Help With Writing Your Will
Help With Writing A Will
About Quick Will
Our mission is to provide a high quality, convenient, stress-free and affordable online will writing service. We have simplified the whole process of creating a fully comprehensive, personalised will and have created a slick website to make creating a fully legal will quick and easy.
The clue is in our name - Quick Will. We firmly believe for the vast majority of people, you really can have a will within ten minutes. If you need longer, that's fine - our system auto-saves each section. Making a Will is a lot easier than you would think at first.
We provide a series of questions written in plain English for you to answer to create your own personalised Will. There is a step by step helpful guide with freephone telephone support from experienced will writers if required. You can complete your Will for free, and preview it for free; and only purchase it once you are completely satisfied with it.
You’ll need to know who you would like to inherit your estate, as well as who you would like to leave specific items to, and assign someone to deal with matters after you pass away.
You can try our service for free; and see a full preview of your fully personalised Will for free too. There is no financial commitment until you are completely satisfied with your Will preview, and then it is a one-off payment; with no nasty annual recurring fees.
We accept all types of credit and debit cards, and we also accept direct BACS payments.
You can easily make changes to your Will. You can make as many changes as you like for no cost for a whole year.
Wills
A Will is a very important written document made by a person before their death which is intended to reflect their wishes as to who they wish to inherit their estate on their death. It must conform to certain legal conditions and be signed by the person making the Will in front of two adult independent witnesses.
If you die without making a valid Will, then your estate will be subject to intestacy rules. As a consequence, a person that you would like to inherit from your estate upon your death may not be the person who actually inherits under the rules of intestacy. Without a Will, you will leave your loved ones with far more work to do after your death and it is highly likely that your possessions will not be distributed the way you would want. With no recognised document for the administration or distribution of your possessions, your family will not have control. The government rules stipulate who will inherit, and this typically results in negative tax consequences, heartache and lost time and money. For example a partner may not receive anything at all; and if die with children under 18 years old, you not get to decide who takes care of them.
Mirror Wills are often made by couples who want identical or very similar wishes in their Wills, and they are so called because the Wills are a reflection of each other i.e. a husband leaves everything to his wife; and the wife leaves everything to her husband. However, they are two distinct individual Wills.
You can try our services for free and preview your own Will for free before deciding to purchase. Our pricing is straightforward and there are no nasty hidden fees.
Various studies show that dying without a Will typically costs the heirs an average of £10,700 more than if a will had been in place.
Under UK law, yes you can write a Will on your own. However, be aware that there are significant risks in writing your own Will without any proper assistance which you should consider: A Will that is not made under the correct procedures and which does not conform to certain legal conditions will be declared invalid (all Wills on death go to a division of the High Court to be “validated”). A Will that is not drafted clearly and logically is open to challenge after your death, which may lead to complications over who exactly gets what, how the estate is administered and how any taxes and bills are paid.
You can make a Will if you are aged 18 or over and if you have the mental capacity to make a Will.
You have to (a) be over 18 (or over 16 if in the Armed Services); (b) have 'testamentary capacity', a common law legal term meaning 'of sound mind'; (c) understand what is in the will, the effect that it will have, and approve of its content and (d) not be under any undue influence from others.
As laid down by the Wills Act 1837, for a will to be legally binding, when your Will is complete, you need to sign it in the presence of two witnesses, both of whom must add their own signatures – that makes it into a legal document. Whilst not vital to a Will’s validity, you should also include the date when you sign the Will.
As laid down by the Wills Act 1837, for a will to be legally binding, when your Will is complete, you need to sign it in the presence of two witnesses, both of whom must add their own signatures – that makes it into a legal document. Whilst not vital to a Will’s validity, you should also include the date when you sign the Will.
Absolutely not. If you want to give up your time to go to a solicitor's office and have them hand you a form to fill in, that they can pass to their legal secretary once you have left, and charge you hundreds of pounds for the privilege, that's your choice.
The correct wording and the correct signing and witnessing of the Will are what is needed to make it fully legal. We work with expert legal advisors to make sure that all of our Wills are fully legal in terms of the wording. Most solicitors use a boiler plate template, whereas our system will ensure we create a fully personalised Will for you.
There are various options including storing your Will in a safe place in your own home, or you can pay for a Will storage service. We provide yo with a complimentary Will Storage Guide with every Will created via our site. There is no National Register of Wills so do let your executors know where your Will is stored, as your instructions can only be carried out if the Will document can be located.
Anyone who owns assets in their own name such as a bank account, savings accounts, a car, a flat or house, mobile phone, life insurance, death-in-service benefits (through your employer) etc. etc. should have a Will.
