Are Do it Yourself Wills legal?

Do it Yourself Wills – are they legal?

This question “Are do it yourself Wills legal?” is one I come across quite a lot and it is a fairly common internet search term as well.

The simple answer is yes they are, because the law recognises any correctly written and attested Will.

However the question is probably better put as something like what needs to be done to make a Will legally valid.

Using that as the question the following are necessary elements

the testator (the person making the Will) must identify himself or herself

there must be be instructions about how the estate is to be distributed

the testator must sign in the presence of two witnesses

the two witnesses need to sign the will to confirm the testator’s signature.

That is the basic formula for a legally valid Will.

If only it was that simple!

If you do your own Will from say a shop bought Will kit for example there will be instructions to follow. Hopefully they are clear and they are followed diligently.

Many people have made flat pack furniture from Ikea yet failed to follow their excellent instructions correctly.

Cheap and glossy Lasting Power of Attorney Services

Your Lasting Power of Attorney and low cost glossy services

By making Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) you are taking the opportunity to chose a trusted person to look after your affairs should the time come when you can’t do that yourself.

You can do an LPA yourself but there is a lot to do to get the LPA right and there is a lot to think about in terms of powers to grant your attorneys and restrict and whether to make decisions joint only or for individual attorneys. There are plenty more considerations in most cases.

With all that in mind it is no surprise that many people seek professional help. The internet is awash with offers of online cheap LPA services as well as those from the more traditional sources e.g. solicitors.

Do take care here, as some are definitely cheap but what are you getting for your money? It seems that many offer no more than some basic advice available from any number of sources and a service which comprises of little more than filling in the first part of the LPA form for you.

This can apply equally to face to face services as well as the internet online offers.

That service can be helpful as far as it goes, of course, but there is a great deal to get right and wrong from this point in the process. You are left with a set of instructions by most.

So if you are tempted to use a ‘cheapie service’ do ask and get answers about what exactly is on offer and by whom.

Offering services to make Lasting Powers of Attorney is not a regulated activity and whilst it is often done by qualified lawyers such as solicitors and barristers there are many unqualified or lightly qualified people offering ‘glossy’ services. All show and no bottom?

If you pay for the right service you will be taken through the whole process with a guarantee to put things right at no extra cost if any errors appear in the application.

So if you do sign up for a low cost Lasting Power of Attorney service you may get what you pay for!

DIY Will Kit anybody?

DIY Will Kits – a story of choice

You want to make your will. You check out some prices. A local solicitor wants £300 for a pair of mirror wills. A local will writer wants £200 for a pair of wills and there is an online service that is charging £59.

Then there is the DIY Will Kit available in the high street shop. That is only £14.99. The shop is reputable and it looks well presented and finally you find a there is a nice looking website that looks good and the cost is on £29. That looks good too. OK let toss a coin.

The thing is whatever method you choose there will be nobody to give you the best advice and supervise the signing procedure or check that you have done the signing correctly.

Like many choices you make in life you come to your decision and get on with it.

To be fair there is good guidance in some DIY Will kits but they are not always that easy to follow. You have choices and decisions to make in areas you are unfamiliar with. Are you good at filling in forms too?

You get used to the fact that there is nobody, no professional who understands what you are thinking and the likely pitfalls to help you, to advise you. But it is cheap so that’s Ok.

When it is done put the Wills away in your drawer and that is that.

What awaits the person who has to deal with your creation from the DIY Will kit?

You may never know but someone else might be cursing you if it is invalid or just plain useless.

DIY Wills and Will Writing Regulation

Will Writing Regulation may ahppen but DIY Wills are still OK?

Writing of wills has been something of a free for all in the last twenty years or so. It is not a regulated activity so anyone can do it and it is also quite legal to make DIY Wills.

You may have picked up on the fact that regulation of Will writing is actively being considered. This followed a secret shopper session where a number of solicitors and Will writers were given a secret test run.

The results showed about the same level of mistakes in both the Will writers and solicitors.

So is that proof that writing your own Will is easy or easily subject to mistake?

Now learn two things from this.

• Not even people who have had some training get it right all the time.
• If they do they will normally have professional indemnity insurance to cover the losses made by such a mistake.

There is no such thing in DIY Wills. You write your own Will and you get it wrong your loved ones get to be less than complimentary about your parsimony.

Scary economic situation means more DIY Wills

More DIY Wills in the offing?
It is probably fair to say that many people in the UK are worried or concerned about how their standard of living will shape up over the coming few years.

We are all looking to avoid spending on things that we can manage without or getting into buying the cheapest version of the service available. Discretionary spending is falling away.

I think making your Will is a classic discretionary purchase. There is no particular time for most people that they must make a Will. For many it is a result of having children and wanting to appoint guardians and set up bereaved minor’s trusts. For others it is a factor of getting older and it is just about getting things right for their spouse or family.

Then it would be no surprise if even more people were now looking for free or super cheap Wills. Internet search volumes for DIY Wills are on the up it seems, so it could be said that they are the flavour of the month.

The concern remains that free or cheap DIY Wills can be a mistake for too many people who will get it all wrong.

That sorry situation where the £10 bargain is found wanting is often found out during the horrible limbo period where the impact of the bereavement has not really been absorbed by the family.

Intestacy due to an invalid DIY Will is not the sort of epitaph many people would want.

