Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are a few common reasons that people indicate there is no point in writing a Will:

• "I don't really care who gets my estate.  I'll be gone anyway."
  Without a Will, your property may not go to the people that you wish to benefit. In most countries there is a law that decides how property should be distributed if a person dies 'intestate' (without a Will). The actual administration of your estate will also be complicated and difficult. The courts will usually decide who will act as a personal representative or 'executor' for distributing your possessions, and the laws in your local jurisdiction will determine who will get what. This may lead to acrimonious legal disputes between your survivors. Note that if you have no heirs, all of your assets, property and possessions can pass to your local government. The effort required to draft your Will is insignificant compared to the difficulties that dying without a Will presents to your survivors.
• "It's obvious who will get my estate.  It will go to my spouse."
  Local laws will determine who will receive your possessions, which may or may not reflect your intentions. If you die without a Will and you are married, your assets will not automatically go to your surviving spouse.  Local laws may determine that others, including children, may be entitled to a share.  This will be determined by the laws of "Intestate Succession" which vary from state to state, province to province, country to country, and will frequently lead to messy legal cases.
• "I don't have an estate of any value."
  Even if you don't believe that you have an estate of any value, your death itself may generate a sizeable benefit.  For example, your beneficiaries may be entitled to the proceeds of a life insurance claim, a wrongful death suit, a claim in the event of some negligence resulting in your death.  These can be significant sums of money.

Quite clearly, there is never a situation where a Will is unnecessary.  In many cases, this can be a simple declaration of your wishes for how your estate should be distributed, and this can be achieved by working through the MyWill™ wizard on this website.  You should draft a Will while you are still young and healthy, even if you don't feel that your assets are substantial.  There is absolutely no benefit in waiting until you are older.  Writing a Will is a willful act that requires the testator to be of sound mind and to deliberately express their intentions for the distribution of their estate.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people do not have a Will. Some people feel that they do not need one because of one of the above reasons.  Others find it to be too time consuming to get organised, find a solicitor, arrange appointments and attend meetings during their already busy schedules. Many feel that the solicitors' fees surrounding the creation and maintenance of a Will are too expensive.  

Whatever your reason may be, you should know that it is extremely important that you have an up to date Will. If you die without a Will, the courts will decide how your estate is distributed, and this may not be in the best interests of your loved ones. It is impossible for us to know how your estate will be distributed, but we do know that if you have a Will, then the decisions are in your hands.

To die without a Will is irresponsible and places a tremendous burden on your survivors.  Do not put it off any longer.

Our services can be used to generate a custom-made Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will in Canada. The only exception is the Province of Québec, which is currently not supported.

In order to make these into legal documents, you should first print them, and read them thoroughly. Make sure that they accurately reflect your wishes and that you understand everything that is contained in the documents. According to the current laws in most jurisdictions, in order to be a legal document your Will must be signed in the presence of at least two witnesses, and the two witnesses must also sign the Will, in the presence of the "testator" (yourself) and in the presence of each other. You and the witnesses should also initial each page, so that it is not possible to alter any pages after the Will has been signed. In most jurisdictions, a witness cannot be a beneficiary of the Will, they cannot be the spouse of a beneficiary (at the time of signing), they cannot be a minor, and, like the "testator" (you), they must be of sound mind. There is no legal requirement to use the services of a solicitor or have the document notarized in order to create a legal Will, Power of Attorney or Living Will in Canada.

More details on the process to be followed for creating a legal document are included in the help text of the MyWill™ and MyExpatWill™ services. If these instructions are followed, then your Will is a legally binding document.

There is no requirement to use the services of a solicitor or notary public to prepare your own legal Last Will and Testament. The law that defines the legality of a Will is written specifically for each Province, State and Country, but in summary the law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and signed in the presence of two witnesses who cannot be beneficiaries to the Will. Solicitors can certainly help you to prepare your Will, but everybody has a legal right to write their own Will. If you create a document using our service, it must be printed, signed and witnessed according to our instructions, and then it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

A joint Will is a single document, signed by "co-testators" (usually spouses), intended to reflect the wishes of both parties. This is generally considered to be an extremely bad idea, and probably worse than having no Will at all. Often, the intent of a joint Will is to declare that each person would leave everything to the surviving partner, and in the event that both partners are victims of a common disaster, everything would go to their children. The problem is that it is unclear whether a surviving partner can revoke a joint Will and many messy legal cases have arisen as a result of this confusion. 

