Make a Will Online

You do not need a solicitor present to write a will. This said, there are some important reasons why you should want your will to be checked by a solicitor, and why every will made on Make a Will Online is checked by a solicitor. All qualified solicitors are regulated by the SRA – the Solicitors Regulation Authority – and have to follow their code of conduct. Solicitors also have to study and pass tough exams before they can call themselves solicitors. They need appropriate insurance to ensure you are protected. We are authorised by the SRA to provide the services of solicitors to the public. On the other hand, absolutely anyone in the UK can call themselves a will writer.

If you have not received your will by email within 20 minutes of purchase, check your junk/spam folder. 90% of the time, it will be in there. If the email is not in your junk mail folder, email us with your name, the email address you used to sign up for our service and when you purchased your will, and we will re-send the documents.

The short answer is yes; online wills are legal, if you fill in the information correctly and sign/witness the document correctly. With your will, you will receive a comprehensive document explaining the witnessing process and how to store your will once it has been completed, signed and witnessed. When preparing your will, it is important to check that the names and addresses you have entered are correct as incorrect information can cause a will to fail. At the end of the will writing process, you will have a chance to double check the information you have entered and make any final changes to your document. In 2013, after a long consultation involving the Legal Services Board, the British government confirmed their belief that the will-writing market should be diverse and not limited to solicitors. The documents produced on makeawillonline.co.uk are based on longstanding legal precedents and are suitable in the majority of circumstances. If you have a large estate (over £1,000,000), own property abroad or have particularly complex wishes, you should speak to your solicitor, but in most circumstances, our wills are more than sufficient.

Dying without a valid will is called “dying intestate” or in a state of “intestacy”. Around a third of people in the United Kingdom die intestate and this can lead to a huge amount of suffering and extra expense for family members and loved ones. There is a common misconception that surviving relatives decide how an estate should be divided but this is not the case. There are strict rules that determine how an estate is managed and who gets what. In some cases, this can mean that the money goes to the government. Having a fully legal will is the only way to guarantee that doesn’t happen. If you are married or in a civil partnership, the first beneficiary will be the surviving partner, but they will not necessarily inherit the whole estate and the inheritance is dependent on which blood relatives survive the deceased. Major problems can occur for unmarried couples as the surviving partner won’t automatically have a claim in the way that a married partner would. The process for claiming can be slow and there is no guarantee of success. Similarly, if you are separated but not divorced from a spouse, they will still have an automatic claim to your estate unless you specify otherwise in a valid will.have particularly complex wishes, you should speak to your solicitor, but in most circumstances, our wills are more than sufficient.

Witnessing the last will and testament is an essential step in making your will legal. If your will is not correctly witnessed, it is not valid. If you choose invalid witnesses (see below), they will not be able to inherit from your estate. Your will must be signed by two witnesses, in your presence, at the same time as you sign the will A witness or the married/civil partner of a witness cannot benefit from the will A blind person cannot be a witness Witnesses must be over 18 years of age A witness must be “of sound mind” and capable of understanding the nature and effect of what they are doing in witnessing your will If a witness is a beneficiary (or the married/civil partner of a beneficiary), the will is still valid but the witness/beneficiary will not be able to inherit from the will.

Married couples should have two wills to ensure that each individual’s wishes are fulfilled. For example, if you personally own a watch that you would like your son or daughter to inherit, that should be covered by your individual will. In some cases, one spouse may not want the other to inherit a property in which the couple lives but is owned by an individual. A will is a personal thing but if both partners have identical wishes, a mirror will is an option. In a mirror will, the content of both wills is nearly identical, except for the name of the testator.