There are two certainties in life: death and taxation. Making a Will won't prevent either of these
events from occurring - but it CAN reduce the impact, and the worry of what may happen in the
event of the other.

You don't HAVE to make a Will. In fact the majority of people in the UK don't. Why not? Fear of the
cost, the unknown or inviting disaster? Delusions of immortality? Or are people simply happy
to leave their grieving relatives to puzzle and argue their way through the whole sorry complicated mess after they themselves are pushing up daisies ?

If you die without making a will everything you leave behind gets divided according to a set of rules dating back to the Administration of Estates Act 1925. Your wealth can go to the person you least want to have it and your loved ones can lose out, perhaps to the Inland Revenue. That's the kind of thing that happens when you leave the destiny of your family and friends in the hands of long-dead Lawyers.

Making a Will is not difficult, macabre, or tempting fate. It's simple and cheap - normally in the region of £80 plus VAT for something simple and straightforward (we'll tell you in advance if it is likely to be more). And it means YOU get to actively choose:

- The Solicitors (who will prepare your Will)
- The Executors (who will deal with your affairs when you die)
- The Beneficiaries (who will inherit your money when you die)
- The Guardians (who will look after your children if you die)
- Your Body (how you want your body to be dealt with when you die)
- The Taxman (How much you want to give the Taxman)
- The End ?

You do not have to instruct Mason Baggott and Garton, or any other firm of Solicitors,
to draw up your Will. You can get anyone to do it for you, or, you can do it yourself.

A simple and straightforward will usually costs in the region of £80 plus VAT. A Lawyer
engaged in contesting a Will which is wrongly drawn up, will cost at least £100 per hour.
The financial costs of a badly prepared Will can be thousands and thousands of pounds;
the cost to family and friendships may be greater still.

Someone has to be responsible for collecting all your money in and paying it out to those you have chosen. Who would you trust to do this? If you do not appoint the Executors, that old 1925 Act will do it for you.

You could choose only one person but it is better to appoint at least two. In certain circumstances, depending on the terms of your Will, to may be better to appoint more than two. We would need to discuss this with you.

You can choose anyone you like. Many people appoint their Husband or Wife, their grown up children or very close and trusted friends. Some people appoint their Bank to act as Executors – strangely. Most others appoint professional advisors, their Solicitors or Accountants. Appointing a firm of Solicitors, for instance, does guard against the death of a particular Solicitor – the partners in that firm at the date of your death would act as Executors.

You can choose a combination of the above, provide for the death of a named Executor or choose somebody else entirely. We would not normally advise the appointment of someone else a lot older than yourself, for fairly obvious reasons.
Most of all, you should only choose the people you trust.

Who do you want to benefit in your Will? How would you like them to benefit? And when? This may be more complicated than you think. There are different types of gifts, which can be given at different times to your Beneficiaries.

You may want to leave something in particular to one person. A piece of jewelry, your fishing tackle or even a sum of money. You might want to allow someone to live in your house for as long as they wish, even though you want someone else to entirely own it in the end. You may think that nobody should inherit anything until they are twenty-five. Great Aunt June may be 102 now but you can still leave her something in return for that chair, with the proviso that if she dies before you, the gift will pass to her favorite cat’s home instead.

All the above can be arranged by a properly worded Will.

It is for you to decide who the Beneficiaries are. In the end, the hardest choice of all may be the people you would like to give everything to that is left, after payment of all your debts and specific gifts. This is your residuary estate. Consider the alternatives;- who do you want to benefit? And, if they die before you, who then? And what happens if one of them is dead?

You should also tell us whom you are not mentioning in your Will. Is there a long lost son waiting in the wings to claim against your estate the day after you die? It is only if we know about it that we can guard against any claim succeeding.

Oh no. We have to make sure that the Will is executed in accordance with Section of the Wills Act 1832. If we don't, it isn't valid.

You then have to make sure that you keep your Will updated, although we may remind you from time to time. Life changes, circumstances change and so should your Will. It is not set in stone and can be altered at any time.

It must be altered if you marry, as the original Will is made totally invalid when you do so. It should be altered if you divorce because that makes your original Will partly invalid.

It ought to be altered on a regular basis to make sure it remains up to date. Altering your Will is even easier than making it in the first place.

Making a Will makes sense. It's cheap to do - and things can go horrendously wrong if you don't. It's senseless to put it off any longer