How do we go about writing a will or getting one drawn up???

[Twinkie1]

Dh has finally agreed to get around to this after watching Heir Hunters last night - I did mention it last month to him after reading the nightmare that some people have had when there is no will in place but we are stumped as to where we start - do I have to get a IFD to come round or is their specialist companies or do we get a write your own will pack.

I own nothing at all other than most of what is in the house (I bought it all - yes DH paid for it but ho hum - I handed over the plastic for it!) everything else as well as the house and any investments we have are in DHs name - so I suppose it is just getting someone to say all that is mine if anything happens to him and if something happens to the both of us it will be split between the DCs!

So where do we start?

We were talking about this just last week in our post-natal group (rl, not MN!) - if you or dh are a member of a union, they should have a free will-writing service.

Alternatively, most firms of solicitors will do a will for you for not much - or you can just go to WHSmith and get a will-writing pack.

We did ours after ds was born, about 5 years ago - I'm a member of a union, so it was done as a freebie!

hth

you can use a solicitor or you can find a specialist (inheritance consultants (!))

it sounds like you need mirror wills which are straight forward so shouldn't be too pricey

we used a company called The Moneta Partnership and our wills cost £245 in total (we had some Trust stuff as well)

you can probably get it done cheaper

Please don't do it yourself! It shouldn't cost much to have a pair of mirror wills set up by a professional, and then you'll know that it's done right.
Things that you need to think about -
Will life insurance and the value of your house take you above the inheritance tax allowance?
Who do you want to look after your children if you both die?
Who do you want to control the money if you both die (not necessarily the same people as above, but they will need to get on well!)?
At which age will your children get full control of the money (this does not have to be 18 - we chose 24)?
You will also be asked what you want to happen to your assets if your whole family was wiped out - other family members, charity etc.
Is that enough to think about?

Bloody hell I think DH and I need to sit down and write everything down and then get someone professional in - do we just do eeny meeny miney mo in the yellow pages or does anyone in north esses/south suffolk know a good firm?

I'd pick maybe 3 at random and see how much they charge. When dh and I did ours, the solicitor charged about £110, I think.

Have a think about who you'd want as executor, as we were told this can't be the same person as whoever you choose to be dcs' guardian.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the executor. We choose 3 people, so that if one was incapacitated in some way the whole burden didn't fall on just one person. It also helped polictically to have people from both side of the family as well I think.