Will Writing
- Access to competitive rates
- Specialist Mortgage Advice
- Relationships with a variety of lenders
What's On This Page?
Get In Touch
Will Writing
Kelly explains the process of having a will written and why it’s so important.
What is a will?
Putting it simply, it’s a set of directions or instructions as to where your assets should be directed upon your death. It also sets out who should be appointed in crucial roles such as executors or guarantors, and people you want to benefit from your will or control your assets in the event of your death.
Who needs a will? When do you need to think about getting one?
There are so many different circumstances and different people who need a will, and they don’t always understand the importance of it.
For example, for non-married couples – whether you have children together or not – if one person were to pass away, the other would not benefit from your estate because you’re not married. So non-married couples need a will.
Parents should have a will to ensure that the money goes to the right people and your children are cared for. Homeowners should have a will.
One that people forget sometimes is if you are technically married, but separated, you should revise your will. If something happened and you were technically married, your estate would fall to your separated spouse. If you didn’t want that, you need to state your wishes in a new will.
That covers a lot of people – those with children, with a partner, a homeowner or a business owner… they all need a will in place to protect their assets.
What are the reasons for having a will?
There are very different reasons, depending on your circumstances. But the main overall reason for a will is to ensure the right people get your assets. It also ensures that people who you don’t necessarily want to inherit your assets don’t get them.
It appoints the right people so that if anything happens, your assets go to the right people.
What happens to my estate if I don’t have a will?
If you don’t have a will, the technical term is that you die ‘intestate’.The rules of intestacy state how your assets will be appointed and they don’t make provisions for certain people.
If you don’t have a will, your assets will fall naturally to either the person you are married to or your children – your next of kin, essentially.
Partners you aren’t married to are not covered. Stepchildren, foster children or anybody else not technically within the rules of intestacy would not benefit from your will. It means that you wouldn’t have control over who was to benefit from your offsets.
Speak To an Expert
What happens to my children if I die without a will?
This is a difficult one. Not a lot of people are aware that if both parents were to die and the child is under the age of 18, with no will in place the children are placed in the care of social services.
It doesn’t automatically mean that your children would be cared for by your parents, your siblings or a close family member. By having a will in place, you could appoint a guardian who you trust to care for your children until they are 18.
It’s really important to have this in place, because your children potentially becoming part of the social care system could cause devastation. We are pretty certain that as parents, that isn’t what would want to happen if you were no longer here.
Wills aren’t regulated. What does this mean?
In simple terms, it essentially means that they are not regulated by the Law Society, so anybody could create their own will.
Is that the right thing to do? We don’t think so. But anybody could create their own will or create a will for somebody else. It does not have to be done legally by a solicitor.
Where should I store my will?
Where it is stored is very important. If a will is damaged, lost or even if part of the paper is slightly torn or stained, it could become completely null and void. So the will has to be stored somewhere completely safe.
Most solicitors offer to store the will as part of their will writing service. You’d obviously have to pay some kind of fee, depending on who you use. But if it’s not somewhere safe and becomes lost, it won’t be valid. So it has to be stored carefully.
What’s the cost of having a will written?
This is completely dependent on circumstances and what kind of will you need. It will depend on the size of the estate and the setup of your family.
You may have a blended family or you want to include other people in your will – so there isn’t a single cost. It completely depends on your current circumstances and your wishes as to what you want to happen on death.
There might be other things to include based on tax advice or putting trusts in place. I can’t give you an exact cost because it is completely on a case-by-case basis.
What are the dangers of writing my own will?
Mistakes could be very easily made when writing a will. Some of the language used within the actual will is quite old fashioned and not always the easiest to understand.
If you were responsible for writing your own will, and you didn’t fully understand the wording, mistakes could lead to problems. Those problems could prevent the people you want to benefit from your assets from receiving them.
An error may cause significant legal costs on your death if it had to be corrected. Simple mistakes could have quite devastating consequences after you’ve passed.
How do I go about arranging a will?
We offer a basic will writing service and if there are more complex situations that involve things like trusts or tax advice, we work with a solicitor who could offer that.
If you book a will appointment with us, we take the information from you, go through what’s important and what needs to be set up, and we could advise from there.
What else do we need to know about will writing?
I just want to highlight the importance of having a will. It’s something that isn’t talked about enough – probably because it’s not a nice subject to think about.
But at an appointment with L&K or a solicitor, you could sit down and put plans in place. It’s absolutely worth having that conversation to make sure everybody’s cared for, especially if you’re a parent.
Have that conversation upfront and then you don’t have to kind of think about it again, unless your circumstances change. It’s a really important thing to do.
WILL WRITING IS NOT REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY.