Writing A Will – Should I Do It Myself?

No matter how thorough you are, it is very unlikely you can do a Will as well as someone who draft Wills everyday. It is just like making your own furniture. While you can make them yourself, others can do it better, with less time and in many cases, cheaper too.

We got this story from someone who did his own Will. Here is what he wrote.

I’m a DIY person myself but when it come to writing a Will, I suggest you don’t do it. Why? I wrote my own Will the first time. I spent many hours looking at websites and reading books about Wills. When I felt that I have the information needed, I started to write my own Will. When I finished, I felt very proud of myself.

I forgot about my whole Will thing. Later, I got married and the children came along, my wife pushed me to write my Will. She saw an article on the newspaper and decided to call a Will writer. I told her save her money since I know how to write a Will and have one to prove it.

Having doubts about my legal knowledge, she took the Will to the Will writer and the comment that came back is that there were many mistakes. The will would not have been valid.

Other friends told don’t be “kiasu” because “if you write your own Will, it is like buying a $10 lock to secure you million dollar home.” I got the point.

I suggest you get a professional to write a proper Will.

Other reasons why it is better to get a qualified person.

A professional is trained to write your Will so that nothing is left to chance. You might leave out important clauses when you write a Will yourself. A professional can help you tailor make a Will to reflect your intentions without any ambiguity. If what you write is not clear, your beneficiaries can contest your Will creating disharmony among family members.

Here is another story we received.

My father wrote and kept his own Will long ago. After he passed away, it took us tedious time to locate his Will because none of us or even mom knew where he kept it. Due to time constraints by the Court, we almost ransack the whole house. Finally the Will was found in a narrow slit between his old cabinet that was infested by termites. Thank God! the Will was safe.

We used the Will and applied for a grant of probate but we were told that the Will was incomplete due to no appointment of Executors. We are to file a petition for Letters of Administration with Will Annexed. Not too sure what it is or how to go about it, so we decided to get help from a lawyer. Even with the help, the process of the will took 4 years and found out that yet another problem occurred…we have to locate the witnesses who had co signed my father’s will. It was a long and tedious task to locate them. It took us yet another 1 1/2 years just to find out that the witnesses can not be located. Due to the long delay and the hassles of attaining the estate even though my father wrote his own will, it took us 6 1/2 years to settle the process and we were charged with a lot of legal fees due to the long process.

We do not suggest that you write your own Will because we have seen so many such DIY Wills with common omission like Will not dated, not having substitute executors, no substitute beneficiaries, guardians not named as well as other crucial details left out. Such Wills would either be invalid or do a partial job and would create problems for the beneficiaries.