In short, do not make a joint Will, as there could be problems if either party changes their mind, or wishes to amend the Will.  There may also be problems if the surviving spouse tries to make any changes to a joint Will, as they may be bound to the original terms.  Furthermore, there is no reason to create a joint Will, as there is no disadvantage to drawing up a separate Will for each partner.

You need two witnesses to the signing of your Will. A witness cannot be a beneficiary of the Will, they cannot be the spouse of a beneficiary (at the time of signing), they cannot be a minor, and, like the "testator" (you), they must be of sound mind. Friends and co-workers can serve as witnesses, provided that they are not a beneficiary in your Will. Furthermore, there is no requirement to have a solicitor or notary sign your Will to make it legal.

For an informative and eye-opening comparison of the MyWill™ service to do-it-yourself legal will kits, read about it here. 

What makes us different from other websites and kits?  Quite frankly, there is no comparison.  Here are just a few reasons why:

• We have designed our Legal Will creation service to be of the best quality available today.   We have evaluated many existing do-it-yourself kits and web-based services, including several of the most popular Canadian legal will kits. We were shocked by the poor quality, limited instructions, and low value for money that many of these do-it-yourself kits provide consumers. 

• Incredible value for money.   Our membership pricing model allows us to provide you with the most value for your money at prices that are unprecedented in the legal industry. We worked with solicitors to bring you this service, and we paid for their legal services so you don't have to. 

• Plain language help and instructions.  In addition, all of our services provide you with complete instructions and answer your questions in everyday language, free of legal industry jargon.  We have developed our services based on the requirements of the public, not dictated by the legal profession.  Our wizards, help and information are also designed to be the best on the market and are kept up-to-date on an ongoing basis.  

• Create your Will from the comfort of your own home.  Our unique approach allows you to make use of the ultimate convenience of the Internet to write your Will at your own pace, online, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and to make changes online at any time free of charge. 

• Free unlimited updates.  Don't pay a solicitor every time you need to update your Will. We allow your Will to be kept securely online so that you can make free unlimited updates for as long as you are a member.

• You can still have it reviewed by a solicitor. We have worked with lawyers in Canada to bring you the MyWill™ and MyExpatWill™ services and to ensure that they are of the highest quality. But if you wish, we can still arrange for your Will to be reviewed by one of our solicitors, who will check the document for consistency and completeness. (Currently not available in Ontario.)

• The Keyholder® Advantage. You can take advantage of our unique messaging service which allows you to describe the exact location of your Will and to provide a detailed list of assets for your Executor. All for no extra charge. When you pass away, let us worry about communicating this information to the people you specify. There is simply no other company that provides such a complete and convenient service to their customers. For more information, read about The Keyholder® Advantage.

• We employ a strong focus on protecting the privacy and security of your information.  We use industry standard encryption algorithms for storing all of your private information, and the design of our services ensures that the contents of your information are made available to the specific people designated by yourself, and only at the appropriate time. 

• Keep informed and up to date.  If you wish, we can inform you by email about any changes in legislation which may have occurred in your jurisdiction that may require changes to your Will.  Or we can send you simple email reminders, no more than once a year, to remind you to consider updating your Will if any significant changes have occurred in your life.  

Other websites and do-it-yourself kits simply do not compare.

"I used your service to write a Will for my dear wife Christine who passed away this year. The Will was easy to fill out and very straightforward. I never had one problem arise because of the Will."
--- Keith Sutton, Surrey, B.C.   Read more testimonials

Although the MyWill™ question-and-answer wizard is applicable for most cases, there are circumstances where it is advisable to seek legal advice.  In particular:

• If you are a resident of Québec.
• If you are involved in a matrimonial dispute, or wish to disinherit your spouse or children.
• If you have a history of mental illness, or the question of your mental capacity may be raised in objection to the statements in the Will.
• If you own personal property or real estate in multiple countries.
• If you are under the age of adulthood.
• If you have complicated business investments (e.g. you are part owner of property or businesses where ownership may be challenged).
• If you are about to be married and are preparing a Will in contemplation of that marriage.
• If you have a large, complex estate and feel that you would benefit from some advice on estate planning and tax reduction.
• If you own a farm, as there may be significant estate planning implications.
• If you need to provide for long term medical care for a dependant.
• If you have any litigation pending which involve large sums of money or where a prison term is possible.
• If you think that somebody may challenge your Will in court or you have any other doubts about your situation.

