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Simple Wills for Simple People....

^^^this is what we did, and the costs were pretty much the same. Mirrored wills with special provisions for rehoming and financial considerations for the care of whatever cats we might have at the time of decease of the second partner (the solicitors thought it most amusing, but came up with “a good form of words”). Executors are the daughters.

My sister handled the probate for our mother with no problems; Mum had left a well structured will - for reasons that will become apparent in next sentence :) . Previously Mum had handled probate for our father (who had not left a will); she did have an advantage though - she was working as a Probate Clerk for a firm of solicitors at the time!
 
I would always involve a solicitor in drawing up a will, legislation varies according to the legal system you are under. Scottish law being different from England and Wales for example.

Power of Attorney is absolutely essential but don't do what I heard about in one case. Two attorneys had been appointed, one to deal with welfare and the other financial matters. When the POA needed to be implemented the financial attorney was in a coma leaving the welfare attorney having to go go to court every time they needed money to pay for the care of person under the POA.

Following the death of my wife last year I updated my POA. The previous one had Heather and my nephew as attorneys each with full powers. In view of the time it takes to get a POA drawn up and registered (best part of 6 months in my case this time) I built in plenty of slack. I have appointed 2 nephews and a niece as my attorneys with full powers. God willing they will all be around if I every need them but unless I fall out with them (unlikely) I should never need to get it redone.

When my mum became infirm she passed on the management of her affairs to myself and 2 sisters. While we all had full powers, I dealt with finance, one sister dealt with welfare with the other sister as backup. This allowed us to play to our strengths but with flexibility.
 
Timely thread. My Mum is just looking to do her will and the Notts Air Ambulance will do it for free with a donation, the guy has tried to sell her something called a Family Protection Trust (FPT) at £3k, does anyone know anything about them? I've told her to see an independent solicitor and take their leaflet with her and see what they say, sounds like an upselling trick to me.
 
Timely thread. My Mum is just looking to do her will and the Notts Air Ambulance will do it for free with a donation, the guy has tried to sell her something called a Family Protection Trust (FPT) at £3k, does anyone know anything about them? I've told her to see an independent solicitor and take their leaflet with her and see what they say, sounds like an upselling trick to me.
Some useful information here.
https://ukcareguide.co.uk/family-protection-trusts/
 
Quick answer - run a mile!

Longer answer - Be extremely cautious of 'trusts' for ordinary mortals who are not very financially savvy. If you (or she) cannot 'understand' it in great detail - then it is almost certainly not a good option. Trusts are fraught with legality and pitfalls these days. How many people actually understand that some (most) of these types of trusts have to be revalued every few years and pay tax on that re-valuation? There is a hidden wealth tax in trusts!

Trust law takes a long time in training - buying a pre-pack trust from a free Ambulance Service promotion is definitely NOT the way to do it!
Her circumstances may warrant it (we have no way of knowing that, here) - but if they do, then proper trust advice from a proper specialist is the only thing to do.
 
Late to this - apologies.

Had always assumed using a solicitor was a no-brainer - especially when they offer the service 'free' to house buyers as the local ones do around here.

That was until I had a conversation with a fairly/very commercially shrewd friend of mine recently who did some sums on the actual bills from solicitors in the cases of two wills he was party to recently - his parents, and the spouse of one of his sisters. As a percentage of the cost of the estate, the solicitor's take in each case was far from minimal. That also resonates with my wife's experience, when a wealthy elderly relative died, and the land and estate was dispersed across about a dozen or more parties to the will. The costs went well into the high tens of thousands in the latter.

Further to that, he maintains that the valuation of a solicitors' business on this side of the water increases in almost direct proportion to the portfolio of wills they manage. Dont know the accuracy of the latter, but definitely need to have a long hard look at the value/cost of the 'free' will agreement we signed before.
 
This post is very confused and wrong!
Solicitors draw up wills for people. Mine cost £100 through my union. The cost has nothing to do with the value of the estate. Indeed there is no need for a will to mention the value of an estate. That ended their involvement.
You are confusing drawing up a will with acting as executors for an estate, which is a completely different thing.
My estate will be executed by my children.
It is not difficult. I have been executor for four wills.
I agree that anyone using solicitors as executors is an idiot. As previously stated I have a relative who is having her estate bled dry at the moment by her solicitors.
 
Just jumping in to say thanks to all who have responded to this thread. I've been a bit otherwise occupied but will read it all in the next few days.
 
If selling a firm then how many wills it has is very relevant to the sale price, pipeline of work that could be guaranteed for tens of years as the folks that signed up with them die and solicitors deal with the probate, most folks seem happy for the firm to get paid for the will and then get paid when they are executors of it. Whilst it isn’t difficult to be an executor not everyone knows that or thinks about the cost when writing the will I suspect

the big rip off with will si the storage costs, I knew a guy who lives very well off many folks paying small annual fees
 
Solicitors mostly do, this guy worked as a cheapo will writing company, cost of will was cheap enough (sub £100) storage was a small annual extra of circa £10, if he did say 5 wills a week over ten years or so, it tots up nicely as a retirement fund

similar principle that IFAs work on I think
 
No different than divorce, it’s all online now and easy to do, despite this clients still say can you do it to solicitors, easier and less fuss for £500 than diy

everyone has different thresholds for stuff they are willing to diy
 


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