Your indispensable guide to writing a will

Ensure your loved ones are cared for after you pass on

By S Hunt, 25th June 2010

When it comes to writing a will, many people are cowed by the perceived complexity of the process and the volume of legal jargon involved. Furthermore, contemplating death is not a pleasant experience and this is why many people delay writing a will until eventually it is too late.

Investing the time and effort to write a will, or the money if you get someone else to do it for you, is absolutely worthwhile for the stress that it will save your loved ones later.

The result of somebody dying without making a will is called intestacy, and in this scenario the fate of your money and possessions will end up at the mercy of the Administration of Estates Act of 1925. Consequently some things may end up in the hands of highly undesirable people. Furthermore, if you don't have any relatives your estate will effectively be gobbled up by the state.

Many married couples fall into the trap of believing that even without a will, everything will be automatically transferred to their partner upon death. It is in actuality quite misguided to expect the law to do everything for you, as well as foolish considering that you can have your wishes defined with precision by a will. In actual fact, in the case of married couples with children without a will the spouse only stands to inherit personal items and an initial £250,000, while the rest is divided into two halves. One half is handed over to the children when they reach the age of 18, while the other can be benefitted from by the spouse but cannot be spent, and the proceeds must be passed on to the children - e.g. a house can be lived in by the surviving spouse but must be passed on to the children on their death, or money goes into a savings account, allowing the spouse to make use of any money accrued through interest but leaving the initial savings intact for the children to inherit in future.

Couples that merely live together are on even more shaky ground, as upon one partner's death the other has no automatic right to inheritance without a will. As more and more modern couples are eschewing marriage, this makes the importance of wills even greater.

Something else you would be ill-advised to leave to the courts is the decision as to who would look after children in the event of both parents passing away. Setting this out in a will gives the reassurance that children will be looked after by a trustworthy guardian.

Your hands are severely tied without a will - if you do not have one then you will be unable to leave a donation to a charity or bequeath a treasured possession.

By now you should be convinced that writing a will is a necessity. If so, then your first consideration should probably be whom you nominate to perform the various roles relating to your will. Executors are the people invested with the responsibility of carrying out the instructions of the will, so it is vital that you elect someone trustworthy. Naturally the executor should also be expected to outlive the maker of the will.

Executors will ideally also be well-informed about financial matters, but many people prefer to choose a close acquaintance or relative and permit them to enlist the help of legal experts when necessary. Another protagonist in the process is the trustee, which is somebody who is there to safeguard part of an estate for the beneficiary to whom it will ultimately be conferred. An example of when a trustee would be called upon is where a property is left for a child too young to bear the burden of taking control of it. Other people needed are witnesses, who are required by law to oversee the signing of the will, as the name might suggest. The criteria that must be met by a witness are quite stringent - they cannot be a beneficiary or the spouse or civil partner of a beneficiary, nor can they be younger than 18 years old.

Once you have identified all of these people, the next thing you need to do is draw up a list of everything you own. Writing everything down will allow you to better visualize the extent of your estate and how best to divide it among your beneficiaries. Make sure that you are thorough and don't allow anything to slip your mind.

This list will also help the person you choose to write your will to identify any areas where tax could be saved. If you want a solid, incontrovertible and legally-binding will then you should hire a legal expert to do this for you. The average fee for such a service is around £200, which may sound steep, but due to the complexity and importance of will writing, it is probably a worthwhile investment.  If possible, find a solicitor who is well-versed in the pertinent fields of law, such as tax. However, make sure that you check first whether or not you qualify for Legal Aid either because of your financial situation or because you are over 70 years of age.

You may encounter do-it-yourself will forms sold either online or at the post office or at stationers. While they may be enticing because of the money saved, in reality people attempting to write wills for themselves are very susceptible to mistakes, which will cause a lot of hassle further down the line, and will be costly to amend. Others may be simply bamboozled by the dense technical jargon. Some purport to enable you to knock up a will in a matter of minutes, but wills are surely something which deserve far more care and attention than that.

For these reasons, it is advisable to hire a solicitor. It may be a lot more expensive but the peace of mind and alleviation of stress are more than worth it. To find a specialist will solicitor in your area go to the Law Society, which has an excellent Find a Solicitor service.

If you do hire a solicitor, ask them to send you a copy of their fees sheet so that you know what you will be paying in advance. Also demand a copy of their public liability insurance certificate.

With respect to other issues such as funeral arrangements and what you want to be done with your body, these are best left in a separate document called a wish list. If you keep this distinct from your will then it will be less cumbersome to modify later.

For further information, be sure to read our free guide to Wills.

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