In the above situations and in other more complex situations (the above is not an exhaustive list), it would not be advisable to rely on the output of the MyWill™ wizard as an accurate expression of your wishes.  Instead, you should consult with a solicitor in these cases.

To renew your membership, you should login to your account by going to https://www.legalwills.co.uk/ and clicking on the "Login" button. Enter your UserID and the Password you selected when you created your account. Once you have logged in, click on the Upgrades link and then select an option to add additional years to your membership. From here you can step through the payment process.

First, you should check to see that you have an account with us.  You may have received confirmation of this in an email from LegalWills.co.uk.  If you have a User ID and Password, then you can log into the site.  Once you have logged in, scroll down to click on the MyWill™ service, and from here you can click on "View your Will" or "Download and Print your Will (PDF file)".  If you have paid and do not have a User ID or Password, contact us by sending an email to [email protected], and we can set up an account for you.

We do not mail out Will kits.  We believe that blank forms are a bad idea and usually lead to legal problems.  There used to be a kit advertised widely on television and radio but this was heavily criticised and is no longer available.  We have developed a truly interactive service that generates a custom document based on your answers to a series of questions.  This document can then be printed, signed and witnessed to become your legal Will.  You can also store this document online and make updates to reflect changes in your personal or financial situation.  Each time an update is made, the document must be printed, signed and witnessed and the previous document should be destroyed.

In recent years, more companies have entered the online estate planning space, and not all of them serve the same purpose.

While some platforms are dedicated to helping users prepare estate planning documents, others may use "free Will" offers primarily as a way to open conversations about insurance or other financial products as part of a broader insurance or financial sales strategy.

That is why it is important to look beyond the word "free" and understand the business behind the platform, how your information is handled, and whether the focus is truly on helping you create the right legal documents.

When it comes to something this important, transparency matters.

Consumers should always review who is behind the offer, what information is being collected, and whether the service is truly focused on estate planning.

No.

LegalWills.co.uk is an online platform that helps Canadians build their own estate planning documents. We do not sell life insurance, investment products, or financial plans, and our users are never redirected into insurance sales conversations.

We believe creating a Will should be about documenting your wishes, not being sold something unrelated.

If you have seen "free Will" offers elsewhere that involve insurance consultations, please note that those services are not affiliated with LegalWills.co.uk.

You should always review who is behind the offer, what information is being collected, and whether the service is truly focused on estate planning.

Yes.  A Power of Attorney (also known as a Power of Attorney for Finances) and Living Will (also known as a Power of Attorney for Health Care), are very important documents that should be created and updated at the same time as your Will.

This website allows you to create a Will, Expatriate Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will.

LegalWills.co.uk is not a law firm.  We do not offer legal advice.  If your situation is complex, or you have any questions regarding your funeral service, estate planning, Will, Living Will or Power of Attorney, we strongly recommend that you talk to a practicing solicitor in your area.

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, and MyMessages™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. 

We have worked extensively with solicitors in the U.K. to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™ and MyLivingWill™ services are up to date with the laws in England and Wales in the United Kingdom.

In the UK, power of attorney forms are provided free of charge by the government.

If you have any doubts about the legal standing of any documents in your jurisdiction, feel free to seek legal counsel in your area to have your documents reviewed.

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 £14.95, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™, a Financial Power of Attorney, 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 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. £14.95 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at £29.95, 10 years at £44.95.

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 26 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay £14.95 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.)

We do not provide you with legal advice. We are giving you direct access to the same software that solicitors use to prepare their documents, but you are doing it yourself. In our opinion, solicitors significantly overcharge for most estate planning documents as they are inputting your information into software that generates documents like a Will for them. We do the exact same thing. However, if you need custom clauses written to cover an unusual situation, we cannot do that, and we recommend that you seek legal advice. For example, if you have a child with special needs, they would need a trust written for their inheritance. We don't do that.

In most cases, a document written using our service will be word-for-word identical to one prepared by a solicitor.

You will have been provided with a Reference Code in your order confirmation email. If you no longer have this email or did not receive it (likely due to spam blocking software), you can obtain your Reference Code by logging in and clicking on the link at the top of your member home page that says "Your spouse/partner discount (40% off any purchase) is still available".  When your spouse/partner steps through the checkout process, copy and paste this code into the "Reference Code" box and the 40% discount will be automatically applied. 

