Quick question about making a will, for you lawyerly types please!

[yummylittlelapin]

DH and I need to get our collective bottoms in gear and sort out wills before he deploys.

My friend is a solicitor, but she works 3 hours away. Alternatively, there is a law practise a few doors up the road from us.

How careful do we need to be in selecting a solicitor to draw up our wills? They will be very straightforward.

Thanks in advance.

how straightforward is straightforward? If VERY straightforward (all assets in the UK, mirror wills) you might be able to get away with doing it yourself, with a will kit from tesco or WHSmith (have been planning to do this myself, kit is sitting on computer desk, unopened, and has been for about 3 months). The key thing will be around making sure that you get the witnessing process right - since this is the one thing that will invalidate wills if even slightly wrong. From memory (law school in a commonwealth country about 15 years ago) you need two witnesses, neither of whom is a beneficiary under the will, for example.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have thought you needed to be TOO selective, but you do need to be confident that they'll get it done pronto, and not rip you off on price. Hopefully someone can come along with a suggested price range!

Don't do it yourself. Is your friend a specialist in this area of law ?

Nope, she's a divorce specialist

I'm loathe to do it ourselves LA, I just want to make sure it's absolutely correct. It's quite a big practise near our house, I guess I could just pop in and get them to quote me.

REALLY simple - "all my stuff to you, or DS" sorta fing

???

I don't want to do it myself, because I want it to be correct - how is that mutually exclusive?

The alternative is to get it done online by a company like The Will Bureau etc.

I would not go to your friend if she is not a specialist in this area. I would bite the bullet and go to the local firm (if they have been recommended to you). I would suggest typing EVERYTHING out, which you wish your will to include. This will save the solicitor time and therefore save you money. If you need a checklist of what you should cover in your instructions, just ask MN.

Ask your local practice if they have someone who specialises in probate. If so get it done there. If there is a chance that your assets will eventually exceed the IHT-free amount (bear in mind life insurance payouts and death inservice benefits do mount up) then definitely find a probate lawyer. IME it is unlikely that a family soliciotr is best placed to draw up a will - she would probably just ask a colleague to do it for her.

Thank you ladies, I will go in search of a probate specialist.

Indignatio, about that checklist...

Executors/Trustees
Guardians
money bequests
particular item bequests
Residue eg all to DH, if he dies before/same time then all to ds (or any children of the pair of you).

Type out full names and addresses for everyone named in will

If you need an explaination of any of the terms above - again just ask