Published on: 31st August 2020

How to choose a Will Writer

Choosing a Will Writer is an important decision. You need to be sure that the firm or individual you work with will give you the required level of service and there are many different options available. This article breaks down the various routes you can go down and is a guide for how to choose a Will Writer.

When choosing a Will Writer, you can either:

• Create a DIY pack Will
• Go online and create a DIY Will
• Go online and either speak to a Will Writer over the telephone or fill in an online application form
• Visit a general solicitor
• Visit a solicitor with a specialist Wills and Trust department
• Receive a home visit from a specialist Will Writer like Casey & Associates

More detail on each of these possible options is as follows:

DIY

A DIY Will can sometimes be an appropriate option. If you have circumstances which are uncomplicated and you are financially a little stretched then a DIY Will can work well, although anyone creating their own Will should certainly be careful. We usually say key triggers for needing professional advice with a Will comes as soon as you have children, are a homeowner, on a second marriage or any other major life event . Any of these circumstances should warrant professional advice to make sure your Will is set-up in accordance with  your wishes.

Online

There are 2 options when choosing an online Will Writer. You can either go to someone who will have a telephone consultation with you or you can go through a form filling document online with a Will subsequently automatically produced. We would strongly advise against the online form filling option. Not only is there no advice given when you fill in the form, there is no opportunity to ask questions and understand whether what you are stating as your wishes has any further implications.

A general Solicitor

There are general solicitors who will create Wills for Clients – usually Clients they deal with on a number of other matters. Although a general solicitor may have a good broad range of knowledge and expertise, they may not be up to date with the latest relevant legislation which is changing all the time. A general solicitor working on for example five  Wills per year around other areas of law will not have the same relevant expertise and experience as a specialist.

A specialist Solicitor

Specialist solicitors will often be knowledgeable and have good expertise if Will Writing is what they do day in day out. The biggest differences we feel between a specialist Will Writer like Casey & Associates and a specialist solicitor are in terms of costs and availability.

A specialist solicitor will often have an hourly rate they are charged out at and depending on how long it takes for them to take your instructions and write these up is how much you will be charged. A specialist Will Writer will usually have a ‘product price’ (as you can see on our prices page) which means that no matter how long your particular requirements take you will not get charged anything additional. This is a positive for the Client both in terms of knowing how much they are going to pay, and often results in a specialist Will Writer being far more cost-effective than a specialist solicitor where hours spent and therefore cost can really start to add up.

A specialist solicitor will also often not come out and visit their Clients, or if they do they will charge a large amount for a visit. Here at Casey & Associates, wherever possible, we like to be able to meet our Clients as this gives us the best opportunity to get to know them and understand them, putting us in a position to offer the most relevant advice. This is all included within our fee so you will not be charged anything extra and in our experience, meeting face to face when we can allows us to give our Clients the best possible advice for their particular circumstance.

A Will Writer

Last but by no means least is coming to a specialist Will Writer like us. Will Writers will have specialist knowledge and expertise on the subject and will do a full fact find of a family and their finances. This gives the best possible overview of each Client’s situation and means the most appropriate advice can be given. This is something we are passionate about and strongly believe meeting our Clients whenever possible is an important part of our process. As stated earlier Will Writers will often have a product price for each service which is of real benefit to the Client.

We hope you found this a useful overview on the various options that are available when you are looking at either putting your first Will in place or updating your Will to cater for changing circumstances. If you are in this position and would like to talk to us about a Will then please visit the contact page of our website to get in touch or call 01732 868190 and one of our friendly team will be able to advise.

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Our Covid-19 policy is now that if you require general information about our Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney or Trusts then we will carry out a telephone appointment. However, if you wish to give instructions to one of our Consultants we are offering Face to Face appointments from 02 September 2020 in most of the areas we normally cover (subject to Government advice). To see the areas we normally cover please click here.

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