Digital Signatures

Using an online Will service

At LegalWills.co.uk, you can create your Last Will and Testament entirely online. Sometimes, people refer to this as an "Online Will" service, and it suggests that it is possible to prepare everything online, including storing the document online for future retrieval by family, loved ones and your Executor. Unfortunately, estate planning laws and the Wills Act don't get refreshed very often, and the law on how to write a Will hasn't changed fundamentally in over 150 years.

Even though you can prepare your Will online, it must still be printed and signed in the presence of two witnesses. You can maintain an account with us, and this allows you to update your document quickly and easily to reflect any changes in your personal and financial situation. It also allows you to easily update your Will if one of your appointments is no longer appropriate (for example, if your Executor has taken ill). You can quickly login to your account and make the change. However, every time you update your document, you must print the new document and sign it again in the presence of two witnesses to make it a new, legal, Last Will and Testament.

What about a Digital Signature?

A digital signature is a convenient and secure way to sign an electronic document. They are based on mathematical theory and the use of algorithms. They require that the holder of the signature have a "two key" system for signing and verification (one private and the other public).

The important component in this picture is in having a verifiable, trustworthy entity to create and distribute digital signatures. These entities are called "Certification Authorities" (CA). The ability to transmit or store electronic messages and documents carrying legally binding signatures will allow businesses, government and individuals to conduct transactions and to enter into binding contracts entirely by electronic means.

Can I use a Digital Signature on a Will?

The short answer is "No". UK estate planning laws that dictate the requirements of a legal Will are written into the 1837 Wills Act. Not surprisingly, this law requires that a Will is written, usually on a piece of paper. Verbal Wills are not legal unless spoken under very specific circumstances like military on a battlefield. This type of Will is called a Nuncupative Will.

The document must then be signed in the presence of two adults who are not beneficiaries in the Will. As long as the witnesses are also competent, and they have nothing to gain from the contents of the Will, then once signed and witnessed, you have created a legal Last Will and Testament.

Currently, testamentary wishes written by email, in an app, video Wills, faxed, scanned, or any other electronic copy of a document, are all invalid Wills. Also, don't be confused by the term "holographic Will", as this simply means that it is handwritten, it does not mean that the Will is presented by a hologram.

Can I store my Will at LegalWills.co.uk?

You can store a version of your document that makes it easy to update and change your Will to reflect any changes in your circumstances. But this is not a legally acceptable Last Will and Testament. Your only legal document is one that is written, and usually printed on a piece of paper. Then signed in the presence of two witnesses who also sign the document.

But can't a paper document be lost?

Yes, absolutely. Remember, this is a law that was written nearly 200 years ago. The clauses in the law that describe the validity of a Will hasn't changed significantly since 1837. It states:

Signing and attestation of wills
No will shall be valid unless—
(a) it is in writing, and signed by the testator, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; and
(b) it appears that the testator intended by his signature to give effect to the will; and
(c) the signature is made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time

The Will must be in writing and signed. This means that the vast majority of Wills are written or typed on a piece of paper. However, there have been some famous cases of people pinned under a tractor or rock who scratched out their own Will, and the document was accepted.

But this means that if you lose your life in a house fire or flood, your Will may well be lost with you. There are some Will storage services, but these services typically make it awkward to update your Will.

We generally recommend that you give your Will to your Executor in a sealed envelope for safe keeping, particularly if they do not co-reside with you.

Is a signature really the best way to prove my identity?

No. It is a terrible way to prove your identity, particularly now that we have much better biometric and digital encryption technologies. Most challenges to Wills are based on a claim of fraud. In other words, somebody has created a Will in the name of another person, and copied their signature. When you look at some people's signatures, it is clearly a ridiculous way to validate and process an estate that could be worth millions of pounds.

A simple signature

The process relies heavily on the two impartial witnesses. When a Will is validated, the courts must be sure that the testator (the person for whom the Will is written) was competent, but also that they were signing without any undue influence, or outside pressure. They must be signing the document understanding that it is their Will, and it represents their wishes absolutely. The witnesses attest that there is no other influence on the signing of the document.

Any digital signature, video Will, or wishes captured in an app will always have that vulnerability. The courts will never know whether the testator was expressing their wishes without outside influence.

If the Will is found to be fraudulent, then the fraudster and witnesses have committed a very serious crime and will almost certainly go to prison.

What is the future of digital signatures?

In July 2017, the Law Commission announced that the 1837 Wills Act needed an update, and that the signing of Wills needed to be updated to reflect modern technology. These processes typically take a very long time, but it is encouraging to see the legal profession acknowledge that signing a piece of paper is not the most secure way to secure one's legacy.

