Our solicitors are here to help you write your Will
A Will is the legal document which sets out your wishes and intentions as to what should happen to your belongings, property and money when you die.
In writing a Will, you can:
- decide who should be the person(s) who will deal with such matters for you (your Executors)
- decide who should inherit from you (your beneficiaries)
- appoint a Testamentary Guardian for your children if they are under the age of 18.
You should make a Will if you are over 18 and have assets you wish to protect, whether you are married, cohabiting, civil partners, have children, are separated or divorced, and own property either jointly or in your sole name. If you die without having made a Will your estate will pass to your relatives under the Intestacy Rules.
We can advise you with regard to reducing potential care home fees, how to protect families from previous relationships and on subsequent marriages. We are also happy to review your existing Wills with you.
It is always sensible to review existing Wills at least every couple of years and particularly if you have any change in financial or personal circumstances.
For more details on how we can support you, contact our Wills and Probate team today.
Our Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney Solicitors can also help you with:
Why it is important to think about preparing a Will?
- Make plans to ensure your children are financially provided for in the future
- Make plans to include any stepchildren or foster children
- If your children are under 18, you can name guardians for them
- Make plans to protect your partner if you are unmarried
- Make plans to protect the family home by providing a share of the property or a right to reside
- You get to decide who looks after your affairs and deals with your estate
- Support a charity
- Reduce the potential risks of family disputes
Why choose HSR Law Solicitors to write your Will?
- We have offices in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire
- We have dedicated Will writers in each office
- We have secure storage to keep your Will safe for as long as you wish
- We are members of the National Will Register
- We have the Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme Accreditation
- Our fees are fixed: straightforward Single Will £195, Mirror Wills £350.00 and a Codicil £100.00
- If your requirements are a little more complex, we are happy to discuss this with you and fees will be discussed accordingly.
We are WIQS Accredited
The Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme (WIQS) accreditation is a best practice quality mark for wills and estate administration advice.
Being WIQS accredited means we have the expertise to deliver wills and inheritance advice, use standardised processes to recognise and reduce risks and educate clients about what to expect when buying wills and inheritance advice.
Your Writing a Will Team
Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney FAQs
People often ask this question, and the answer is yes! There is no issue with naming executors who are also beneficiaries.
No, there is no central record for wills. If you make a Will it is really important to make sure that you tell your friends or family that you have done so and where it is held. If you do not want to tell anyone, then it is a good idea to keep the non-confidential paperwork from the solicitor, somewhere obvious in the house, so that it would be clear to anyone looking, which solicitors you have used in the past and that would then be the first point of call. However, the National Will Register are advising people to register for the following benefits.
The National Will Register, which is operated by Certainty and is endorsed by The Law Society of England & Wales, and helps ensure that after a death a Will, and the last version of it, can be found. Today over 8 million Wills are now in the registration system. This means that after someone dies and before probate is granted, a Will can be located for a loved one and only by a person named in the Will (the executors and beneficiaries).
Registering a Will is a vital process that prevents families, beneficiaries and executors suffering additional stress because they either cannot find the Will, are not sure if they hold the last Will or are unaware if a Will was ever written.
Being able to locate a Will quickly after a death removes the additional emotional turmoil the family can face hunting through their loved one’s possessions. If they do find a copy of a Will, they then have to work out if it is indeed the last Will written and will need to understand where the original is stored, as the original document will be required to distribute the estate. This can be very distressing and create unnecessary uncertainty at a difficult time.
HSR Law are members of the National Will register and registration is free and included in our fees.
Our advice is that is best practice to make a will in each country that you own property. You must ensure that you always advise your solicitor of your other will(s), so that the appropriate wording can be used, so as not to inadvertently revoke any foreign will(s).
If you are married, or in a civil partnership and you have children but no will in place, then the intestacy rules would dictate the division of the estate between your spouse and children. The first £322,000 (known as the Statutory Legacy) would pass to your spouse, then the rest of your estate would be split between your spouse and your children. These arrangements might be wholly unsatisfactory for your surviving spouse. A will ensures that you control the distribution of your assets.
An individual has an allowance of £325,000. This is transferable between spouses and civil partners, which equates to £650,000 on the second death. There is also a ‘residence’ nil rate band, this is £175,000. You might need advice about the residence nil rate band, as it is quite complicated and is not simply available across the board. Its’ availability will depend on various factors, such as whether your estate is left to lineal descendants and the size of your estate on death.
A beneficiary is someone who is named in the will as someone who will receive a benefit or gift from the person who has died.
A Grant of Probate is a Legal document issued by the Probate Registry. It is usually needed and requested by financial institutions to close bank accounts, sale sole assets such as property and settle debts of the deceased. Once Probate has been granted this gives the Executor the authority to administered the estate. If the deceased did not leave a Will, then the Personal Representatives (another name for Executors) would apply for a Letters of Administration in the same way.
A Grant of Probate is not always needed. For example, joint assets and joint bank accounts would likely transfer by survivorship.
We explain in this short blog post exactly what the intestacy rules are.
The ‘residence nil rate band’, is an allowance applicable to the main residence passing on death, to direct descendants, and is £175,000. This allowance is only applicable to the main residence and those who are married, or civil partners and is in addition to the existing £325,000 allowance. So if you can apply it, you are looking at a potential overall inheritance tax threshold of £1,000.000 between a married couple, or civil partners.
It will not be available where the home is left to other family members, who are not direct descendants of the deceased. The allowance is also subject to tapering if you are worth more than £2,000,000. So it is not an allowance that is guaranteed for everyone, unlike the individual nil rate band allowance of £325,000.
This is not ideal for those with a modest house, who have significant investments and savings, nor for those who are leaving their properties to nephews and nieces, for example.
If you require information about the inheritance tax allowances, then please contact one of our experiences probate staff.