Tell Co-op Legal Services about your experiences with making a will - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

If you and your partner have children together, thinking ahead to a time when the unimaginable has happened and both you and your partner have passed away, leaving your child (or children) in need of a Legal Guardian, is an awful conversation to think about, let alone have. However, Co-op Legal Services know that if you make formal arrangements in relation to a will, you are able to name the Legal Guardians of your children instead of the Court making a decision you might not have wished for. With that in mind, Co-op Legal Services would like to know your experiences with making a will.

James Antoniou, Head of Wills at Co-op Legal Services, says: “As parents, we recognise the need to protect our children throughout our lifetimes. Making a will and providing for guardianship is an extension of that protection, ensuring that our wishes are clear about who will be responsible for their upbringing.

If you are interested in starting your wills journey with the Co-op, start your will online now"

Do you currently have a will? Or is it still an ongoing process? How did you go about making some of the important decisions that a will requires? Do you have the conversations surrounding a will with your family?

So whether you’ve set up one already or looking to begin making one, share your experiences below and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks, and good luck

MNHQ

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We have a will documented for the family and funerals paid for. You have to think ahead its really hard to consider it but family members need to know

I've not written a will myself yet but I have not long gone through the process with my dad. My dad went to see a specialist to enquire about the most tax effective way to disperse his assets.

We haven't made a will yet as I haven't thought about it but seeing my in laws being so ill prepared, I think i will definitely look into it

I helped my mother to make the simplest will in the world and it was still complicated . Its far too hard to do,

We got a will when we bought our first house together

It's a difficult but important job to do. We have mirror wills. It's a relief to know it is sorted

My husband is a financial advisor so I trust when the time comes we will be in safe hands when making a will. I feel we are both a little young yey to be thinking about it.

Very important - did one soon after we got married and revised it again recently - gives you peace of mind

We finally got round to making mirror wills a few years ago about the same time as a good friend died (it made us think about unfortunate outcomes )
Found it tricky to think about who to have as guardians as family members were mostly too old/ too far away/ too unreliable.
In the end we went for close friends on a reciprocal basis, as our kids were already 11+ and we felt that the ability to stay in the local area and with friends at school would be the most important thing in the event of something awful happening to both of us.

DS turns 18 this year so we will probably need to revise. We'll still keep friends as executors and they have promised to act as pseudo-guardians even if the kids are 18+.

At the moment I haven't got many assets but I have a will with my work, so that everything goes to my husband and then my kids.

Just finished updating ours a few weeks ago. It took a while (several months!) as we kept changing our minds on what to put in it, but we finally got there. Used an online service from a reputable consumer mag and found it very good. So much better than the rip-off on our first time round from a local solicitor.

It was very straightforward. We went to a solicitor, rather than use a DIY kit, because we wanted to understand exactly what would be best for our dc.

One important thing was that whatever we wrote about how and who should look after our dc if we were both to die would only be considered as expressing our preference. SS would make the final decision.

It is important to talk to the people you want to be your dcs' Guardians, make sure they want to take on that role.

I'd always put off making a will as it always seemed so complicated and something that we would do in later life. We grasped the bull by the horns about 5 years ago though and made one, we have a copy but the solicitors keep the originals free of charge in their safe. The total cost for us both was around £125 which was really reasonable given that we had a couple of consultations; I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. It does give you peace of mind.

I haven't made a will yet. It's one of those things that I know is important and should get round to doing, but is never urgent enough to get to the top of the to-do list.

I was only thinking about this the other day, as a single parent with a 10 year old son, whose father lives abroad and hasn't seen him since he was four, I am concerned not so much about the financial side of provision, but more the custody side because my son is established here in my place of birth where he is surrounded by family and friends and I would hate for him to be uprooted from that should anything happen to me. I think the only thing stopping me is lack of knowledge and the thought that it might cost money to make a will or of any legal costs involved in the process. I should take more care really as my father died several years ago and had not updated his will and as a result every penny he had was left to his ex-partner whom he had split from just short of a year before he died, nothing was left to my brother of myself.

I don't have one. I have looked into it a bit though and feel like its something I should consider. You never know what the future holds so I guess its best to take precautions

I have a will which I put in place when I was about 23 and a single mum with a mortgage. I wanted to make sure that my son would be alright financially if anything happened to me and who his guardians would be. I had to think about it very matter of factly - about where would be the best place for him in the long term. They also ask you about all ultimatums - so basically if your entire family dies, what happens! Not the best to think about but definitely worth having a will.

Yes, we do. Ours is quite simple and didn't cost much to do. We've discussed a few (not terribly valuable) items that we want to go to particular people and will respect each others wishes. After a rather complicated, messy family situation some years ago, it was something that just made sense.

My parents had mirror wills and I was an executor for both estates. I was impressed with how easy having everything tied up and professionally handled by an experienced probate solicitor made things. My parents' wills had been made years before they were needed. They saw it as a positive step in putting their affairs in order when all was still well.

With this in mind, and having inherited myself, I saw it as vital that I planned as early as possible. DH and I went back to the same solicitor whose fantastic manner made it all easy. He advised to revisit the wills on an ongoing basis. We haven't looked at them in 5 years, so I'm thinking that's possibly a good interval to now reschedule.

He's quite avuncular and there's the touch of the family solicitor about him. This very personal relationship really works for me in this particular circumstance and I have recommended him to a number of friends.

We have an appointment to make a will, but we still cannot agree on certain aspects like who will look after the children if something happened to both of us

to be honest ive never done a will and never thought about doing one as i dont have anything of any value to warrant writing a will

I am not going to have a will

We have everything figured out...in our heads but we just haven't gotten round to making a will yet. We said we'd do it when we brought a house but been here in nearly a year and still need to do it!

We have done our wills but it was expensive

I need to do one