Note that each membership is separate --- each person must join separately and create their own account.

We are proud to offer a 30-day, no questions asked, 100% money back guarantee on all paid memberships.  If after joining as a member you do not feel that you have received valuable information and value for your money, we will gladly refund the cost of your membership.

Another way to look at it is that the cost of the Will service is £49.95. Also included in this £49.95 is the storage of the document online for one year. This means that you do not necessarily have to complete the document all in one sitting, and if in a week or two's time you realise that you have forgotten something, you can simply log back in with your user ID and Password, make a change, print off a new version and sign it in front of witnesses again to have your new Will.

However, these are all optional. If you wish, you can just create the document for £49.95, print it off and not store it online at all. Or you can just ask to have all of your information removed once you are happy with the final document. However, this is an irreversible step and once you do this, you will no longer be able to login and work on your document. It will be removed from our system completely.

All of your information stored at LegalWills.co.uk is private, safe and secure.  Your information is so highly encrypted that nobody has access to this information other than yourself and your trusted Keyholders® using their randomly generated personal key.  Even the owners and administrators of LegalWills.co.uk are not able to access your private information due to the software design and encryption methods used.

We also provide 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) and recommend that all members turn on this feature within their account, to protect against unauthorised access. 2FA works by adding an additional layer of security to your online account. It requires an additional login credential – beyond just the UserID and Password – to gain account access. Getting that second credential requires access to something that belongs to you, such as a cell phone and/or a personal email address.

Note, however, that some services require temporary decryption of a member's documents as part of the operation of providing that service.  For example, if the member wants to have their Will reviewed by one of our legal professionals, or wants to have their documents printed and mailed to them, then the software will automatically decrypt these documents as part of the member's instructions to have these services performed.

This website uses state-of-the-art digital encryption and security technologies to protect your privacy and security.  All data passing from your computer to this website is authenticated and encrypted using 256-bit "SSL encryption".  This is the most advanced level of encryption available today, and it means that any information sent from your computer is scrambled in a way which makes it completely unintelligible if intercepted.  When you are on a secure section within the website (i.e. after you have logged in as a member), a padlock will appear on your web browser.  This is your assurance that the encryption is in place and that you are communicating across a secure link.

Furthermore, this website uses an industry standard high security streaming-encryption algorithm known as "RSA" to encrypt all of your information before it is stored online.  RSA is a public-key cryptosystem developed by MIT professors Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman. To give you a feeling for the level of security provided by this encryption, it has been estimated that with the most efficient algorithms known to date, it would take a computer operating at 1 million instructions per second over 300 quintillion years (that's 3 with 20 zeros behind it!) to break the encryption. That's several trillion times longer than the age of the Earth.

We also provide 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) and recommend that all members turn on this feature within their account, to protect against unauthorised access. 2FA works by adding an additional layer of security to your online account. It requires an additional login credential – beyond just the UserID and Password – to gain account access. Getting that second credential requires access to something that belongs to you, such as a cell phone and/or a personal email address.

Absolutely.  Your credit card information is only used for purchases and it is never stored by us. Furthermore, all credit card purchases are through a secure gateway which protects all of your transactions by powerful Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology and Private Communication Technology (PCT) security standards supported by Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and other popular browsers. SSL encrypts your credit card number, name, address, and telephone number before they travel over the Internet, and this information is never stored, nor is it recorded by the secure site. This makes doing business over the Internet as secure as purchasing by telephone or handing your credit card to a waiter in a restaurant.

All of our data is securely stored in a highly encrypted format on database servers. To protect against catastrophic data loss, daily backups are performed on each of our servers. Hence, if any one of our servers experienced technical difficulties, the data would not be at risk.

Furthermore, physical protection of our primary systems includes:

• Fire detection and fire suppression systems with dry pipe pre-action sprinkler systems
• N + 1 redundant power supplies, providing dual power feeds and backup batteries, water coolant systems and generators
• N + 1 redundant climate control, providing primary and backup chiller units, cooling towers, and water storage
• Local network operations center (NOC) for monitoring all data center operations
• 24x7 monitoring and support of network connection and server availability
• 24x7 uniformed guard service with interior and exterior closed-circuit television surveillance
• Electronic access at all data center entrances, including biometric hand scanners
• Electronic key management systems and individually keyed cabinets

As you can see, we take the security and privacy of all of our member information very seriously.

