Introduction

Having a will is something a lot of people do not think about until later in life. However, it is something everyone should think about to prepare for the future. Within this section, guidance will be provided surrounding writing a will, what it may include. At this time Lestons do not offer a will writing service and contract this out to a third party.

Defining key terms

 

There can be some complicated terms when talking in legal terms so please refer to the list below:

• Cohabiting partners
  • Living with your partner or another half without being married. 
• Assets
  • An asset includes items such as money left in banks, property and so on.
• Will
  • A legal document that expresses a person’s wishes as to how their property is to be distributed after their death.
• Intestate –
  • A person that dies without a will is known as an intestate person.
• Intestacy rules –
  • These are the rules that are followed to divide estate when a person dies intestate. 

 

When writing a will, you must make sure it is valid. You must be over 18 and have mental capacity. The Wills Act 1837 lays out the required terms, if you do not comply with these your will shall be invalid. The will must be in writing and signed by you with two other witnesses present who must also sign it to confirm that it was written according to the rule of law. The witnesses present must also have sound mental capacity. An important point to make here is that if you are going to leave property to a spouse or civil partner in your will, they cannot be your witness. If they are then that part of the will can be invalid. There is a rare exception to this rule, those in the Royal Navy can make a will verbally instead of writing it down. However, it is always best to have it in writing for peace of mind. 

 

How we can help

Lestons can arrange a third party to write a will for you as this is currently not a service that we offer. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a brief for them. To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link.

 

Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our appointed specialist and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.