Wills - Any Legal Experts / Solicitors ??

[Juliand]

Can anyone advise on this please? Wifey and me have  'mirror' wills, so basically exactly the same, straightforward - everything passes over to the other; then when the last of us  dies it would be a few gifts to friends and relatives, but the rest being split equally between our two sons. This was set up about six / seven years ago, and we had my wife's sister down as the executor for when the last one of us dies / or we both went together.

Now, though the boys are both mature enough adults to be able to sort things out for themselves, so we want to get the will amended to put them in as executors, to replace wifey's sister (no need for her to be involved now). I called our solicitor and she gave out the usual patter, that it's good to review things, and with changes in the law, it's not good to do codicils to amend wills etc, and even if we keep the will exactly the same, but just change the executors put the boys names in, instead of sister in law, the bill will be £360. WTF? Just to re-issue the same thing with the names amended? Seems expensive to me......especially when you can get a DIY will from the post office etc

Any thoughts / comments please

[colesey]

Not sure where you are located but suspect this charge equates to about an hour of time plus vat. Could be mopping up her time costs for various phone calls and advice. I suspect your SIL could easily pass the work over to your sons, possibly just writing a letter confirming that she relinquishes her executorial responsibilities to the beneficiaries. Take with a pinch of salt though as I am not a lawyer.

[pudding]

I wouldn't get a Will kit from WHSmith/PostOffice personally.

I do however recommend making your sons, or one of them, executor.  When my Dad passed last year, his sister being the executor caused all kinds of merry hell and stress for the family.  Dad originally made me the executor, but later changed it to his Sis.  If I was executor, the probate would have been done and dusted in a matter of weeks, and not the 18 months that it ended up taking.   Yes, solicitors are ridiculously expensive.  They charged us £10K for basically a few letters and amendments over the probate duration.  Do what ever you can now to make your boys life a lot easier when the time comes.  They will thank you for it