If you choose, you can receive occasional email updates from us regarding any new services that become available, special offers available only to our members, or any other information that we feel might be of interest to our members.  These will likely be sent out once every few months.  You can of course choose not to receive any emails and we will not send you any information unless requested to do so.

We absolutely do not share member information with any other organisation.  We have no affiliate companies, partners or interests in any other organisations.  You will not receive any other mailings based on a membership at this website.

In accordance with our very strict privacy policies here at LegalWills.co.uk, we will never send any postal mail or email to any of your Keyholders® outside of your wishes, nor will we ever attempt to contact any of your Keyholders® in any way.  Furthermore, we will not resell, trade, lease or rent to third parties any personally identifiable information about you or about any of your designated Keyholders®.

LegalWills.co.uk has funding set aside to support the cost of hosting member information for a number of years into the future based on today's prices.  This money is used as an insurance policy to ensure that even if LegalWills.co.uk ceases to accept new members, that existing member information will still be maintained.  At today's prices (which we anticipate to fall) even if LegalWills.co.uk received no additional revenue, hosting of member data is secured for another 25 years.  Our intention is to increase this fund to support ongoing costs for a minimum of 100 years, which is well beyond the advance directive needs of any of our members.

Nevertheless, if for whatever reason you believe that LegalWills.co.uk will cease to exist in the future, you can still make full use of our services by viewing and printing your documents and storing them in a safe place.  When they are needed, assuming that your loved ones know where to look, they can still access your documentation.  If used in this way, our pricing structure still makes the creation of these documents very cost effective for all of our members, with no dependency on the LegalWills.co.uk website.  But LegalWills.co.uk has every intention of being here to stay!

When logged in as a member, there is a link on the member home page which allows you to delete your entire membership. Clicking on this link will result in the permanent deletion of your entire account, including all of your member information, and any documents or files you have created.

If you make changes to a document, but you can only see an "old" version when you view it online, this is because you have "caching" enabled in your web browser.  In certain circumstances, this causes your browser to access a temporary "cached" version from your hard drive instead of retrieving the latest one from our web server.  If you are using Internet Explorer, you should clear your cache by selecting Tools > Internet Options > Temporary Internet Files > Delete Files.  If you are using a different web browser, check your browser's documentation for instructions on how to clear the cache.

This is an occasional problem caused by our use of session cookies. It most commonly occurs when multiple browser windows are open and you log out of one window. It can also occur when two people with different accounts are sharing the same computer. The resolution is to close all browser windows between sessions. Then re-open the browser and login. If this does not resolve the problem, then please contact us.

Simply send us an email at [email protected].  We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Yes, you need a Will. Dying without a Will causes significant issues for your family and loved ones when they try to organise your estate. Everything will have to be probated, and this is much easier with a Will than without.

There are a number of reasons why you may feel that you don't need a Will. Here are some:

• "I don't really care who gets my stuff."
  If you do not have a Will, there is a legal formula that determines who receives what. It is highly unlikely to match your wishes for your estate. The courts will appoint somebody to take care of everything on your behalf, but this may not be the person that you would have chosen. The lack of direction often causes rifts between family members and loved ones who are experiencing the trauma of losing you. If you care about anybody while you are alive, you should also protect them from unnecessary anguish after you have gone by preparing a Will. The effort required to draft your Will is insignificant compared to the difficulties that dying without a Will presents to your survivors.
• "Everything will go to my spouse whether or not I write a Will."
  You are relying on the intestate laws to distribute your things. It is possible that everything will go to your spouse, but this is by no means certain, particularly if you have children. It is possible that your share of your home could go to your children instead of to your spouse. It's just not straightforward if you don't have a Will in place.
• "I have nothing to leave anybody."
  You are not writing your Will assuming that you will die today. Your Will is in place and updated throughout your life as you acquire or lose assets. You actually have no idea and no way or predicting what you will be worth when you die. Supposing you were hit by a bus today, and the bus driver was texting, your estate could sue the bus company and your estate could be worth millions of pounds.

There is never a situation where is makes sense to not have a Will. But you must write a Will when you have the capacity to write it. There is no value in waiting, and often people leave it too late. Do not plan to write a Will when you are close to dying, as this strategy won't work.

