I’m prompted to talk to people about the dangers of getting a “Will Kit” whether from an insurance company as a bolt-on to a life product that they’re promoting or from a retail outlet that have them by the counter.
I visit many people in the course of my Will Writing work and have, on many occasions, heard the same old story, it’s almost a cliché now but will survive being brought to the readers attention one more time at least. Many people have quoted to me “We bought a will kit and it sat around on the kitchen table for a couple of months, we never filled it in so we filed it away to look at again later!”
And the other favourite, “We’ve got existing wills that we did ourselves using a Will Kit but we’d like you to update them.” Then when I ask to look at the old Will kits that they’d written out they’re either not signed or signed but not witnessed, or signed and not dated and sometimes they’ve written something on the will kit free text area that would completely invalidate the will or disinherit someone by accident without the knowledge of the testator. There’s certainly never any Estate Planning included.
Don’t get me wrong, Will Kits have a place in the market and it is possible to use one correctly and end up with a totally legal and useful will but the chances of that happening are remote, mainly because, the market that they are aimed at has little or no knowledge or experience in signing and witnessing legal documents and rarely end up following all the instructions to the letter.
My advice would be to use my online will writing service and get a professional to write your wills for you, have guidance at the end of the phone and your will checked professionally after you’ve signed it to make sure that it’s become a legal document, you can add this service by taking up the storage option for your wills.