Executors
Executors are individuals that you appoint within your Will to deal with all aspects of your estate after you’ve passed away.
After applying for legal authority to deal with your estate (known as probate), the executors will ensure that all your assets are accounted for and paid into your estate and after any debts and funeral expenses have been paid, they will ensure that the estate will be distributed in accordance with your Will.
Yes. It is perfectly acceptable for an executor to also be a beneficiary in your Will.
Technically you only need to appoint one executor, although we recommend two. It’s important to choose responsible people that you trust as your executors as they are your representatives to carry out the wishes in your Will.
Guardians
If you die leaving children under the age of 18 and there is no other person living who has parental responsibility, you can specify who you would like to be the child's guardian(s) in your Will.
The guardian or guardians will be responsible for looking after your children as they grow up, having control over their welfare, health and schooling. Whilst the appointment of guardians is very important, please bear in mind that it is unlikely that both natural parents will die before their children become adults. Although you can appoint multiple guardians, you may wish to know that most people only appoint one - or two at most.
If your partner has parental responsibility they will automatically carry on taking care of your children. If your partner does not have parental responsibility and you'd like them to carry on caring for your children, you need to appoint them as a guardian. All mothers have parental responsibility, as do fathers who are married to the mother at the time of birth or if they are listed on the child's birth certificate.
Gifts
Gifts, in the context of your Will, are what you choose to give to people after you pass away.
There are three types of gifts that can be left to others. The first is your possessions; gifts that have sentimental value such as jewellery, or practical value such as your tools. Secondly there can be gifts of money that are for specific amounts. Thirdly, there are what are known as residuary gifts, which consists of everything that remains in your estate after all debts, funeral expenses, taxes and fees have been paid out. Note that all gifts of money are given free of inheritance tax on Quick Will, which makes sure that your beneficiaries get the exact amount you specify. If Inheritance Tax is due on your estate, any tax payable on the gifts you leave will be paid out of your residuary estate.
Yes, you can leave a fixed amount of cash to a charity, or charities. With Quick Will, all gifts of money are given free of inheritance tax meaning that your charity will get the exact donation that you specify.
No. Your Will is an opportunity for you to leave special gifts to close friends or loved ones, but you don't have to.
Witnesses
Witnesses are people who see the act of signature and are prepared to add their signatures and names to the Will to prove this. By law your will needs two adult witnesses. The witnesses do not commit themselves to anything by adding their details; they simply witness your signing the Will. Please note that for the Will to be valid, the witnesses, or their spouses, must not be beneficiaries of the Will, which is why we suggest work colleagues or neighbours to be your witnesses. Note that we send out a complimentary 'Will Signing Guide' with all Wills created on our website.
Funeral
Your funeral is paid for out of your residuary estate.
Your funeral wishes are not part of the Will, and are thus not legally binding. However, people left behind are often grateful to be given funeral wishes at a difficult time, and will do their best to carry out your wishes.
It is entirely optional to include your funeral wishes. However, including your wishes helps your executors provide the type of funeral you would prefer. For your loved ones, knowing you have specified your wishes means that they don’t have to make difficult decisions at a stressful time.
Your funeral wishes provide guidance to your executors, and can be as simple or as detailed as you choose, so for example whether you want to be buried or cremated, what you'd like people to wear to your funeral, what music to be played, what readings you would like and so on.
Inheritance Tax
If the total of everything you own, minus any debts, is worth less than £325,000, then no inheritance tax will need to be paid on your estate.
Any gifts given away in the 7 years prior to your death may reduce your £325,000 tax-free allowance.
There is an additional £100,000 allowance for home owners if you own a home or part of a home and are leaving some or all of it to your direct descendents (children or grandchildren). The 'Residents Nil Rate Band' as it's known, offers an additional allowance which at the time of writing was £175,000.
Under UK law, essentially only Inheritance Tax applies upon death. Inheritance Tax, once above the threshold, is directly charged on personal estates on death. If you leave your estate to your spouse or a civil partner, they will inherit your property tax free if they live in the UK. Note that there is a tax free threshold on Inheritance Tax, currently £325,000, and that the tax is usually paid before anything left in your Will is distributed.
Miscellaneous
Probate is the name given to the overall process of administering an estate after a death. Probate includes obtaining a grant of probate from the courts; paying liabilities and taxes, collecting assets and the distribution of gifts and the estate to the beneficiaries named in the Will.
Intestate is the term given where an individual dies without having made a valid Will. If this happens the administration and distribution of assets is carried out in accordance with the Government's Intestacy Rules which take no account of any personal preference and desires.
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Just the kind of thing I have been looking for. I now have peace of mind.
Mike Johnstone