There are broadly three approaches to making a Will:

1. You can go to a solicitor or professional Will writer. It is not very convenient and can be expensive, but you usually end up with a good quality Will.
2. At the other end of the spectrum, you can make a Will using a blank piece of paper or blank form kit. This is usually cheap or free, but often results in a Will that doesn't work when it goes through the probate process.
3. In the middle are online interactive services like the one at LegalWills.co.uk. The end product is often word-for-word identical to one prepared by a solicitor, but at about one tenth the cost.

Yes, you can use our service to prepare a fully legal Will that will be accepted by probate courts in England and Wales.

To make a completed document a legal Last Will and Testament (or Living Will), you should read it thoroughly. It must accurately describe your intentions and cover everything that you wish to be published in your Will. It must be printed and then signed in the presence of two adult witnesses who are not beneficiaries in the Will. You should gather your two witnesses together in a room and then declare to them that you are signing your Last Will and Testament. The two witnesses should in turn sign the document in the presence of you and the other witness. We also recommend that you and the two witnesses all initial each page after the document has been signed. Your witnesses must be adults and they cannot be a beneficiary (nor the spouse of a beneficiary). There is no requirement to have the document signed by a solicitor, or registered to be legal. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

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.

Although it is legally possible to create a joint Will with one document serving two people, it is not supported at LegalWills.co.uk.

Joint Wills used to be created with the intention of saving the time and expense involved in creating two separate Wills. Most solicitors practicing today, however, avoid creating joint Wills because of the awkwardness and difficulties that can arise in interpreting their terms, as it can leave the surviving partner bound by terms that make no sense once the first partner has passed away.

Using the service at LegalWills.co.uk, we encourage each partner to prepare their own Will individually. You would name each other as your main beneficiary, and then have an alternate plan in case you were both involved in a common accident. This is called a Mirror Will and is supported through our service.

There is no advantage to having one document, but there are many disadvantages. You need not pay the full amount twice, however. After your first order, you will receive a reference code for a 40% discount on your second purchase, so the second document will cost [lblRetailPrice_MirrorWillUK]. (The first one is [lblRetailPrice_MyWillUK].)

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. We have been in business for over 10 years, and 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.
  
  

"I used your service to write a Will for my dear wife Christine who passed away this year. The Will was easy to fill out and very straightforward. I never had one problem arise because of the Will."
--- Keith Sutton   Read more testimonials

For an informative and eye-opening comparison of the MyWill™ service to do-it-yourself legal will kits, read about it here.

To make a Will at LegalWills.co.uk, you simply go to the home page and click on "Start Your Will".

Step through the series of 9 sections, answering questions along the way. We offer help on making a Will at each point through the service.

You then create an account for yourself so that you can update your Last Will and Testament when circumstances change.

To make a Last Will and Testament a legal document, you must print it and sign it in the presence of two witnesses who are not beneficiaries in the Will.

Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament. There is no requirement to register your document, or have it signed by a solicitor.

Although the MyWill™ question-and-answer wizard is applicable for most cases, we do know of certain situations where we would recommend that you seek the advice of a legal professional.  In particular:

• If you are a resident of Northern Ireland or Scotland.
• If you are involved in a matrimonial dispute, or wish to disinherit your spouse or children.
• If you have a history of mental illness, or the question of your mental capacity may be raised in objection to the statements in the Will.
• If you own personal property or real estate in multiple countries.
• If you are under 18.
• If you have complicated business investments (e.g. you are part owner of property or businesses where ownership may be challenged).
• If you have a large, complex estate and feel that you would benefit from some advice on tax reduction.
• If you need to provide for long term medical care for a dependant or a child with special needs.
• If you think that somebody may challenge your Will in court.

In any of the above situations and in other more complex situations (the above is not an exhaustive list), we would recommend that you seek the advice of an estate planning solicitor.

You must sign the Will in the presence of two witnesses. These people cannot be beneficiaries or have anything to gain from the contents of the Will (the spouse of a beneficiary is a poor choice).

Your witnesses must be adults and of sound mind. Friends, neighbours and co-workers are all acceptable witnesses. They do not need to read the document and they are not approving it. They are simply witnessing the signing process.

There is no requirement to have the document signed by a solicitor or any person of professional standing to make it a legal document.

To download and print your Will you should:

• Go to the homepage at LegalWills.co.uk.
• Click on "Member Login" at the top of the page.
• Enter your User ID and the Password you used when setting up your account. If you cannot remember this, please let us know and we will re-set it for you.
• Once you are at your member home page, scroll down and click on MyWill™.
• To make changes to your Will, click on "Create or Modify your Will".
• To print your Will, click on "Download and Print your Will (PDF file)".
• Click on "Download: small line spacing".
• Save the document to your computer and open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• From within Adobe Acrobat Reader, select File > Print.

