MAKING A WILL

Get confidential legal advice

From our friendly wills and probate law team

MAKING A WILL

Get confidential legal advice

From our friendly divorce and family law team

According to recent research about 70% of UK adults don’t bother making a Will because they believe everything they have will go directly to their partner or children.

What really happens?

Why should you make a Will?

If you die without making a Will your estate will be distributed under the Rules of Intestacy incorporated in the Administration of Estates Act 1925.

This can sometimes leave your children without any of your estate, but at other times they may be left with too much of your estate, forcing the sale of your family home to meet their inheritance. The law will dictate who can administer your estate and they may not be the people you trust most with your family’s inheritance.

If you die leaving children under the age of 18, who will look after them? By not making a Will you may be leaving such decisions to Social Services. If you are not married your partner may not inherit anything from your estate and this could result in them being forced out of the home you have shared together. They would have to make a long and expensive claim against your estate to get money you would have wanted them to have.

How can making a Will address these concerns?

  • In your Will YOU decide who will administer your estate: someone you trust and know who is honest and reliable or a professional executor such as a solicitor can be appointed.
  • In your Will YOU decide who you want to be the guardians for your children if they are orphaned.
  • In your Will YOU can make sure that your partner and/or children are financially secure by deciding who will share in your estate when you die.
  • In your Will YOU can leave a gift to a close friend, colleague or charity.
  • Your Will can also be used to reduce or remove any inheritance tax burden that may arise upon your death, leaving more for your family or reduce the effects of means testing when calculating your contributions towards long term care should you need it.

Why use Canter Levin & Berg Solicitors?

Your Will is an important legal document and needs to be drawn up by a qualified legal expert. The solicitors at Canter Levin & Berg are ideally placed to provide unbiased confidential advice and will be able to complete matters quickly and simply.

We understand that you may be nervous about making your Will and the formalities involved. We are friendly and offer a flexible service, visiting you in your own home or hospital/nursing home if necessary or more convenient to you.

When taking instructions we will listen to your wishes and put these into a legal document to make sure that those wishes are followed when you die.

Our charges

We can make a standard will for you for a fixed price of £145 plus VAT*.

We provide standard mirror wills for £245 plus VAT*. Mirror wills are virtually identical wills where, typically, one person in a couple leaves their estate to the other and vice versa. A standard mirror will will leave everything to their spouse and then their children.

We charge £300 plus VAT* for complex wills (e.g. divorced with children/severance of tenancy) and £500 plus VAT* for specialist wills (e.g. including trusts or overseas property).

We can provide you with a quote for high value estate complex wills, for example those involving numerous properties, trusts, international assets or other complicating aspects.

We charge £90 plus VAT* for codicils, which are supplements to existing wills to make minor adjustments, and £150 plus VAT for mirror codicils.

We also offer a free wills storage service, giving our clients have the peace of mind of knowing that their wills are stored safely at our offices. Once your will is executed we will seal it and place it in storage. We will then send you a copy of your will. Further copies of your Will can be provided at an additional cost of £12 plus VAT* per copy

Contact specialist wills and probate solicitor Christian Sereni on 0151 239 1198 / christiansereni@canter-law.co.uk for straightforward advice or complete our short online enquiry form at the top of this page.

You can find out more about our fixed charge services here.

*VAT is charged at the prevailing rate, currently 20%

Christian-Sereni-Sep22(3)

Christian Sereni

Head of Wills and Probate

0151 239 1198