General Chat

Some people don't realise that you don't always need a solicitor. I downloaded a template and typed it up myself. Got my neighbours to sign and witness my signature. Job done.

Of course mine is very straight forward.

if you have a big estate and have left lots of monies or jewellery to people or want to donate to lots of charities then maybe going to a solicitor might be better.

Florence in the hebrides

Over here, you do not have to put disposition of jewellry and personal effects in the will. In fact many lawyers advise against doing that, as did a lawyer when we made a will about 20 years ago.

Instead they suggest appending a list to your will stating what you want to go to who.

That way, the list can be re-done if you change your mind or someone dies but the will does not need re-doing.

I do have some jewellry and other items that came to me from my side of the family and some from OH's. My daughter has been told (and I have to make sure this is all written down somewhere!) what items are inheritances from OH's grandmother and gt grandmother(s) or male equivalents and which are inheritances from my side. She has been told that anything she does not want is to be offered to her cousins from the appropriate side. If there is anything that no-one wants, then she can dispose of it as she wishes.

She can also do the same thing with the jewellry, some valuable, that OH has bought me over the years, as well as the art work that we have collected/been given/inherited.

My will is relatively simple, my brother gets some, my sisters and son get nothing, the house and contents go to the Sue Ryder charity, my sisters and son are named as not getting anything not even my family tree stuff. Because of their treatment of hubby and me in the past.

When my 1st once removed cousin died intestate probate was granted and the monies shared between the Groups of descendants of her paternal aunts and uncles. As there were full relations the half relations were not eligible.
No newspaper adverts were needed as everyone was known to at least one other relation.
We did not need to find relatives via her maternal line as, legally, her mother was illegitimate. If this had not been the case adverts would have had to be placed as the that family was unknown.

One of OH's father's cousins died about 25-30 years ago in England. She had never married but she left her estate to be divided equally between her cousins or their descendants.

In fact all the cousins were dead, and the solicitor had quite the job to find all the descendants. She knew that OH was over here partly because we had been to see her on a trip back to the UK in the early '70s, and the solicitor had our address, but had to ask OH if he knew an address for his sister!

The money was eventually paid out, but in 3 stages over a period of about 3 years ................ as they had to be sure that they had found every descendant.