Wills - how do I sort this out for me and DH?

[mumbojumbo]

OK.

DH and I have been married for nearly a year. Have two ds's. I've been wanting to sort out wills for both of us for some time now.

Mumsnetters, can you help me:

1. give dh a list of reasons why it's so important as he is somewhat laidback about the whole thing.
2. give me an idea where to start - do I just ring my local solicitor or contact one of these will writing companies?

Want to get a grip and get this sorted out asap.

Any advice gratefully received.
mj

What if something happened to both of you. Without a will both sets of parents could start wrangling over custody. You need to stipulate who will look after the DS's.

It's peace of mind.

We used a local solicitor & did joint mirror wills. He gets mine, I get his, Kids get ours sort of thing.

My friends DH died when their baby was 6months old. His will was unsigned & his first wife & kids took her to the cleaners. The whole road had wills redone that month.

Mumbojumbo, use a solicitor, definitely. Try Yellow Pages for a starting point/prices (basic mirror Wills should be about £70-£80 each).

If your assets are over the Inheritance Tax threshold (£275k I think), then you will be hit with 40% tax so a solicitor can give you suitable tax advice.

And guardians for your children in the event of both of you passing away at the same time (morbid I know, but needs to be given some thought).

Have a read through DH's article on MN homepage

Please can I recommend that you do NOT use a will writing company. It is better to invest a little more money and expertise into your will. DH makes more money from sorting out badly prepared will-writing company and/or hom made wills than he does from preparing and drafting a proper will.

Choose a solicitor who has specialised in this area of law and you will save yourself (or rather your executor's and your estate) a lot of time and/or money in the long run.

Sorry - not advertising DH's services there; just his article does have some useful information on.

You need a will to sort out who looks after your kids if anything happened to you (god forbid). Hula's dh is a solicitor and his company are offering discounts to Mnetters here

Xed posts with Hula

There is something on the home page of mumsnet about making a will.

here

He comes highly recommended.
sorry hula, posts crossed.

LOL!

we're all at it tonight hula

Did you manage to sort this out mumbojumbo?

Hula, does your DH do wills?

Yes - he has a link on the MN homepage. There is an article about the types of things to consider.

Hi Hulababy

Thanks for posting (and thanks to everyone else too). I've been reading the article on wills on Mumsnet and plan to show it and discuss with dh tomorrow evening. Been out all day today with ds's, now that they have both recovered from chickenpox.