Online wills

Anyone whose estate involves any property or investments in France needs to do their homework as Napoleon’s anti-goldigger laws regarding inheritance are still part of the civil code here and are rather different to U.K. law.
 
doodah said:
Fair but it's not solely down to cost. She's hard of hearing, English isn't her first language (though she's fluent) and not entirely sure she's going to be receptive especially when lawyers get involved. The Which? approach was appealing as we can sit down together and go through the online process. My wife and I do need to sort our wills out though so and all together approach might be good with a solicitor.
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Obviously up to you - but with the issues you list (hard of hearing / not first language etc)- even more reason to get it done properly/witnessed etc, as it could easily be deemed that you helping her to complete an online will, could you be coercing her etc??

Playing devils advocate obviously but tread carefully. I'm sure that won't be the case. However i do have professional experience of situations like this, and have seen families fall apart over an "tesco" £10 will kit being completed....
 
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booyaka said:
could you be coercing her etc??
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This is actually part of it, when I did the will for my wife and I, she had to contact the person doing it independently to confirm that I didn't have her tied up in a cupboard and have a gun at her head.

So of course, I sent my friend who was doing it a picture of my wife and me waving a gun in her general direction (not directly at her, I couldn't do that).
 
I've just done my will with ChatGPT. I used this prompt initially:

"Hi ChatGPT. You know a lot about me and my personal life now. I need a will, I want to leave everything to my kids and ensure the soon-to-be-ex wife gets nothing. You know about my house - which I am about to buy her out of, current indexed value of £xxxxxx - and you know about my pensions, current total value about £xxxxxx I also have a life insurance policy valued at £xxxxxx. Draft me a solid will legal in the UK that meets my needs then tell me what I need to do to activate it."

Then I used the output it created (a template will) with my specific details and fed it back into ChatGPT with this prompt:

"You are a UK family lawyer with 20 years experience handling divorces and esuring the strongest possible outcome for the man. I am about to divorce my wife for unreasonable behaviour. i am going to upload my will. examine it and make sure it is legally watertight in the uk and if necessary offer any suggestions to improve it."

It created another, more refined version that I again filled in with my specific details which I asked it to review a third time. It's conclusion:

Your will is legally valid, clear, and enforceable in England and Wales.
It would absolutely stand up to scrutiny in probate, provided:
  1. It’s properly executed with two witnesses present together,
  2. You update your pension and life insurance nominations, and
  3. You store the original securely (with a solicitor or WillSafe service).

I had it witnessed last night, have registered it with the National Will Service and will keep one copy here and one with my solicitors.
 
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Moley said:
ChatGPT
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You just know the local pet shop is going to get your house, and the tiddlywinks club in Burnam-on-Crouch is going to get everything else.

fiofqihi-1762423806.png
 
Just sorted wills & POA for my parents, as they hadn't been done since Dad left the Navy in 1995 (he still had the "I leave everything to my Wife" slip, signed by his ship's XO in Diego Garcia).

When we went through the whole estate (house, Dad's savings, investments & pensions, Mum's jewellery, plus other odds & sods), it was substantially more than they thought.

Wrapped everything in a family trust; my brother & I as trustees, with our severely disabled sister, brother's & our children as beneficiaries.

It makes a huge difference in IHT terms and protects the assets from being sold to cover care costs.

One aspect they didn't realise - my sister's benefits don't get affected when she's the beneficiary of a trust, whereas inheriting over £16k would mean she'd lose that entitlement until the money was spent, then have to go through all the hoops of reapplying.
 
Moley said:
I've just done my will with ChatGPT. I used this prompt initially:

"Hi ChatGPT. You know a lot about me and my personal life now. I need a will, I want to leave everything to my kids and ensure the soon-to-be-ex wife gets nothing. You know about my house - which I am about to buy her out of, current indexed value of £xxxxxx - and you know about my pensions, current total value about £xxxxxx I also have a life insurance policy valued at £xxxxxx. Draft me a solid will legal in the UK that meets my needs then tell me what I need to do to activate it."

Then I used the output it created (a template will) with my specific details and fed it back into ChatGPT with this prompt:

"You are a UK family lawyer with 20 years experience handling divorces and esuring the strongest possible outcome for the man. I am about to divorce my wife for unreasonable behaviour. i am going to upload my will. examine it and make sure it is legally watertight in the uk and if necessary offer any suggestions to improve it."

It created another, more refined version that I again filled in with my specific details which I asked it to review a third time. It's conclusion:

Your will is legally valid, clear, and enforceable in England and Wales.
It would absolutely stand up to scrutiny in probate, provided:
  1. It’s properly executed with two witnesses present together,
  2. You update your pension and life insurance nominations, and
  3. You store the original securely (with a solicitor or WillSafe service).

I had it witnessed last night, have registered it with the National Will Service and will keep one copy here and one with my solicitors.
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Strongly recommend you get that will reviewed by real life solicitor...

