With Grace partner with HoneyPro, a leading technology platform that connects customers with personalised estate planning solutions. The whole team at Honey Group deliver a professional, transparent and caring service across a wide range of personal estate planning products that put customers in charge of their future, whatever it may bring. Honey have a 40+ strong legal team, including solicitors regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA); and are members of The Law Society.

According to guidance provided on the GOV.UK website, you should review your will every five years, or following any major change in your life. This would include significant events like separation or divorce, marriage or the birth of a child. Effectively, anything which would have an impact on who receives assets, or what assets would be received, is worth considering through a review of your will.

If you’ve ever looked into wills, you will have seen the word ‘executor’ used. The role of the executor in a will is quite simple – they are the person legally responsible for executing the instructions laid out in a person’s will. The executor is often a spouse, a child or another family member, and up to four executors can be appointed in a will.

There is no set price for the cost of a will, so it’s highly recommended that you shop around different will writers to find a solution that works for you. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect to pay £150-£200 for a Single Will if bought from an online provider, or £500+ for a high street solicitor to undertake the work.

There is no legal requirement for a will to be written by a solicitor, and you can write one yourself. However, having a legal expert involved helps you avoid common mistakes, and ensures that the will is written in a way which provides watertight protection. There is additional cost for having solicitors involved in the process, but it can often pay to have peace of mind that the paperwork has been completed correctly. You will still need to have your will witnessed and signed for it to be legally valid.

You can ask anyone to be a witness to a will, provided they are not due to become beneficiaries of the will. For the document to be legally valid, witnesses must be 18 or over, make it voluntarily, be of sound mind, make it in writing, sign it in the presence of 2 witnesses who are both over 18 and have it signed by your 2 witnesses, in your presence.

There is no time restriction on Wills – once they’ve been written, witnessed and legally enter effect, they will remain in place until they are preceded with a newer version, or until the Will is revoked. Though it’s recommended to update your will periodically, particularly when significant life events take place, it won’t make your Will invalid if you do not choose to do so.

Dying without a Will in place will mean you become intestate – this means that your estate will be shared out under the rules of intestacy, rather than according to your wishes. The same can be said for Wills that are written but not legally valid. Intestacy rules divide the assets between married partners, civil partners or family members. Writing a Will before you pass away means that you can have a legally binding record of your wishes for your estate, avoiding any future arguments and helping put your wishes into effect.