There are many online companies providing a fast and mostly effective service for online Wills. So why would you want a lawyer to prepare a Will for you? When DIY Wills first came out lawyers were afraid they were going to lose a lot of work. However, they rapidly realised they would be making much more money from all of the disputes that arose from poorly drafted Wills, which were not properly executed. A typical mistake is when a witness of the Will is also a beneficiary of the Will and this makes the Will invalid.
If you do it yourself you are not insured and it could be that the Will has not been prepared properly and is not a Valid Will. It may then have to go to Court and a portion of your assets is likely to be spent on sorting it out. If a lawyer prepares it, they are insured and if there is a problem with it their insurance will have to pay to sort it out.
The law on Wills has developed over the centuries, but is still based on very old principles. Preparing a Will requires good technical knowledge. Statute implies various terms into Wills. Ambiguous terminology or a lack of understanding of implied terms can cause more problems than if there was no Will at all. Wills use words like Administratrix and Executrix, but these are not characters from a certain cartoon based in Gaul. Even worse, Bona Vacantia is not wishing someone a good holiday. To understand some of this terminology, please go to our Wills - glossary of terms page.
If you do not know what you are doing, then it is possible you will get it wrong. Our advice is that if you do prepare the Will yourself, you have it checked by a Solicitor, such as Routh Clarke, to ensure it has been prepared correctly.
The purpose on this website is to try and help you understand the issues involved, however, we wish to make it clear the information is not a substitute for proper, personalised advice tailored to your particular needs.
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