Share your thoughts on Wills with Which? Win £300 voucher or free Will! NOW CLOSED

[RebeccaEMumsnet]

Writing a Will is something that many of us put off, as it’s never a nice subject to talk about and the process can seem confusing, but Which? Wills is hoping to change all that with their online Will writing and Power of Attorney service.

They would love to hear your experience of how you got your Will sorted, or, if you haven’t got around to it yet, what’s putting you off? It would be great to hear your stories of how you decided how you would write your Will, and your tips to those who have yet to do it.

Here’s what Alex Neil, at Which? has to say: "It's important to make a will to ensure that your assets, including your home, savings and belongings, are distributed according to your wishes. It can be very difficult for loved ones to do this if you pass away without having made a will.”

Did the birth of your DCs prompt you to write your Will? Do you think that it’s important to have a Will as a parent, and if so, why?

Whatever your experience (or lack of experience!) of Will writing, we’d love to hear your story so that other Mumsnetters can take advice.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw, and one MNer will win either a £300 Love2Shop voucher or a free Which? Will Writing Service (T&Cs below).

Thanks,

MNHQ
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After sadly having to deal with both my parents estates after they passed away, I know first hand how important it is to have a will, and I also know the value of keeping it simple. I was able to deal with probate myself as both their wills were as basic as could be - leaving everything to each other, and to my if the other predeceased them. This meant I only had to pay a £7 fee for a solicitor to witness my signature, rather than hundreds for them to deal with the whole estate.

I know it's not always possible to keep things as simple as that when there are remarriages, stepchildren and all the rest to take into account as there so often are, but a good will writer will advise you not to overcomplicate it.

My husband and I made wills soon after losing my mum, and we've made sure our (grown up) children know where they are. They're the executors, and know exactly what's in there. Nobody wants any more surprises or shocks to deal with after losing a loved one.

absolutely vital

We have wills because we have children. However, we have rewritten them as elderly relatives due, our circumstances change etc. We have always used a solicitor but being able to update it easily would be helpful. We are currently updating to ensure that my two vile sisters get nothing in the event that our children die with us or cannot get their hands on the children at all.

I don't have a will, and neither does my husband. We're in a very simple set-up with no out of the ordinary circumstances, and getting a will drawn up isn't anywhere near the top of our spending priority list.

I know I should. I might look into it.

This is something we need to do and have had the odd conversation about but we have never sorted it out. I think it scares me in a way so I have avoided it but now I am getting older it is something I am beginning to take more seriously!

I have no assets of great value so I don't think I need one, I do however see the reason for them and they give peace of mind for people that do need them.

You may not have much of value Crown, but who would the things you do own go to if you died? The right person or the wrong person? Would the person you loved most in the world have to take all the money you happen to have in your bank account, your jewellery and that telly you'd saved up for and hand them over to a brother you haven't seen for years?

Something I need to do - it's a great way of determining what happens after I'm gone without any dispute. Although I have no assets to speak of, currently! Haha.

We know we must sort out wills but keep putting it off. We have made notes and stored them with our documents about what we want to happen with the children - but I'm not sure if that would be legally binding. I don't know why we haven't sorted this out yet (note to self).

We finally got round to doing our wills in 2010, when our DCs were nearly teenagers, after years of procrastinating.

Like some other PPs, we did ours during WillAid with a local solicitor, she was excellent and it was really good value. There are lots of quite distressing scenarios you need to think about – e.g. what if one parent dies, or both parents die leaving the children, or all the family die together. And she explained about trusts etc and how these work.

We wrote a ‘letter of wishes’ too, with guidance on how we would like the guardians to run the trust fund, e.g. we'd like our DCs to be able travel to see their relatives abroad, and to access further education and training.

We are fortunate that we had an easy choice for guardians, as we have a reciprocal arrangement with my DB who has 3 children.

I think wills are a great idea, even if you don't have children or many assets. I think it should be a priority for everyone, I don't have much to my name now but I am planning on preparing a will in the future as I want to make sure my loved ones are taken care of after I'm gone.

Just did my DF will with which?
The online filling in bit was great for us as we could do it privately in our own time.

We had a voucher code so it wasn't expensive but imo expensive if you pay full.
Lower the price a bit and offer free digital storage.

Something we still have to do. We know it needs to be done but trying to get my partner to sit down and talk about our lack of immortality I find impossible. I just need to keep trying.

We made a will once the two DC were born. We own a house so it made sense to formalise what should happen to that as well as who would look after the DC. It was very easy - done over the course of a couple of phone calls - and was reasonable in price. I expect we'll amend as the DC grow up.

After recommendations on here I used mumblechum who advertises (officially) will writing through mumsnet.
A couple of key things prompted me, the main being setting up legal guardians for my dd (3yo). Our parents wouldn't be able to look after her due to either ill health, age or I just don't like them. As I'm also estranged from my dad (vile person) I was terrified in the absence of something being formal, he'd be back on the scene if he knew there was a significant pot of money available. It was peace of mind that we've picked who we wanted and due to guidance from mumblechum we've left clear supplementary information as to why we've come to that decision.
Also I have a dss, a previous will left him everything, so we needed to sort that and change it to 50/50. Again, I also picked executors who I'd trust to do right by both children, especially as with death in service and life insurance payments our estate would be fairly significant.
I found the process easy to do and am pleased it's now sorted.

We drew up wills as soon as we got married and bought our house. It hasn't been changed since as it was written with any future children included (just split equally) so we didn't need to update when DC were born

We really should make wills. But keep putting it off, mainly because we aren't entirely sure about suitable guardians for the children. But we are married and not rich so dying without one wouldn't be a huge disaster iykwim

I have had a horrible past 2 years which have left me thinking of getting a will because I have to think of my 8 yr old ds I have fallen out with my family and my so called best friend , I have a few health issues and it scares me like hell that if anything ever happens to me the vultures will definitely jump in. I was very lucky to have landed myself a good job and all my money is tied in the house

We have written our will, which was prompted after having our first child. We now need to update it as we own our home, and don't rent anymore.

I do think it's important to have wills - especially if you are in a long term relationship and are not married. Also if you are a parent to somebody who would need a guardian should you both die. We had to think hard about this as my parents are unable to do this (my Mum has since died) and we weren't sure that the in-laws were the right choice either - and definitely not the siblings of either of us.

I find it quite a distressing topic to think about, but at the same time know it's eminently sensible and necessary.

I really should get around to writing a will. I do worry about what would happen to my kids if the worst did happen. I don't particularly have a lot of time or money though so that has put me off so far!

A will is a must! I have seen so many families fall out over money, when they should be consoling each other in a time of need!

Something we have been meaning to do since getting married and our daughter arriving, however always put it off as need to make an appointment etc and expect it to be time consuming/complicated.

Me again ,voice of doom again .Make sure you choose your executors well .It's very easy for them tweak things so that they benefit .

A will won't necessarily prevent families falling out over money .

Writing a Will is something we've discussed since having our little babies but, so far, i've put it off. I can't really get my head round it, it's so frightening yet i know we need to put things in place for the babies. One big issue is guardianship - if anything happened to us there's no-one to look after our babies, that terrifies us!

I've personally not really had any experience of wills and have often thought because I have no assets to leave behind it is pointless me having one but I overlooked that I could use a will to specify how I wanted my son to be cared for and who by etc