In recent years, more companies have entered the online estate planning space, and not all of them serve the same purpose.

While some platforms are dedicated to helping users prepare estate planning documents, others may use "free Will" offers primarily as a way to open conversations about insurance or other financial products as part of a broader insurance or financial sales strategy.

That is why it is important to look beyond the word "free" and understand the business behind the platform, how your information is handled, and whether the focus is truly on helping you create the right legal documents.

When it comes to something this important, transparency matters.

Consumers should always review who is behind the offer, what information is being collected, and whether the service is truly focused on estate planning.

No.

[lblWebName32UK] is an online platform that helps people build their own estate planning documents. We do not sell life insurance, investment products, or financial plans, and our users are never redirected into insurance sales conversations.

We believe creating a Will should be about documenting your wishes, not being sold something unrelated.

If you have seen "free Will" offers elsewhere that involve insurance consultations, please note that those services are not affiliated with [lblWebName33UK].

You should always review who is behind the offer, what information is being collected, and whether the service is truly focused on estate planning.

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.

Although our service was developed by a team of solicitors, LegalWills.co.uk is not a law firm. We are not writing your Will for you, but we are giving you the tools to prepare your own Will. We do not offer legal advice for specific situations.

Yes, you can. Simply download our free Information Collection Worksheet.

You can use this to gather information to complete the service on somebody else's behalf. You would then need to print the document and have the person sign it in the presence of two witnesses. As long as they are capable of understanding their Will, you can use our service to prepare a Will on their behalf.

Strictly speaking, we are not writing your Will – you are. We are just giving you the tools to prepare your Will. The Society of Will Writers provides insurance for its members, but we have our own (in fact our coverage is significantly superior to that offered by the society). Our service was developed by estate planning solicitors but we are not offering estate planning advice as part of our standard services.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for [lblRetailPriceFAQ_MyWill2UK] 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 [lblRetailPriceFAQ_MyWillDocReviewUK]. 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 [lblRetailPriceFAQ_MyWillDocPrintUK], 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 [lblRetailPriceFAQ_MyWill3UK]. 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 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. [lblRetailPriceFAQ_1Year1UK] will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at [lblRetailPriceFAQ_5YearsUK], 10 years at [lblRetailPriceFAQ_10YearsUK], 25 years at [lblRetailPriceFAQ_25YearsUK] ([lblRetailPriceFAQ_25YearsAnnualUK] 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 10 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay [lblRetailPriceFAQ_1Year2UK] 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.)

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?.

With the Will payment of [lblRetailPrice_MyWill2UK], you are able to prepare your Will, and 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 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. You store your printed copy somewhere safe in a place that is known and accessible to your Executor.

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.

You can, if you wish, 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. [lblRetailPrice_MoreInfo_2yearsUK] will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at [lblRetailPrice_MoreInfo_5yearsUK], 10 years at [lblRetailPrice_MoreInfo_10yearsUK], 25 years at [lblRetailPrice_MoreInfo_25yearsUK] (a little over [lbl25CostPerYearUK] 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.

Once you have completed your order, you will receive a reference code that you can use for obtaining a 40% discount off your second order. You can find this either in your confirmation email or from a link at the top of your member home page.

Make a note of this code, then logout of your account. Create a new account for your spouse/partner, and when you step through the payment process, enter the reference code.

You should login to your account by clicking on "Member Login" at the top of the home page at LegalWills.co.uk. Once you have logged in, either click on the "Extend My Membership" quick link located at the top of your member home page. Alternatively, you can click on Upgrades and scroll down to the membership extension options. From here you can step through the payment process.

We have designed our service to meet the needs of nearly everybody. But sometimes people have a situation that we cannot address in our service. We accept that on occasion our service may not be appropriate.

We have a full 30 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee. Simply email or phone us and we will process a full refund without a quibble.

We do not store any of your information as plain text. There are no "Wills" stored in our database. All data is encrypted and can only be accessed by yourself, or your designated Keyholders® using your unique User ID and Password. The documents are generated in real-time when you click the button to compile the Will.

