Making a Will
Y
ou have four choices; you can do it yourself, you can ask your bank to help you, hire a solicitor or use a will-writing service.
Doing it yourself Home-made wills are not generally recommended. People often use ambiguous wording which, while perfectly clear to the individual who has written it, may be less obvious to others. This could result in the donor’s wishes being misinterpreted and could also cause considerable delay in settling the estate. The wording of a will is important, including formal revocation of any earlier wills, it’s also important to think beyond your basic wishes and address questions such as what if a beneficiary dies before you, what if you and your partner (if you have one) die together or within a short space of time of each other? Few people would start writing a will from stratch – templates are available from stationers and can be downloaded from the internet. They are not perfect, however, and still leave considerable margin for error, especially if your circumstances or your estate are complicated. Two witnesses are needed, and an essential point to remember is that witnesses and their spouses cannot be beneficiaries of a will, so if they do witness it, they
will be automatically disinherited. In certain circumstances, a will can be rendered invalid. There will also be confusion if part of a will seems to be missing, so, if you do need to change your will, it’s best to start from scratch with a new one rather than staple an amendment (called a codicil) that might become detached. A sensible precaution for those doing it themselves is to have it checked by a solicitor, in which case it will usually be simpler and cheaper to use a solicitor from the start.
Banks Advice on wills and the administration of estates is given by the trustee companies of most of the major high street banks. In particular, the services they offer are to provide general guidance, to act as executor and to administer the estate. They will introduce clients to a solicitor and can arrange other related advice on tax planning and financial advice. As with using a solicitor (see below), and advantage of using a bank is that they can keep a copy of the will – plus other important documents – in their safe, avoiding the risk of these documents being mislaid or lost in, say, a house fire. However, the contract for services is between you and the bank, so after you have died, your heirs have
Legacy Yearbook 2021 page 9
