Will, what to bring to solicitor?

naughtysmurf

When meeting a solicitor to draw up a will, what do you have to bring with you? Do you have to bring bank account, mortgage details, pension details etc?
Thanks

naughtysmurf

naughtysmurf wrote: »

When meeting a solicitor to draw up a will, what do you have to bring with you? Do you have to bring bank account, mortgage details, pension details etc?
Thanks

Not necessarily. The first meeting will be to discuss your wishes. The second to read proposed Will and a final meeting to sign.

Make a list of all your assets and liabilities. Note any specific bequests, like a piece of jewellery or family heirloom that you wish to go to a specific person.
Are you married or in a relationship and have children.
Your Solicitor will ask you at the first meeting for any documents needed, eg passport, birth cert for identification.

naughtysmurf

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Not necessarily. The first meeting will be to discuss your wishes. The second to read proposed Will and a final meeting to sign.

Make a list of all your assets and liabilities. Note any specific bequests, like a piece of jewellery or family heirloom that you wish to go to a specific person.
Are you married or in a relationship and have children.
Your Solicitor will ask you at the first meeting for any documents needed, eg passport, birth cert for identification.

Thanks, married with two kids, should be straightforward enough, everything divided down the middle, would have to assign a guardian for the youngest for a few years, no heirlooms unfortunately

Your liabilities would change over time, mortgage will end, may take out a car loan, do you have to keep updating the will to show this or is that kind of stuff taken care of in general wording?

naughtysmurf

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Thanks, married with two kids, should be straightforward enough, everything divided down the middle, would have to assign a guardian for the youngest for a few years, no heirlooms unfortunately

Your liabilities would change over time, mortgage will end, may take out a car loan, do you have to keep updating the will to show this or is that kind of stuff taken care of in general wording?

The wording will take care of most eventualities. We had to appoint a guardian for our youngest and were advised to ask a married couple, preferably Godparents, as they aren't a couple, we asked a brother and his wife.

We both had to go together for first two meetings and then separately for signing. We haven't updated it since, which is roughly 10 years ago.

CarrickMcJoe

We brought nothing, went in, Expressed our wishes and solicitor had it printed up, all done in 15 mins.

nuac

CarrickMcJoe wrote: »

We brought nothing, went in, Expressed our wishes and solicitor had it printed up, all done in 15 mins.

Very fast for a joint will.

Did solicitor see you separately and go through draft will with you?

Victor

You need to consider all possibilities, including you dying first, partner dying first, children dying first, if you die at the same time as one or more of the others, having more children, discovering your partner's other children that you didn't know about ...

Deleted User wrote: »

preferably Godparents

Solicitor may be living in another era. The people one selected as god-parents 1-17 year ago might or might not be suitable guardians now.

Claw Hammer

Bring birth certs for the children. Bring marriage cert. Make sure any names mentioned in the will clearly identify the person concerned. It happens more tha it should that names on wills are ambiguous or wrong. In a famous case a bequest for Joan was left to John through a solicitor using a dictaphone and failing to spot the mistake. Full correct names First Middle etc as per birth cert as well as nicknames should be used at all times. Trouble happens when people use pet names when making a will and years later there is doubt as to who is being referred to.
The same goes for any proprty specifically mentioned. Give full unambigous descriptions . Saying "i leave my silver dish to Mary" is going to cause trouble when three silver dishes are found after death, and there is Mary the wife and Mary the daughter.

Aralk

How much did the solicitor charge to do a will?

I've looked it up online and it seems straight forward to do yourself, I am just not sure what the value is of having a solicitor. I am married with 2 kids. If I die, I want my husband to get everything. If we both die, we want to appoint a guardian for our children and split assets between the children and the guardian.

clocks

Aralk wrote: »

How much did the solicitor charge to do a will?

I've looked it up online and it seems straight forward to do yourself, I am just not sure what the value is of having a solicitor. I am married with 2 kids. If I die, I want my husband to get everything. If we both die, we want to appoint a guardian for our children and split assets between the children and the guardian.

One spouse dying is easy--all your assets would go to your husband after your debts are paid off. If you own a house together he will probably automatically get all of it.

Presuming your children are under 18, the tricky part is both spouses dying. This is not as unusual as one might think when your look at road traffic fatality statistics. All your assets would be held on trust for the children until they reach age 18 and used for their education etc. Court would have to pick a family member willing to be their guardian if there were no will and testament doing that.

Victor

Aralk wrote: »

How much did the solicitor charge to do a will?

I've looked it up online and it seems straight forward to do yourself, I am just not sure what the value is of having a solicitor. I am married with 2 kids. If I die, I want my husband to get everything. If we both die, we want to appoint a guardian for our children and split assets between the children and the guardian.

So, if I'm correct, you seem to be disinheriting your children. They could easily challenge the will as invalid.

Alternatively, you need to consider issues like, what if the surviving spouse is an alcoholic gambler and you've just won the lottery. Do you support your children through college or does it all go on the 3:30 at Newmarket?

Claw Hammer

Aralk wrote: »

How much did the solicitor charge to do a will?

I've looked it up online and it seems straight forward to do yourself, I am just not sure what the value is of having a solicitor. I am married with 2 kids. If I die, I want my husband to get everything. If we both die, we want to appoint a guardian for our children and split assets between the children and the guardian.

The cost of making a will is minuscule comparec to the kind of problems which can arise if something goes wrong. A badly worded or uncertain clause can result in some or all of the gifts in the will failing to have effect. It often happens that formalities such as witnessing are not carried out properly by DIY testators. If a solicitor makes a mistake in a will, the beneficiary woh loses out can sue the solicitor. Not possible with a DIY will. It is probably the ultimate false economy to make your own will.