Updating wills ourselves?

[MissLollipop]

Can you help with advice on changing wills?

Several years ago, my husband and I set up wills via a solicitor. The process involved detailed advice at a couple of face-to-face consultations, various edits to the draft documents, witnessing of our signatures and storage of the wills. All this cost £400.

We now want to make a few changes to the wills (alterations within existing clauses - e.g. change to executor name). We've been advised that this requires redrafting rather than codicils. We have provided details of the changes by email, and requested that the updated wills are sent to us to arrange witnessing. So essentially all we are asking for is minor editing of 2 word documents, printing and posting to us, and then storage. We were shocked that the solicitor wants to charge us £300!

So my question is this - is there any reason why we cannot just type up the new wills ourselves? Would there be any question about their validity? Could we ask the solicitor to store the new wills (or destroy the obsolete ones) to avoid any uncertainty over which version is active?

I should add that one of the changes is something that could cause contention within the family, so it is very important to us that the updated wills cannot be questioned. We would just prefer not to pay £300 that we can't really afford.

Thanks for reading, and for any advice.

[Rangirl]

I do not recommend that you change the wills yourselves ,asking for trouble particularly if it is controversial.I would shop around for a cheaper quote

[prh47bridge]

Do not try doing it yourselves, particularly if one of the changes you want is contentious. You should be able to get your wills done cheaper than the quote you have had from your solicitor. We have a resident will writer on MN (mumblechum1) who charges less than that.

[gallicgirl]

Will writer is better, particularly if you have already had a solicitor do all the legal nitty gritty. I think we're going to be doing our wills for £200 for the pair.

[MissLollipop]

Thanks for your replies - seems pretty unanimous, and as you've suggested we'll try shopping around for a more reasonable price. Many thanks.

[mumblechum1]

Hi, I'm the will writer referred to by prh47 (thanks for plug!).

I have an advert over on the Small Business section of Classifieds titled "5* Will Writing Service Recommended by Mumsnetters" which has a link to my website.

I charge £140 for a pair of mirror wills, and no VAT is payable.