How to make a Will

Will Questionnaire

First some general points before I tackle how you should go about making a Will.

Who to use.

• There is a lot of choice and it will depend on you as an individual – whether you prefer personal face to face contact, telephone discussions or correspondence by e-mail or post. We do offer all options and are happy to fit in with your needs but we do prefer to meet you!
• If you take one piece of advice from this site please use a person who is a member or is supervised closely by a member (a TEP) of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP) and who can say to you that they truly specialise in making Wills. STEP is an independent organisation whose members encompass those dedicated to tax, trusts and estate work including will writing. It includes solicitors governed by the Solicitors Regulation Association, will writers governed by the Society of Will Writers, accountants, bankers and financial advisers, so I am not being partial to solicitors!
• The second piece of advice is try to get someone who is independent – making your will is a really important step and often what makes a good will writer is the fact that quite complex issues are dealt with in a straightforward way. If anyone says will making is easy, I could show them complex legal cases and legislation that indicate otherwise. I appreciate money is money at the end of the day but you do get what you pay for. With Probate Disputes involving wills up by 67% from 2007, you do not want to leave a family fall-out as your lasting legacy. So please use someone who really knows what they are doing. 
• In my experience, Wills do need to be updated so make sure you use a business that will be around and accessible into the future.

Prices
Our fees start from £120.75 which is inclusive of VAT and we will give you a fixed quote of our charges in writing. We offer an initial meeting without obligation. In fact at Smith Law the majority of services within our Probate Department (including Probate) are at a fixed rate, quoted in writing prior to the start of a matter and we have not charged any percentage of the value of assets for many, many years.

I hope you find the following information useful. If you have any comments or questions please give me a call on 01376 321311.

Sue Carlile
Partner TEP
Probate and UK Wills Solicitor Specialist

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