Making a will

[coffeemonster23]

I need to make a will but don't know where to start. - any help appreciated!

I have looked online but are all companies offering the same service? A local solicitor has quoted £800+VAT, whereas an online service has quoted £90.

What do I need to look for and make sure I include? I am married with children, but one of my must haves is that if anything happens to me, my share of the house would pass to my children.... I.e. if my husbands remarries then my half of the house is protected and my kids inherit it, not his new spouse.

I have a recent health diagnosis which is making me focussed! It's not imminent but has certainly made me think about things.

Thank you.

You need to shop around and find a different solicitor imo! Ours did our wills for £200 and he was an experienced, reputable solicitor who did a good job of everything. Several of my friends have also done wills with a solicitor and none of them have paid anywhere near £800.

Like anything else, services vary enormously between providers. You need to ask exactly what is included from each firm you approach.

Some will just be "execution only", i.e. you tell them what you want and they'll write the will to do it without really checking all aspects. Others will spend more time asking searching questions, such as "what if's", i.e. what if you all die in a car or plane accident, who do you want to look after your children (and how is that paid for) if both you and OH die together and your children survive.

I'd say £90 is too cheap but £800 is too expensive for a relatively simple will. What you need to protect your share of your house for your children is a simple will trust that lets your OH live in the house but your share of the ownership passes to your children when your OH dies (rather than passing to any of his relatives/new wife etc). It's literally just a couple of lines written in the will. We used a local solicitor for ours and both cost £300 in total, that was including a will trust and a few "what if" scenarios.

I can recommend @mumblechum0 of MN, a will writer also known as

https://www.marlowwills.co.uk

We found the process very straightforward, we first talked through our circumstances, what we wanted to achieve and anything's to avoid. Some scenarios that had never occurred to us but which could easily have happened were covered then we agreed the general ideas

Will was drafted, we reviewed it together and then the final version wad provided.

Really great service, pretty good price too.

I also recommend mumblechum0 she did our wills a couple of years ago after I saw her on mumsnet she provided an excellent service. She also did LPA's for my DH's elderly sister and brother inlaw they had a quote from local solicitors just couldn't believe how much they wanted to charge so I put them in touch with mumblechum0 they were so happy that I did.

I got mine done by a local solicitor in the High Street, they were doing a half price will writing service, cost me £74, shop around, no way should a will cost £800.
Mines pretty straight forward and I put a letter of wishes in with it to express additional stuff I'd like to happen regarding burial, keepsakes for people

Ah thanks very much for your recommendations, @mowbraygirl and @FinallyHere, that’s very kind 😊
OP, do feel free to contact us via the website in Finally Here’s link.

Ours are mirror wills - basically everything goes to the other when one dies. We then made allowance for if we both die together. We have named a guardian for the kids, though only one of them would need that now so we will change it when dd turns 18 in a few months. We then added what would would happen our total estate in the event we all died together/within days of each other (heaven forbid in a crash or something). The main reason for this was to leave one sibling out of inheriting. If we didn't make an allowance for that eventuality, then this sibling would automatically have inherited along with other siblings. I then added that all my jewellery goes to dd.

Definitely shop around. £800 is ludicrous!

@Mumblechum0 I have just emailed you for a quote! 😊

@GinQueen1844 I’ve emailed you back! (I’m away on holiday but my assistant is minding the shop during the week) 😊

Another endorsement for the wonderful Mumblechum who had done three wills for me and is so lovely and helpful.

@SpiesRUs thank you so much!

Mumblechum did ours too. Makes it simple and no nonsense. You tell her what you want, she points out if anything is risky or needs some thinking about and it’s done...

Yep, Marlow Wills did ours too. Very straightforward & efficient. Recommended. 😁

@Franklin12 and @Wombat36 here, you deserve some too !

MumbleChum every time 🥳

The positive power of MN.

We had pfaffed about redoing our wills for ages til I read a recommendation for Mumblechum0 on MN which made everything so easy.

We have PoA in the pipeline too.

No more 3am panics about 'what ifs '

Thanks all for the advice. Great to have positive recommendations