Having your Will written by a trained, professional willwriter gives you peace of mind that your wishes will be followed and reduce stress for your family after your day.
When your Will written by a trained, professional willwriter you have peace of mind. You know that your wishes will be followed. And you know that you’ve reduced stress for your family at a time that they need it most and ongoing.
Your Will is a written legal document, which dictates how your money and property (your assets which make up your estate) will be disposed of when you die, but it is so much more than that. It’s a place to protect your children in the event of you passing, making sure they are looked after by the people you want. It’s a place to make sure the assets you built up in life go to the people that you want. It’s a place that appoints trusted people to administer your estate and ensure your wishes are carried out.
Even in the simplest of cases, a Will is useful because you can prevent potential arguments among those you love. No matter your circumstance, a Will is the only way to have your wishes adhered to after your time.
Set legally-binding wishes on who should inherit what, when you die. | Appoint the guardians you trust, for your young children. | Appoint people you trust as your executors, to administer your wishes. | Ensure your spouse or partner is provided for. | Make proper provisions for a child who needs a little extra help. | Appoint people you trust to take care of your pets. | Reduce the potential for disputes over your property. | Reduce stress for your loved ones when you die. | Give yourself peace of mind that your wishes will be followed.
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Do you have questions? Click to book a free chat & ask meSimply put a poorly-drafted Will can cause significant problems when you die. Plus - of course - you can no longer rectify it. A professional willwriter, like me, takes the time to properly understand your situation and gives you the best advice to ensure your Will does what you want it to.
Every person's circumstance is different. Cheap 'off the shelf' or 'do it yourself' packages often take a one-size-fits-all that falls apart legally at the exact time it is needed. A professional willwriter has the experience and understanding to guide you through the pitfalls and craft a document that is right for you. Whether it is a single Will or a mirror Will (often used by couples) a professional knows what to do.
If you die without a Will, the law states what should happen to your money and property. This usually begins with a spouse/civil partner (though they may not receive everything you own), and continues down a 'pecking order' through children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, to remoter relatives. Thus, if you die without a Will, your money and property may not go to whom you want it to. The law does not allow for specific gifts, or trusts to protect your children's inheritance from your partner re-marrying after your death and their new spouse entering the equation.
If you die without a Will, your family will also have legal hurdles to jump before being able to access your money and sort out your assets, whereas you can give them this power through your Will.
While you are legally entitled to exclude a child from your Will if you wish, simply writing 'I leave everything to child A' while completely ignoring child B, may not be enough. A child would usually have the legal right to challenge your Will, and as such, I would discuss with you specific steps we could take to try to discourage such a challenge and/or minimise the risk of a challenge succeeding.
Where people have remarried after having children, trusts or gifts when the biological parent dies can be used to protect these children's inheritance from the step-parent changing their Will later, or even a third marriage. While this needs to be balanced with the interests of the couple themselves, usually a solution can be found.
The usual answer to this is placing that child's inheritance in trust, under the control of trusted and responsible third parties (perhaps the child's siblings, or an independent person) who can ensure that the child is not exploited. This can also protect any means-tested benefits that the child receives.
Unfortunately, where a couple have a larger estate (currently over £322,000), this is not necessarily the case. Where a person has children, those children could be entitled to some of the estate, and in extreme cases, this could mean that the surviving spouse has to sell their home to access the cash. Even if it were very likely that a husband or wife would inherit everything, a Will still has value in appointing executors to sort everything out with no extra stress, cost, and difficulty.
Everybody owns something, and even where a person has a small estate, writing a Will allows them to appoint executors to sort everything out with no extra stress, cost, and difficulty.
This depends on the extent of the changes required; however, for the changes to be legally valid, specific steps need to be taken. For example, simply crossing something out with a pen and writing new words above it would not be a legally valid change. If you have had your previous Will written by someone else, then I would not base a new Will on this; instead, I would approach the case anew to ensure I give you the best advice. However, if I wrote your previous Will, then changing it does not normally require the same amount of work as the original writing did.
When a couple writes Wills, this is usually in the form of two separate standalone Wills, one for each partner. 'Mirror Wills' means that both Wills are substantially the same, though there may be small differences such as one partner owning a specific item they want to leave to a third party, or the couple may have different wishes for their respective funerals. Most couples write mirror Wills.
To ensure that your Will makes your wishes happen, I will take the time to understand your circumstances and your wishes, give you the best advice, and ensure your Will is signed properly. This requires two meetings, which may not last more than 90 minutes in total but are certainly more than a 15-minute phone call or a simple internet form, neither of which are sufficient for a will writer to advise what is best for you. I am qualified through and regulated by the Institute for Professional Willwriters and insured for up to £2m if things go wrong.
(P.S. 'Solicitor-checked' means that a solicitor checks that the Will works at face value, not necessarily that it is correct for your individual circumstances.)
Lasting Powers of Attorney and Wills are completely separate things and neither influences the other. Lasting Powers of Attorney have no legal power after a person dies, and so the attorneys no longer have any authority to sort a person's affairs unless they are named as executors in a Will.
If you own a business, either as a sole trader or limited company, then you would not need a separate Will for your business but it would be advisable to specifically mention business assets and/or shares in your Will to ensure that the business is not impacted by your death any more than necessary and that the correct people inherit these assets/shares and can sort things out. What happens to a share in a partnership when one partner dies is generally governed by the partnership agreement, and as such, care must be taken to ensure your Will does not contradict this.
Each legal system has its own unique laws on Wills and how property is dealt with after a person's death. I am qualified to write your Will under English and Welsh law, and such a Will would not cover property situated in other countries. In such a case, I would recommend you instruct a suitably qualified solicitor to write a separate Will covering your Spanish property; however, you would have to ensure that neither Will replaces the other one, otherwise, you could be considered to have died without a Will in the country where the Will is no longer valid.
Yes. This often requires changes to the legal ownership of your house and for a trust to be included in your Will granting your partner the right to remain living in the house. Leaving your half of the house to your children rather than your partner can be a useful way of protecting your children's inheritance in case your partner were to re-marry after your death.
Lakes Wills Ltd is a fully insured member of the Institute of Professional Will writers and complies with the IPW code of practice.