Safe Will Storage – not in my house!

When I was a kid my parents kept their wills in the airing cupboard. That did not mean much to mean when I was a lad but as I got older I kept finding them tucked in the back of this cupboard.

It eventually dawn on me that these were important documents and my curiosity was aroused. I never did open the envelopes or try the various ways of steaming them opn without anyone knowing. I didn’t doodle on the envelope either.

What is important about such an arrangement is that is is anthing but a safe place for will storage.

there was me to contend with let alone the fire risk (both parents wer smokers) and potentially ddgy electrics due to ecessive use of electric fires. it makes me shiver now to think about it.

Freemium Free DIY Wills?

As many people are keen to get their Wills arranged for free (based on the very high volume of searches each month for ‘free Wills’ or ‘free Will templates on Google) it would seem that many people do not want to spend any money on this important legal document.

On top of that many people are also seeking ‘DIY Wills’ or even ‘cheap DIY Wills’ so these people are probably looking for a low priced way to draft their Will.

These two groups of Google searchers, who may sometimes be the same people, have something in common, apart from the obvious. They are both setting themselves up to take on the same risk of completely mucking up their inheritance planning. The Will form or template adopted, be it free or just cheap, may be OK for the personal circumstances of the user (or it may not as are some are plain awful and dangerous) but even then can the avid Will DIYer write it correctly and can they be sure that it is valid?

This is always always the big question. How on earth can anyone get the much vaunted peace of mind that comes from doing your Will and making sure your loved ones are getting what they are due if you are not even sure about the validity.

An answer to this may be to give away free Will templates and offer a Will checking service as a modest upgrade. This would be a good answer for those who are willing to spend some money on getting it right but others will not want to even spend a penny!

This sounds like a good idea to me and would help lots of people if they get it right at a modest cost. This is in fact a Freemium model!

Free Wills – a good idea?

Are Free Wills going to end up expensive?

Free Wills or free Will templates are frequently searched for on the internet. In fact these two searches are some of the most common searches in relation to Wills.

I do think I have actually come across a site that provides them as well but most web pages are set up as no more than bait for other products.

One very important thing to understand and to keep in mind is there is no responsibility taken for the accuracy of the information or the suitability of these free Wills by the site or business that offer them.

If you actually do want to write your Will using a free download you should at least consider the risks you are taking beforehand.

Firstly, you are potentially trusting an unknown, unaccountable organisation or one that denies any responsibility, for the important legal document you want to make based on their template and their instructions.

Secondly, you are taking on the normal risks associated with making your own Will which are inappropriate terms or missing terms in the Will and getting the attestation (signing and witnessing) wrong.

Overall this can result in ineffective or invalid Wills which are only likely to be discovered when it is too late. The ‘discovery’ is, unfortunately, normally made by the people who you were proposing to look after in your freebie document.

Without promoting DIY Wills ‘per se’ a branded product or a well established web site selling legal documents would tend to offer a more reliable and accountable method of providing a low cost Will. Of course this would not be a free will but the prices are modest, typically about £10 and up.

If you do go ahead to do your free Will you can probably save from £80 – £300 which is the cost for you today to do it right and know it is valid. That does not include any costs associated with the time this bargain Will has to be used. Who knows what that might be and not all of it can be measured in monetary terms.

It is serious piece of risk taking on your part for such a relatively small amount saved! Sometimes the cost of a free Will may be too high.

Second marriages

Second marriage and DIY Wills

If you are in a second marriage (or your parents are) this could be a very important piece of information.

If you have bought a property with your new spouse you may be unintentionally bringing about the disinheritance of your children.

Firstly, if you die first and pass everything to your spouse in your Will, your bereaved spouse can change his or her Will after you die. This may not happen because your spouse will do the right thing.

However if you plan to leave your share of the property to your children when you die that might not happen either. If the property is owned as joint tenants, which is the norm for a married couple, you will not be able to gift the property in your Will. It is already owned by your spouse. The law says you both own 100% when you are alive and if one dies the survivor owns 100%. Bad maths but good law.

The answer might well be to have a Life Interest Trust in your Will to allow your surviving spouse to use the property whilst alive but pass on the value of your share to your children when s/he dies. Good all round.

Unforuntaely this is not suitable for a DIY Will and so you will need to seek advice from a lawyer on this one.

DIY Wills – is there a safer way to do them?

Are you worried about doing a DIY Will?

If you have decided to do your own Will and are looking to buy a DIY Will Kit you should be aware of the potential problems that can occur.

The first thing is deciding hat your DIY Will Kit is suitable for your circumstances. e.g. is it the right jurisdiction e.g. England & Wales, and is it OK for someone with young children.

After that there is the question of proper attestation (signing). It is a straightforward procedure and seems simple enough AND you should get full instructions to guide you through the process.

The problem is with the two winesses there are three or four people involved in this signing process. Things can and do go wrong. it happens a lot.

So if you make your own will and getthe sttestation wrong when do you find out? Perhaps nobody will until you have died and that might be a bit late.

The best solution to this problem is to have it checked. There is a service that provides a DIY Will Kit and a lawyer check (and a second one at no extra charge should you need it) called DIY Will Plus and it is currently £40 for a single Will and £60 for mirror Wills. Check it out here http://lawscape.co.uk/do-it-yourself-wills