What Young People Aren't Being Told About Wills

Although it might seem easier to do a quick search online or buy a template Will, this is risky business. Wills are relatively inexpensive when you consider how important they are and the consequences of a DIY job gone wrong.

While doing it yourself might seem easier and cheaper at the time, there is the potential for DIY Wills to cause several problems down the track when your loved ones attempt to distribute your estate. It is very common for home-made Wills not to be executed correctly and are not drafted carefully enough to make the will-maker's intentions clear.

These issues often result in the court refusing to accept the Will as valid, which can result in an expensive legal nightmare for the family.

In some cases, the court may decide to ignore the DIY Will and revert back to the standard distribution rules in the Administration Act (which is exactly what the will-maker did not want).

Before property can be distributed in accordance with a Will, the court must give an order that the Will complies with all the requirements and is declared valid.

This process is called probate. Only on being granted probate, do executors then have the right to distribute an estate. Probate applications become incredibly difficult to process through the courts when an error has been made in a Will.

There are strict requirements that must be met before the court Will make an order granting probate.

It is not uncommon for DIY Wills to contain seemingly insignificant errors, which result in probate being rejected and a lengthy and costly process for the family of having the error fixed.

Once the Will is made there is always the problem of where to keep it. When you draft the document yourself it is often kept among personal papers or filed away never to be seen again.

With the demand of everyday life important paperwork can become lost over time and your family is unlikely to know where it is kept or if it even exists.

Your Will is the one document that you do not want to lose and going through a professional is always the best option to ensure your Will is not only drafted correctly, but is kept in safe hands.