Home page

OUR KITS
Conveyancing
Probate
Wills
Power of Attorney
Prices & editions
Order a Kit
Distributors

OTHER INFO
Links to other sites
Miscellaneous stuff
Witnessing documents
About us

Contact us
(but please note that we are not
a legal advice service)

"Is it legal?"

Yes yes - it's legal.

And yes yes - we had our design vetted by a solicitor years ago, so we can say it is "solicitor approved".

But are these really meaningful questions?

The answer is that they are nonsense questions that some people ask because of the claims of copycat will kit marketeers.

Here is why the questions are meaningless.

"Legal"

To say a Will Kit is "legal" is meaningless because there is no approvals system of any kind for wills or will kits.

A Will (including those in a Will Kit) merely has to include the information needed for it to be accepted as valid when the executor presents it to the Probate Office (following the death of the person who made the Will).

The right question is not, "Is the Kit legal?"

The right question is  will the Probate Office accept the Will as valid and "grant" probate to the executor named in the Will?

The Probate Office rarely rejects a Will. They might ask the executor to provide further information before they grant probate to the Executor, but they rarely refuse to accept a Will.

And even if the unthinkable happened and the Probate Office did reject a Will, your estate doesn't disappear into a black hole. What happens is that one of your next of kin then applies for "Letters of Administration" instead of Probate, and they wind up the estate as if they did have Probate. That is no big deal.

So all the "marketeer-speak" about a Will Kit being "legal" is just an attempt to frighten people who don't know better.

"Solicitor Approved"

The "solicitor approved" thing is just plain deception because:

• There is no approvals system for Will Kits - full stop!
• There is no approvals system for Wills themselves - full stop!
• Neither the government nor the lawyer societies authorise any solicitors to approve the design of Wills or Will Kits.

So we suggest you dismiss "solicitor approved" claims as deceptive advertising.

Our commercial world is full of marketeers trying to frighten others into buying products or services on the basis of phony benefits or claims - a sad commentary on the standards of both business and government.

Back to the Will Kit page

17 November 2006