Reply to: Is Writing a DIY Will suitable for Contractors with a LTD company

[TheFaQQer]

Depends if he's left you anything.

Even if he has, the statement that you need a professional will writer if "you have any shareholders (besides a spouse)" was, and remains, total bollocks.

[JRCT]

Why would having other shareholders in your company make things any more or less complicated about what you did with your share?

I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure that Larry Ellison's will isn't additionally complicated because I own shares in Oracle.

Depends if he's left you anything.

[TheFaQQer]

Because things can get complicated and messy if not written up correctly

Why would having other shareholders in your company make things any more or less complicated about what you did with your share?

I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure that Larry Ellison's will isn't additionally complicated because I own shares in Oracle.

[Eirikur]

Why?

Because things can get complicated and messy if not written up correctly

[TheFaQQer]

If you have any shareholders (besides a spouse) you will need a professional will writer.

Why?

[Eirikur]

If you have any shareholders (besides a spouse) you will need a professional will writer.

[Platypus]

given how little it cost to have our wills written professionally (about £180 I think for mirror wills), why take the chance of making a mess of things?

^ Exactly this. It's not that expensive to get it done properly.

[d000hg]

IMO don't bother with DIY wills. Most of them aren't worth the paper they are written on. I don't know how a Ltd affects things but it's an added complication so I would say go for a will writing service like the Co-op legal services offer. Prices are from 130 quid I think and they store it for you as well. That kind of money to get it right and as hassle free should the worst happen is a no brainer surely.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a DIY will, as long as things are very simple. My mother's is half a sheet of A4 and basically an amended version of my late father's will - there were no issues when HE died.

That said getting a simple will drawn up is NOT expensive, £100-150 sounds about what we paid when our IFA referred us, and if you are married, especially with kids, I wouldn't want to risk a cock-up.

[xoggoth]

PS A bit more on topic. As I understand it from the late missus's company, the proportion of a company's value passed to a deceased's relatives simply depends on the proportion of shares he/she has, assuming you only have ordinary shares. Valuation of the company is nowt to do with the will.

[xoggoth]

My mother hand wrote her will on a few sheets of paper and we never had any legal problems with it. My father was an accountant and had it all done professionally. He appointed a major bank as executors and they ripped us off. I suspected fraud but could not prove it.

As it happens I am now redoing my own will with "professional" will writers and beginning to think they are utter crap. Just discovered from someone I know that there are potential CGT implications in the trust declaration I am supposed to sign and they have never even mentioned the issue. It would not help their glossy adverts to do so.

Best idea, as with accountants, garages, builders, whatever:

a) Always go with a small local firm which has been in business a long time and whom you can consult on a personal basis, avoid the self promotional big companies.

b) Sill check it all out yourself to the best of your (and the internet's) ability. Trust nobody.

[mudskipper]

Here's a cheery thought.

If you and your wife die in the same car crash, then whichever one of you is oldest is legally deemed to have died first. So, if you're older, your will is 'read' first, which means it all belongs to her. Then hers is 'read'. So make sure she doesn't leave all your stuff to her idiot brother.

At least I think that's probably how it works.

IIRC, ours said something like we had to survive the other by n days otherwise it should be treated as if we'd snuffed it at the same time. But ours were mirror wills.

[mudskipper]

Everyone knows that if you write a will it's tempting fate, dead next day....

When's Suity writing his?

Nope, that's signing it. We got ours written about 20 years ago when we could ill afford it. Mr ms has yet to get round to signing his...

[tractor]

...

The key thing is that you actually do make a will rather than your estate being intestate. Because then, the grubby scum Treasury Solicitor will take the lot and use it for MPs expenses and the like.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Until my brother had kids, that was always my worry - that all his things would go to his wife, and then to her family. I'm not too fussed about the money, but there were things he'd inherited from my grandparents because he was the eldest child, that would have gone to non-family, or been sold / given away.

When we had ours written, we had to consider scenarios like - what if all of us - my wife, myself and my daughter - all died together. Who would our stuff go to then and how would it be split etc.

As Maslins said, you don't need a solicitor per se - they will probably be more expensive than a dedicated will writer.

[TheFaQQer]

Here's a cheery thought.

If you and your wife die in the same car crash, then whichever one of you is oldest is legally deemed to have died first. So, if you're older, your will is 'read' first, which means it all belongs to her. Then hers is 'read'. So make sure she doesn't leave all your stuff to her idiot brother.

At least I think that's probably how it works.

Yep.

Until my brother had kids, that was always my worry - that all his things would go to his wife, and then to her family. I'm not too fussed about the money, but there were things he'd inherited from my grandparents because he was the eldest child, that would have gone to non-family, or been sold / given away.