FAQs

Making a Will means that you are legally declaring who you want to inherit everything that you own when you die, and who you want to administrate the process of distributing it. If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

Yes. A Will made using our service is 100% legal under the laws of England and Wales. All wills are individually compiled by an independent registered Will-Writer or Solicitor.

If you die without making a Will you are said to have died Intestate.

Dying intestate leaves your loved ones with far more work to do at a time when they will be bereaved, and it is highly likely that your Estate your possessions will not go to who you want them to. For example, if you are living with but not married to your partner, they will receive nothing if you die intestate.

Yes, you can. But there are risks in writing your Will without any assistance. It could mean substantial legal fees to put things right or it could be even worse:-
(a) A Will that is not clear under the law is open to challenge and your wishes may be overruled.
(b) A Will not made under the correct procedures could be declared invalid.

You can make a Will if you are 18 or over and if you have the mental capacity to make a Will. Put another way, you cannot make a Will if any of the following apply:-

• If you are under 18
• If you do not understand what making a Will actually means
• If you do not understand (at least roughly) the extent of your Estate (i.e. what you own)
• If you do not understand who should be included in your Will (see 'What if I want to leave people out of my Will?' below)

Yes. If you have anything that you will cease to own as soon as you die, then you can't leave it in your Will. What this means is that you can’t leave any of the following in your Will :-

• If you own a property as ‘Joint Tenants’ with somebody else, then you can’t leave your share in your Will.
• The same goes for your share of any joint bank account held on a 'Joint Tenants' basis. You should contact your bank to clarify how your account is held.
• Death in service benefit – we advise you to contact your employer to arrange who is to receive this because your Will does not cover it.
• Your pension rights - these will normally already be assigned to somebody. You should contact your employer or pension provider to check.
• A Life Insurance Policy that is already written in Trust to a beneficiary. If you have any doubts over whether or not a Life Insurance Policy of yours is written in this way, then you should contact the Life Insurance Provider with whom you hold the Policy.
• Property (i.e. a house, flat, etc.) that is outside England and Wales.

The above list is not exhaustive, but please don't worry too much about this subject: if you do leave any of the above in your Will, then the Will would still be legal - the items concerned would simply be crossed out.

If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

Yes you can. However if this is a concern then an online Will may not answer your needs

If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

Possibly. The simple answer is that first £325,000 ('the Nil Rate Band') of your estate will pass free of IHT. The remainder will be taxed at 40%. Again if your estate is likely to be more than £325,000 then an online Will may not be suitable for you

If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

A Will will remain valid until it is ‘revoked’ (cancelled). This can happen in one of the following ways :-

If you marry or enter into a Civil Partnership (by law, marriage automatically revokes a Will) – in this case all you’ll need to do is re-print the Will (using your new name if it has changed) and re-sign/witness it as before.

If you make another Will (or re-write your Will) using our site – all our Wills contain a clause revoking all previous Wills made under the laws of England and Wales.

If you intentionally destroy the Will.

Note that if your Will has not been revoked but it cannot be found then you will still be deemed to have died without a Will (i.e. ‘intestate’).

If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

If you are both wanting to appoint the same Executors and Guardians, and wanting to leave your Residuary Estate to the same people after you have both passed away, then it’s easier (and cheaper) to write ‘Mirror Wills’.

‘Mirror Wills’ are a pair of almost identical Wills, with the second Will a ‘Mirror’ of the first.

Note that if you are not wanting to appoint the same Executors and Guardians, and/or not wanting to leave your Residuary Estate to the same people after you have both passed away, then you are not making Mirrored Wills – and must instead make a pair of ‘Single Wills’.

If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

Yes. An Executor can be a beneficiary and a beneficiary can be an Executor.

If this is something that you are worried about please call our free advice line 0800 2988661.

Yes. One of the advantages of a Will is that it allows you to legally appoint somebody to look after your children should you die before they reach the age of 18.

Community Interest Companies (CICS) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage.

This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes.

Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by the Regulator who also has a continuing monitoring and enforcement role

CICs have to follow specific rules, including the following:

• CICs must have an asset lock. This means that the company cannot generally transfer its profits or assets for less than their full market value except as permitted by regulation. It will also protect any remaining assets for the community if you dissolve the CIC.
• If you set up your CIC as a company limited by shares, you'll have the option of issuing sharesthat pay a capped dividend to investors. The cap is set by the CIC Regulator to protect the asset lock.
• Together with your annual accounts, you must present an annual community interest company report for public record. The report must show what the CIC has done during the year to pursue its pre-specified community interest and involve the individuals or groups with a particular interest in the CIC.

Community interest is the heart of the CIC and the community interest test is what differentiates CICs from other not-for-profit organisations.

To become a CIC, an organisation needs to satisfy the regulator that its purposes could be regarded by a reasonable person as being in the community or wider public interest. It will also be asked to confirm that access to the benefits it provides will not be confined to an unduly restricted group.

The Asset Lock is a fundamental feature of CICs.

“Asset Lock” is a general term used to cover all the provisions designed to ensure that the assets of the CIC (including any profits or other surpluses generated by its activities) are used for the benefit of the community.

The transfer of any assets must satisfy certain requirements. This means that, subject to the CIC meeting its obligations, its assets must either be retained within the CIC to be used for the community purposes for which it was formed, or, if they are transferred out of the CIC, the transfer must satisfy at least one of the following requirements:

• It is made for full consideration (i.e. at market value), so that the CIC retains the value of the assets transferred;
• It is made to another asset locked body (a CIC or charity, or non-GB based equivalent) which is specified in the CIC's memorandum or articles of association;
• It is made to another asset locked body with the consent of the Regulator; or It is otherwise made for the benefit of the community.

Provision to this effect, as prescribed in the Regulations, must be included in a CIC's memorandum or articles of association. CICs are permitted to adopt asset lock rules that impose more stringent requirements, provided they also include these basic provisions.

The asset lock is established in legislation, and will prohibit CICs from distributing their assets or profits to their members, except to the extent permitted where CICs issue equity.

The lock will not prevent CICs from using their assets efficiently in pursuit of community benefit; for instance, they will be able to use assets as collateral for finance. The regulator will be responsible for ensuring that the asset lock is maintained, and stakeholders who believe that it is being breached will be able to ask the regulator to take action.

CICs will report annually to an independent regulator on how they are delivering for the community and how they are involving their stakeholders in their activities.

The purpose of Benevolent Wills is three-fold

• To give people a cheap and professionally written online Will if that is appropriate
• To give advice in relation to writing a Will and help people write the most suitable Will for their needs
• To enable people to easily give to charitable causes as part of their Will should they wish to do so

Our purpose is not to make lots of money it is to genuinely help and support charities in terms of their lifeblood – donation. And to help and support the general population in relation to what we believe is one of the most important pieces of paper you will ever write – your Will.

We have been set up as a Community Interest Company as that enables us to give our profits to charitable causes cost effectively and provides regulation that holds us to task in this regard.

As a Community Interest Company we are regulated and monitored and have to provide certain information that supports our status as a CIC.

We have also decided to take this one step further and publish quarterly accounts so that our activities and plans are entirely transparent.

We have gone through a community Interest test , we must have an asset lock in place and must provide annual reports that clearly demonstrate our activities in terms of our mandate in relation to social enterprise