How Can You Make Sure Your Will Is Valid?

A Will is a helpful and reassuring legal document to have in place, no matter your age or personal circumstances.

If someone dies without having made a Will, or if their Will is no longer valid, it is called dying intestate. In these situations, the government decide who will inherit the individual’s assets based on the intestacy rules. Usually, this would mean their estate would pass to their closest legal relative.

The problem with this is that someone’s closest legal relative is not always the person they would’ve chosen to leave their estate to. For example, an unmarried partner or step-child would not be able to inherit under intestacy rules.

Making a Will – and ensuring it remains valid – is the only way to be sure that your estate would pass to the person of your choice in the event of your death.

How to make a Will

Making a Will doesn’t have to be complicated. The best way to do this is to work with a solicitor who specialises in wills.

Your solicitor will help you decide how you would like your estate to be administered. They will also be able to ensure precautions are put in place to ensure your Will would be followed correctly. Working with an experienced solicitor vastly reduces the likelihood of your Will being found to be invalid.

During the process of making a Will, you would need to make decisions about two key points;

Who you would like to inherit your estate (which would include any property, financial assets and personal belongings).
Who you would like to be responsible for carrying out these wishes and administering your estate.

Your solicitor would then put together a clear legal document that would set out these wishes clearly, with no room for interpretation.

They would also be able to offer solutions for any complicating factors, such as protecting a family business from inheritance tax or preparing to retire overseas.

You can get an idea of how much inheritance tax your estate might be subject to by using our online inheritance tax calculator.

Signing your Will correctly

The most common reason for a Will to be considered invalid is in cases where it has not been signed correctly. Your solicitor will help to avoid any uncertainty in this respect by ensuring everything is done in the proper way.

One of the most important factors in signing your Will is making sure that it has been properly witnessed. This is when two other people sign the document after you to confirm that they have seen you sign and that you did so of your own free will.

If you’re able to sign your Will at your solicitor’s office, your solicitor and another colleague will usually act as witnesses themselves. If you’re unable to get to the office, your solicitor will give very clear instructions on how to ensure your will is signed and witnessed properly at home.

Please do remember that your witness shouldn’t be anyone who is mentioned in your Will. Once someone has witnessed a Will, they are no longer able to benefit from it.

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Changes to the way Wills can be witnessed during Covid-19

The 2020 lockdown is an unprecedented situation that has made signing and witnessing legal documents more complicated.

Uncertain times often encourage people to put legal documents in place for the future, but from March to July 2020 there was no straight-forward way for them to be witnessed. This led to some very creative solutions, such as signing wills on car bonnets or over garden fences.

The government have responded to this challenging situation by temporarily allowing wills to be witnessed over video link software. Though this law will not come into play until September 2020, it will be backdated to 31^st January 2020. This means that any wills that were witnessed over video call during this time would be considered valid.

It’s important to note that wills should still be witnessed in person wherever possible. However, this law change has been established for the benefit of those who are shielding or self-isolating.

The new rules will remain in place until January 2022, unless the government deems it necessary to shorten or extend the legislation period.

What else do you need to do to make sure your Will is valid?

Signing or witnessing your Will incorrectly aren’t the only things that could make your Will invalid.

You should also be aware that other life events could render your Will null and void. For example, getting married automatically cancels any Will that was made prior to the event (unless very specific wording relating to the marriage in question has been included).

Along these same lines, a divorce would also affect your Will. Though it wouldn’t cancel the whole document, it would mean that your former spouse was no longer entitled to inherit or act as an executor.

What should you do if you’re not sure your Will is valid?

If you have any concerns about the validity of your Will, we recommend that you speak to a specialist solicitor. They will be able to review your Will, along with your current circumstances, and advise on whether there are likely to be any issues.

It’s wise to ask a solicitor to review your Will every few years to ensure there are no matters of concern and that you have taken all appropriate precautions to safeguard your estate on behalf of your loved ones.

How Roche Legal can help

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