Writing a Will

[Top-of-the-hill]

  My husband and I made our wills during an early version of the free arrangements, and I was so thankful we had, as he died only a few months later.
   My son married in South Africa and I think he said that making wills was an accepted (if not obligatory) part of getting married.   

[BumbleB]

I think that it is Lasting Power of Attorney for property and financial affairs. 

[Girl Guide]

Oh I see.  I don't recall anything about that when I did my LPA.  Probably too late now to check and amend it.

[Ray T]

Bumblebee

AND somewhere along the line we ensured that the house could NOT be sold to pay for possible care home costs.

How did you manage to do that Bumblebee?  I was under the impression that councils could sell your house even if it is in joint names of other family members.

I haven't checked what the current situation is with that.

It’s not really part of a will, it depends upon how the family house is owned and, again, quite simple for a solicitor to sort out.

Have a look here - https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership If you are “Tenants in Common”, effectively, the authorities can’t sell a house, to pay care fees, which is part owned by somebody else.

[BumbleB]

Many thanks for that - yes, OH and I are "Tenants in Common".

[Girl Guide]

Thanks for that Ray, I have bookmarked it for further investigation.

Hopefully I should never need to go into care but a good idea to get things in place should that happen.

[martin hooper]

Writing your own simple will is not difficult as long as you do your research beforehand. By simple I mean no complications like trust funds and multiple properties, and no disgruntled relatives. A lot of so called will writing specialists have no legal training or qualifications. What they have is the experience of doing it and they will warn you quite strongly of the dangers of trying to do it yourself. It's in their interest to say that.

Martin

[Ray T]

Whereas solicitors have legal indemnity insurance and risk being struck off for giving bad advice.

If you have nothing worth passing on, you might want to take the risk.