To the fountain of all knowledge!

Last night, i wrote a new will, as the old one was well out of date (28 years)

I had two colleages sign, date , address etc, having seen me sign my will

Now this has caused a mass debate, as 50% of the office say my will is not legal, about 25% dont know
and the other 25% say it IS a legal binding contract

so...............

Is it?

Is it not ?


regards

steve

According to the governments own website........sounds like it is.

https://www.gov.uk/make-will/make-sure-your-will-is-legal



Part 3:
Make sure your will is legal
For a will to be legally valid, it must be:

made by a person 18 or over
made voluntarily
made by a person of sound mind
in writing
signed by the person making the will in the presence of 2 witnesses
signed by the 2 witnesses, in the presence of the person making the will

Part 4:
Witnessing your will
You need to sign and witness your will formally to make it legal. You must:

sign your will in the presence of 2 witnesses
get your 2 witnesses to sign your will in your presence, after you’ve signed it
make sure your witnesses are aged 18 or over
If you need to make any changes to your will you need to follow the same signing and witnessing process.

Rich

I don't know, but personally, I'd just pay a couple of hundred quid to a solicitor to make sure it was legit. It really goes against the grain, but a few hundred quid now can prevent a whole bunch of hassle later.

Also, if you're estate is a reasonable size you might also want to pay for some tax advice so the ones you leave behind don't get stuffed and end up giving it away unnecessarily.

It's legal, lots of DIY wills work in the same way.

You do not need lots of wooly solicitors words, just have to make sure the will is clear and not open for interpretation.

My will assigns % of my assets to my heirs to save having to rewrite, if someone wants any of my possessions then they get valued and this is extracted from their %

Just make sure the copies are stored correctly.

Regards Mark

yes legal.

however, as others have said the fear is that as you arent a professional you may have not used the correct term here or there thus opening it up to challenge at a later date.

my view is that with wills the amounts of money can be so large anything that puts it at risk isnt worth it. also few people like to prepare for unpleasant eventualities or even contemplate them.

also depending on your age consider the tax implications, and also the potential theft of all your assets by care costs. everyone needs to have their wills and their parents wills set up to avoid entire life savings being leeched to care companies.

bee back in bonnet

paul

The formalities required from a will are simple.

"Every will other than a privileged will must be in writing and signed by or on behalf of the testator, and the signature must be made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time. There are no restrictions as to the materials with which, and upon which, a will may be written. A will may be made or altered in pencil as well as in ink, but pencil alterations in a will written in ink are prima facie deliberative. If, however, in a will mainly written in ink, blanks are filled up in pencil before execution, the pencil additions may be included in the probate. A printed or lithographed form may be used, or part of such a form may be utilised. The requirement that a will should be in writing means that a will cannot validly be executed so as to have effect conditionally on the happening of a future event where the condition is not set out in the will itself" - Halsbury's Laws of England

If the above is gobbldygook then I would suggest buying a will pack from W H Smith or the like. A few quid well spent.

If you have children or a complicated family (i.e. a series of children from different relationships or the like) then a solicitor is not such a bad idea. Most will do a free will if you leave some money to charity (i.e. the charity pays).

When there's a will, there's a way.

Thanks for the replies

I feel quite happy "that my will, is sufficent"

regards
steve

quote:

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Originally posted by RK
When there's a will, there's a way.

---

My wife and I had ours done for nothing by a solicitor in return for a donation in our wills to a charity, in our case Cancer Research UK. They don't seem to do it all the year round but we get solicitor adverts in the local press when they are offering this service. The charity pays for the will(s) being prepared.

Perfectly legit.
I'm just completing my Mum's Estate with a hand written DIY will that my parents wrote themselves. I've been granted Probate, had all their funds released and am just waiting to exchange contracts on sale of their bungalow.