How much is a basic will?
Making a will might cost less than you think. Our standard charge for a basic will is just £170 plus VAT. For a couple wanting to each make a basic joint will then our charge is only £270 plus VAT for the pair.
This price includes taking your instructions, drafting the will to your complete satisfaction, and then making sure it is correctly signed and witnessed so that it is legally compliant and validly executed.
And at Slee Blackwell Solicitors storage of your will is included in the price. Wills are stored in our strong room, which means that yours will be safe and secure, but always accessible. We are a long-established firm of solicitors who have been trading for over 100 years. You can therefore instruct us in confidence that we will still be here when the time comes for your will to be retrieved; hopefully many years from now!
When making a joint will married couples often opt for what is known as mirror wills. A pair of mirror wills are drafted to compliment each other, with the terms of one will being ‘mirrored’ in the other. A common scenario involves a husband leaving everything to his wife in the event that he dies first, and the wife leaving everything to her husband should she pass first. On the death of the survivor, their estate then passes to the beneficiaries specified in the will, which is usually the couple’s children.
Mirror wills should not be confused with ‘mutual wills’. Those who make mirror wills are completely free to revoke their will at any time and to make a new one. That is not the case with mutual wills and you might like to read our article on the difference between mirror wills and mutual wills.
We know that DIY and homemade wills are popular, but this can be a false economy, especially if your estate contains valuable assets. Inheritance disputes are on the rise, and it is not uncommon for these to be caused by poorly drafted or incorrectly executed DIY or homemade wills.
We also see disputes arising as a result of people using the services of unqualified and unregulated ‘will writers’. These wills often fail to reflect the testator’s intentions because of conflicting, uncertain, ambiguous, or contradictory clause. Some of the terms are even potentially illegal. A common theme of these wills is that precedents have been blindly cut and pasted by non-lawyers who lack the requisite legal knowledge to understand that the final document will not work as intended. The irony is that unqualified will writers often charge far more than we do, with costs being inflated by various add-on charges, including annual storage charges – a service that we provide for free!
In conclusion, the simple response to the question, ‘How much is a basic will?’ is that our charges start at just £170 plus VAT, with simple joint wills costing £270 plus VAT for the pair.