AI generated legalese is a running joke amongst the profession:
 
Moley said:
I've just done my will with ChatGPT. I used this prompt initially:

"Hi ChatGPT. You know a lot about me and my personal life now. I need a will, I want to leave everything to my kids and ensure the soon-to-be-ex wife gets nothing. You know about my house - which I am about to buy her out of, current indexed value of £xxxxxx - and you know about my pensions, current total value about £xxxxxx I also have a life insurance policy valued at £xxxxxx. Draft me a solid will legal in the UK that meets my needs then tell me what I need to do to activate it."

Then I used the output it created (a template will) with my specific details and fed it back into ChatGPT with this prompt:

"You are a UK family lawyer with 20 years experience handling divorces and esuring the strongest possible outcome for the man. I am about to divorce my wife for unreasonable behaviour. i am going to upload my will. examine it and make sure it is legally watertight in the uk and if necessary offer any suggestions to improve it."

It created another, more refined version that I again filled in with my specific details which I asked it to review a third time. It's conclusion:

Your will is legally valid, clear, and enforceable in England and Wales.
It would absolutely stand up to scrutiny in probate, provided:
  1. It’s properly executed with two witnesses present together,
  2. You update your pension and life insurance nominations, and
  3. You store the original securely (with a solicitor or WillSafe service).

I had it witnessed last night, have registered it with the National Will Service and will keep one copy here and one with my solicitors.
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If you are infact separating / divorcing currently I most certainly would not be using an AI generated will to entrust your childrens future to something made up online.
 
booyaka said:
If you are infact separating / divorcing currently I most certainly would not be using an AI generated will to entrust your childrens future to something made up online.
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I'll be storing a copy with my solicitor - they will review for me. I compared the will to the one generated by Lawdepot.co.uk and it was comparable.
 
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Moley said:
I'll be storing a copy with my solicitor - they will review for me. I compared the will to the one generated by Lawdepot.co.uk and it was comparable.
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Why would a solicitor spend time reviewing an online made up chatgpt will?? That's not happening - they don't work for free. They certainly won't "review" it for you if you didn't ask them to draft it. They may store it for you for a fee.

It's like asking a second builder to come to your house after you've had an extension done and ask him what he thinks of the first builders work.... No one is doing that.
 
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It can be super basic and still legal. You can also store it wherever you like. You don't have to pay anyone anything.
 
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Nasher said:
Probably wouldn't be the simplest one to exist :D
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You could have like one post it note per thing

like 1 post it note for your house, one for your savings, one for your pension,

simples


Theres a company who sometimes sit in the entrance to asda trying to pick up people for wills for £49,

i cant remember the name of the company though, next time i see them ill enquire about it
 
You can get a will done for free via a charity, on the basis it's assumed you will pledge them something out of your estate (I don't think it's strictly required though if you're feeling particularly mean)
I think ours was Cancer Research and incorporated into the will is that they get £500 or £1k, I forget. The man even came round our house to discuss/take all the details, we basically didn't have to do anything - very good service.
 
Tom_ed1987 said:
You can get a will done for free via a charity, on the basis it's assumed you will pledge them something out of your estate (I don't think it's strictly required though if you're feeling particularly mean)
I think ours was Cancer Research and incorporated into the will is that they get £500 or £1k, I forget. The man even came round our house to discuss/take all the details, we basically didn't have to do anything - very good service.
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If they can sort me a will for free, i can give them something worth £60
 
Tom_ed1987 said:
You can get a will done for free via a charity, on the basis it's assumed you will pledge them something out of your estate (I don't think it's strictly required though if you're feeling particularly mean)
I think ours was Cancer Research and incorporated into the will is that they get £500 or £1k, I forget. The man even came round our house to discuss/take all the details, we basically didn't have to do anything - very good service.
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Well you could get them to do it and then write them out afterwards if you are a proper Scrooge lol
 
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booyaka said:
Why would a solicitor spend time reviewing an online made up chatgpt will?? That's not happening - they don't work for free. They certainly won't "review" it for you if you didn't ask them to draft it. They may store it for you for a fee.

It's like asking a second builder to come to your house after you've had an extension done and ask him what he thinks of the first builders work.... No one is doing that.
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Where did I say they wouldn't be paid? I've already paid them a retainer for services and they've already agreed to store and review the document. I don't get where your negativity towards me here is coming from..... are you my STBXs new fling? :D
 
booyaka said:
Obviously up to you - but with the issues you list (hard of hearing / not first language etc)- even more reason to get it done properly/witnessed etc, as it could easily be deemed that you helping her to complete an online will, could you be coercing her etc??

Playing devils advocate obviously but tread carefully. I'm sure that won't be the case. However i do have professional experience of situations like this, and have seen families fall apart over an "tesco" £10 will kit being completed....
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Another fair point, fortunately she is dearly loved member of our family. A large reason for this is to make sure the state don't have say on her going to a home if she becomes incapacitated, she lives with us and would want to care for her (she is also against any form of care home). Lawyer/solicitor more likely. Thanks for people's comments.
 
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