottish law and how that varies? Am I able to just write a will up myself I.e a word doc sign it and give it too the family solicitor?

Hi OP, if you are in Scotland unfortunately you need to see a Scottish solicitor or will writer.

Will writing is not that simple, you do need to make a proper will, so I suggest that you look at the Institute of Scottish Willwriters to find a local lawyer who will go over everything with you.

Thanks- that's all I needed pointed in the right direction!