Note, however, that there are two circumstances under which your documents are made available to the team at LegalWills.co.uk. If you choose to have your Will reviewed by one of our legal professionals, or if you select to have your documents printed and posted to you, then the software will automatically decrypt these documents as part of the your instructions to have these services performed.

The service at LegalWills.co.uk uses state-of-the-art digital encryption and security technologies to protect your privacy and security.

All data passing back and forth uses 256-bit "SSL encryption". This is the most advanced level of encryption available today, and it means that any information sent from your computer is scrambled in a way which makes it completely unintelligible if intercepted.

When you are on a secure section within the website, a padlock will appear on most web browsers. This is your assurance that the encryption is in place and that you are communicating across a secure link.

Furthermore, our database uses an industry standard high security streaming-encryption algorithm known as "RSA" to encrypt all of your information before it is stored online.

Yes. We do not store your credit card information. It is just not a part of our database.

We cannot automatically charge you for anything and nobody can access your credit card information from our system. We don't have it.

When you enter your credit card information on our site, we use SSL encryption to protect it. SSL encrypts your credit card number, name, address, and telephone number before they travel over the Internet, and this information is never stored.

This makes doing business with us as secure as purchasing by telephone or handing your credit card to somebody in a shop.

At LegalWills.co.uk, we perform daily backups on each of our servers. Your data is never at risk if one of our servers runs into a problem.

Furthermore, physical protection of our primary systems includes:

• Fire detection and fire suppression systems with dry pipe pre-action sprinkler systems
• N + 1 redundant power supplies, providing dual power feeds and backup batteries, water coolant systems and generators
• N + 1 redundant climate control, providing primary and backup chiller units, cooling towers, and water storage
• Local network operations center (NOC) for monitoring all data center operations
• 24x7 monitoring and support of network connection and server availability
• 24x7 uniformed guard service with interior and exterior closed-circuit television surveillance
• Electronic access at all data center entrances, including biometric hand scanners
• Electronic key management systems and individually keyed cabinets

As you can see, we take the security and privacy of all of our member information very seriously.

When you create your account you can opt-in or opt-out of receiving emails from us. We very rarely send emails, and at most you may receive an invitation to provide feedback on our services. We do not send any emails promoting third party products or services.

We absolutely do not share personal information about you or your designated Keyholders® with any other organisation. We have no affiliate companies, partners or interests in any other organisations. You will not receive any other mailings based on a membership at this website. Furthermore, we will not resell, trade, lease or rent to third parties any personally identifiable information about you or about any of your designated Keyholders®.

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, and MyMessages™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. 

We have worked extensively with solicitors in the U.K. to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™ and MyLivingWill™ services are up to date with the laws in England and Wales in the United Kingdom.

In the UK, power of attorney forms are provided free of charge by the government.

LegalWills.co.uk has been in business since 2001. In Internet terms we have been around for a very, very long time.

Furthermore, we have funds set aside to pay for server hosting for decades into the future. If for some reason LegalWills.co.uk stopped accepting new members, we would still be able to honour the MyMessages™, MyLifeLocker™ and MyVault™ functionality beyond the lives of our youngest members.

Even if LegalWills.co.uk closed its doors permanently, the product of all of our services can be printed, including your legal documents. Your printed Will would last you for the rest of your life, whether or not LegalWills.co.uk was still around. Our pricing structure still makes the creation of these documents very cost effective for all of our members, with no dependency on the LegalWills.co.uk website.

But LegalWills.co.uk has every intention of being here to stay!

Scroll down to the bottom of your member home page and there is a link to delete your entire membership. If you click on this, your profile and all associated data will be removed from our system permanently. If you cannot find the link, just email or phone us and we can remove your account for you.

No, we do not offer blank form Will kits, and in general we do not recommend them.

They used to be popular before the emergence of online interactive services like the one at LegalWills.co.uk, but they led to a number of problems. Most blank form Will kits allow you to create a document that will not work through the probate process.

Our service guides you through the process of preparing a Will and the final document is professional grade. We also allow you to make updates whenever you need to.

We strongly recommend that you do not use a blank form Will kit.

This can happen occasionally when the system has lost track of whether you are logged in or logged out. It occurs most commonly when multiple tabs are open in your web browser, or if you are working on more than one account at a time.

To fix it, you must logout of all of your accounts. If this doesn't work, restart your browser. If you are still experiencing an issue with this, please contact us.

Simply send us an email at [lnkSupportEmail3UK].  We will try to answer any questions that you have. We usually respond within the hour.