Advice Admin & Legal What type of will do I need: a basic will or a bespoke will?

What type of will do I need: a basic will or a bespoke will?

What is a will?

Before we dive into the different types of will – let’s step back and talk about what a will is. A will, or a Last Will and Testament, is a legal document that lets you decide what you want to happen to your home, money and possessions (your estate) after you die. In a will, you will also choose who will carry out your wishes when you die (your executors), and if you’re a parent of children under the age of 18, you can decide who will take care of your children as a backup plan (guardians) in case you’re the sole surviving parent of your children when you die.

Having a will makes life easier for the people you leave behind - saving them money, time and stress when they’ll need it the most.

At Octopus Legacy, we offer two types of will: basic and bespoke. They both serve the same purpose, but the type of will you need depends on what your wishes are and the size of your estate.

What can you do in a basic will?

A basic will, also known as a simple will, covers all the key functions of a will and is the most popular type of will.

In our basic will, you can:

Decide what you leave behind, and to whom (your beneficiaries)
Divide up everything you own between multiple people
Give a portion of what you own, or everything you own, to charity
Leave gifts, whether they be specific items, or cash sums, to people or charities
Choose who will carry out your wishes when you die (your executors) – you can have a single executor or multiple executors (this is what most people do), and they can be someone you know or a professional
Exclude people from your will - disinheriting people
Select back-ups for beneficiaries in case they die before you do
Share what you want your funeral to look like and what you want to happen to your body after you die, within an appendix to your will

How much does a basic will cost?

The most you’ll pay for our straightforward, basic will is:

£90 - completed online, or
£150 - completed offline, via a telephone or video-call appointment with one of our legal team members.

What is a bespoke will?

A bespoke will is a will that contains specific conditions within it and, often, trusts. If you want extras that aren’t covered in the list above, then you might need a bespoke will.

What do you need a bespoke will for?

Some conditions which require a bespoke will include:

If you don’t want your children to inherit everything at 18, and you want them to be older e.g. you want them to inherit at 21 or at 25.
If you have a larger estate with lots of assets and multiple properties. Wills and inheritance are inherently trickier for larger estates, so tend to require a bespoke will (but there are some exceptions).
If you want to create specific trusts to help look after a vulnerable beneficiary, so they can be protected financially, without affecting their benefits.
If you want to protect your assets for your children while still providing for your spouse.
If you want multiple layers of substitute beneficiaries, if your beneficiaries were to die before you.
If you want to include a disaster clause. For those who like to take precautions, this covers the ‘worst case scenario’ eventualities.
If you want to leave a property as a gift to a specific person, separate from the rest of your estate.
If you want to give someone the right to live in your house, without them inheriting it.
If you want to leave money to people for a specific purpose, for example, education, a mortgage, or a wedding.