My grandmother always said, everything in its place. Kits and templates have their place. Stationers, news agents even post offices sell them. They are on sale over the web for what is to all intents and purposes electronic versions. We are of course on the subject of the will making kit. Employing a will making kit or an online service to write your last will and testament has its advocates.
Asserting that everyone has to write a last will and testament professionally is to beg the question. That is so obvious, it is a point that hardly merits elucidation. As any logician or physician would tell you lets get to the heart of the matter and articulate our objectives in drawing up a last will and testament.
In my experience, most folk engage in the exercise of making a will because they are interested in who would benefit from their life’s work when they are no longer of this world – they seek to ensure that their loved ones – their kith and kin or causes close to their heart benefit from their assets and not outsiders, the government, the tax authorities or even members of the legal profession – outlining their wishes in a clear; coherent; legally enforceable manner is the point of will making. In short, the last will and testament is a reflection of the loves and passions of one’s life, irrespective of the fact that will making is often a solemn affair.
A will making kit is relatively cheap on account of 3 main points – it compels you do all of the work yourself; it imagines you are average and most importantly does not offer advice. A common question runs something like ‘what sort of advice would I need?’ – well that is the point of seeing the professional.
For less than the cost of a good night out, the legal practitioner or legal executive would apply his or her training, skill and experience to see how the relevant laws; practices and customs relate to your personal, and financial circumstances, and would be in a position to structure your last will and testament in the manner in which you could be confident that your wishes would be carried while ensuring the maximum benefit of the estate accrues to those parties the individual making the will intended. The point of the professional is to ensure all the formalities involved in drawing up the will document are followed – he has a greater duty than merely drawing up the document – the principal task of the legal executive or will writer is to guide you through the process of planning your estate. It might be that your estate is a simple one, for which there is no need for all the possible bells and whistles such as inheritance tax planning, and there would be little merit in padding you the task – it is to no one’s benefit.
While a will making kit has its place – it is quick, it is apparently cheap – the low cost could turn out to be false economy. One of my recent clients is an estate agent – just in casual conversation she observed ‘almost without fail, every time a party to the sale [and purchase] of a house tries to do the conveyancing themselves [without the assistance of a conveyancing professional], the deal falls through’.
The sad fact of making an error when drawing up one’s last will and testament on a do it yourself basis is that the mistakes are unlikely to come to light until after the death of the principal – the person who made the will – at best leaving and expensive mess to sort out and perhaps even worse fertile ground for embitterment and ill feeling.