Is a DIY Will legal?

Some recent entrants to the Will Kit market seek to gain advantage by declaring that their kit is "legal" or "solicitor approved", and that leads some people to ask "Is a DIY Will legal?"

 

The answer is yes of course - it's legal, although the question is not really meaningful.  Here's why:

"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 (either solicitor prepared or DIY) 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).

 

So the sensible question is not, "Is the Kit legal?", but
"Will the Probate Office accept the Will as valid and "grant" probate to the executor named in the Will?"

 

The Probate Office doesn't care if the Will is a DIY Will or a lawyer made Will - just as long as it meets the basic requirements for Wills (and in our DIY Will Kit we bend over backwards to make sure they do).

 

Even if there is some minor flaw in a Will, the Probate Office rarely rejects them - they are there to accept Wills, not reject them. If they are not convinced about the Will, what they do is ask the executor to provide further information before they grant probate to the Executor.

 

And even if the unthinkable happened and the Probate Office just could not accept that the Will represented the last Will of the deceased,  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 in the same way. 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"

Some publishers crow about their Will Kit being "solicitor approved". Ours is too of course - we had our Will designs vetted by solicitors years ago, so we could say it is "solicitor approved" too.

 

However, such claims don't amount to anything.  "Solicitor approved" claims for Will Kits are deceptive 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 misleading advertising.

Our commercial world is full of marketers 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.

Australia Wide?

Wills made anywhere in Australia have the same basic requirements, because willmaking law throughout Australia all derives from the English system.

 

Our Will Kit is very particular about the basic Will-making requirements (like identifying the will-maker, signing it the right way etc), and for that reason you can expect a Will made with our Will Kit to be accepted throughout Australia.

 

What does vary around Australia is probate application procedure, but that affects how your executor USES your Will - not the Will itself.

 

What happens if there is NO WILL varies around Australia too (which is why a committee has been working on "uniform legislation" and "succession law reform" for about 15 years).