Having a will is important for ensuring that your money and possessions go to the right people when you die. If you do not have a will, the rules of intestacy will determine how your estate is passed on – which may not be the outcome you wanted.
A lot of people hire a solicitor to help them write their will. However, you technically don’t need to hire one. In fact, there are benefits to writing a will without a lawyer. There are also risks to consider when not hiring a lawyer, which are also important to consider. This post explains more as to whether you should hire a lawyer or not to help you write your will.
Why do it yourself?
Writing your own will can save you a lot of money because you don’t have to pay lawyer fees. This is a common reason as to why many people write their own will.
If your will is also very simple, it could save you time to write your own will rather than trying to find a lawyer to work with.
It’s also easier to write one’s own will nowadays due to online free will generators and templates. These resources include all the necessary legal terminology to make sure that your will is legally binding and that no part of it can be misconstrued.
Why hire a lawyer?
There are a lot of important things that need to be included in a will to make it valid such as a declaration that you’re of sound mind, signatures (with witnesses) and potentially specific account details. Without a lawyer, you may skip out some of these details. Hiring a lawyer can therefore provide peace of mind that your document will be accepted.
It could be particularly important to hire a lawyer if your will is unlikely to be straightforward. Certain complexities that a lawyer can help you with include:
- Deciding who to leave multiple pets to
- Deciding what to do with a business that you own
- Dividing lots of different assets among lots of different people
- Arranging what to do with foreign accounts or property in different states/countries
- Setting conditions when choosing who to leave certain assets to
- Put in place defences if you think certain people are likely to contest your will
- If you also want to look into documents like power of attorney
If you do hire a lawyer, make sure to hire an estate lawyer who specialises in this field. While some general lawyers may have the capacity to help you write a will, you can guarantee a more thorough job when hiring a specialist.
Do I need a lawyer?
If your will is fairly simple, it may not be necessary to hire a lawyer. However, if your will is likely to contain complexities, hiring a lawyer may be necessary. Ultimately, if you want to be certain that your will is valid and you want to prevent people contesting it, it is safer to hire a lawyer.
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