We will be closely monitoring this review and we will be quick to implement any new technologies as soon as they are approved in law.

How It Works

When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

You can also implement security mechanisms to prevent premature access to these documents. The entire process of creating your Will and other legal documents at LegalWills is seamless and iterative, meaning you can continue to make changes until you're happy with the final product.

Create Your Documents in Five Easy Steps

file
Create Your Documents

Creating your documents is quick and easy with LegalWills. Simply fill out the required fields and proceed to the next step.

key
Select Your Keyholders®

Entrust up to 20 individuals to unlock your wishes when the time is right.

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Edit Your Documents for Up To One Year for Free

Make any changes to your documents using our online service.

lock
Keyholders® Request Access

When the time is right, your selected Keyholders® will have the ability to unlock your wishes.

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Documents are Released to Keyholders®

When the time comes and your Keyholders® request access to your documents, your wishes will be entrusted in their hands.

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Frequently Asked Questions

There is absolutely no legal requirement to use the services of a solicitor to prepare your Will.

The law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and then signed by you in the presence of two witnesses. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

If you need legal advice, you should secure the services of a solicitor, but most people do not need legal advice to prepare a Will. Especially if they are using a service like the one at LegalWills.co.uk.
When you write your Will with a solicitor, you are paying for their training, so that if you needed custom clauses written for unique situations, they would probably be able to do this for you. However, most Wills do not require unique new clauses to be written, and the vast majority of Wills are a compilation of known legal "precedents".

Most solicitors use Will writing software to prepare Wills, and we use that exact same software, but give you direct access to it. You should really be asking why a solicitor charges £800 for about an hour's work.

If you have unusual circumstances, such as a child with special needs, then you may need legal advice. But for the vast majority, you would be paying premium rates for legal advice that you don't need.

For a more thorough explanation, please read our blog article: How much does it cost to write a Will?.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for £49.95 with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our solicitors for £69.00. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is £9.95, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™ and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs £49.95. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a solicitor each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. £11.95 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at £29.95, 10 years at £39.95, 25 years at £79.95 (£3.20 per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 24 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay £11.95 to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

The UK Lasting Power of Attorney system is controlled by the government. You must use the official government website to create the form, and it must be registered with the government.

Anybody outside of the government who offers a Lasting Power of Attorney service is offering questionable value. The government website does everything that you need, for free. However, the forms must be registered, and this costs £110. There is no way of avoiding this fee.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview.

Using the MyLivingWill™ service at LegalWills.co.uk, you can prepare your Advance Directives that work with your Lasting Power of Attorney.
Our answer is different depending on what you are comparing us to.

The service at LegalWills.co.uk is significantly better than a blank form Will kit that you can buy on Amazon or WHSmiths. These blank kits do not check for errors, allow you to do things you are legally not allowed to do, and rarely cover backup scenarios. They are actually the most difficult way to prepare a well drafted Will.

We provide the same quality documents as an estate planning solicitor – often word-for-word identical, because we use the same software that they use. We've just adapted it to make it easier to understand, and given you direct access to it. Therefore, you can create a solicitor grade Will, but from the comfort of your own home at less than a tenth of the price.

When compared to other online services, we have honest, up-front pricing that is better than any equivalent service. We also believe that we have the highest quality service online today. In all the time that we have been in business, never once has one of our Wills had an issue going through the probate process. We also offer best-in-class phone and email support if you get stuck.

Some other highlights:

  • Help text every step of the way.   Every page of our service has additional help text to answer your questions. If you get stuck, send us an email and we can help.

  • Create your Will from anywhere at any time.   Our service works on any computer, phone or tablet. Which means you can create or update your Will in the middle of the night in Timbuktu if you need to.

  • Unlimited updates.   If you write your Will with a solicitor, it could be out of date by the time you get home. You don't face that issue with LegalWills.co.uk. If your circumstances change, simply login to your account, update your document, and sign your new Will. There is no charge for updates as long as you maintain a membership.

  • Professional reviews by a solicitor.   Our service works for the vast majority of situations, but on occasion people have unusual circumstances and need the reassurance of a legal professional's eye. We offer this as an option.

  • Our other services.   We don't just do Will writing. We offer a complete portfolio of services that will help you to plan your estate. We have the LifeLocker® executor tool, that allows you to document all of your personal details and assets, and MyVault™ that lets you upload important files. Together with our Keyholder® mechanism, you can be assured that the right information gets into the right hands at the right time (and not before).

  • Privacy and security.   We do not store any information as plain text. We do not store Wills in our database. All of your information is encrypted on our servers. Nobody can access it except you and your designated Keyholders® at the appropriate time. Furthermore, we do not share, trade or sell any of your data with third parties whatsoever.

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