Last Will & Testament

[geoffkay]

Can I write my own Last Will & Testament without jeapordising the inheritances?

[geofbob]

You certainly can; but you do have to understand what your doing, and if your circumstances are at all complicated you would be best advised to seek independent help. There are books about making a Will in the "Self Help" sections of most libraries. Alternatively, there are online Will-making services, though they do charge a moderate fee. Incidentally, in my experience, one of the most awkward features of making your own Will is to find two NON-beneficiaries to witness your signature, and to sign it themselves. It's all a bit of a palaver, and then if later you change the Will, you have to get these witnesses back again, or find two others.

[FredPuli]

You can but even geofbob's answer could be misunderstood ! Not only can the witnesses not be beneficiaries but nor can the husband or wife of a witness be a beneficiary ,or the will is invalid. You should not simply change a will either, if that means physically altering iit by crossing out or altering the existing document later. It has to be either a whole new will in proper form duly witnessed to replace the existing one ( the better course ) or by a codicil, that is a formal addition to the will which itself has to be in proper form and duly witnessed and expressed as being additional to the existing will. The one basic rule is that you should make a will. For example, the number of sad people who think that 'common law wife/husband' is a legal status in English law and the one partner receives the other's property on death where no will exists is legion. He/she has no automatic entitlement at all . Indeed if there is an existing husband/wife, from many years back even, and no divorce, that husband/wife does receive automatically, however long the later 'common law' partners were together !

[Resholden]

Yes, you certainly can and the advice given in teprevious two answers is sensible. You can write your Will on almost anything too- from the back of a fag packet to an eggshell. But remember, lawyers make more money from people who have made their own Wills than they do out of making Wills for them!