Free Wills.

Yesterday just before I was about to leave the house to go and do my Will, my Husband said to me, “How much are you paying?” I said, “One hundred and fifty pounds,” He said to me, “Why spend all that money, when you can get Wills for free?” I was just about to leave and I wasn’t going to argue or cancel. I replied, “It’s my money I can spend it on what I like and you can spend your money on what you like,” And left. I didn’t realize it was fifteen miles away hence even with my google map I got very lost!

I arrived thirty minutes late, it made me nervous, and I was annoyed with myself, as I’d chosen the time, I deliberately didn’t want 09.00am because of work and school traffic, so I’d chosen 11.00am, I hate all the one way roads and strange roads some of them are SO strange that they only make sense only if you live there, we have a quirky road where I live and it can be confusing if you are not familiar with it.

I was told from the office, “You can’t park outside, but you can park on side roads either side of us, there is also a Tesco five minutes’ walk from where we are.” I told the Receptionist, “I will park at Tesco and walk to yours, as I know there will be two hours free parking if you spend £5.”  I hate the unknown, driving somewhere I don’t know really stresses me out, I had a panic feeling while I was still in the house, and it got worse like something bad was going to happen. Was I foolish to spend so much money? Yes, I knew a Will is very important but…… was it worth this much? I had to ask a lot of people after I parked the car at Tesco just as well, as I was walking in the wrong direction. A lovely lady stopped and looked on her phone and saw the shop and pointed me in the right direction, and along the way two neighbours who looked at if they had very rough lives were kind enough to help, I couldn’t thank them enough too.

I pressed the buzzer and the Receptionist let me in, I said, “Sorry I’m late I got lost.” I was introduced to Robert White. Robert said, “You’re very lucky I have no one after you, usually I’m very busy.” I was pleased to hear that.

We went into his office, he was very knowledgeable and told me, how many years he’d been doing this job, I didn’t know he was a lawyer. We talked about what was happening in the news right now. He had in front of him my Will from eleven years ago. It had lapsed for one year. I asked him, “Have you made a Will?” He replied, “Yes and no,” He explained to me, “I did have a Will but due to family problems I’ve not renewed it, but as I know what I’m doing I can rustle one up in a minute.” I replied, “No one knows when they are going to die, a heart attack takes a second,” He agreed, and said, “That’s true, but I’m still going to wait, until I know what’s happening with the situation,” Which he told me about, I won’t mention it here.

He is a lovely man, and definitely know his stuff. He asked me about aspects of the old Will, and two small adjustments were made.  I asked him, “Can I tell you what songs I would like?” He explained to me, “A Will is not for that, you have to let someone else know your wishes, what you want at your funeral.”

Robert said, “I will now go and update your Will.” He left the room and, on his return, he read it back to me. He said, “I will now go and get a Witness to your signature.” He returned with a young Staff; she left a second later.

Then after the Will was signed by both of us, I said, “My Husband wanted me this morning to have a free Will instead when he heard the price of this one,” Robert said, “No Will is free, someone pays,” He went on to explain, “I give four hundred hours of my time for free, I do not get paid for it.” He went on, “October and November are the free months and I do this for a Charity.” Robert named the Charity and it’s one of my favourites ever. He went on, “From the free, consolation, after that some pay a fee to the Charity, but it is not one hundred and fifty pounds, no where near, but that is just maybe five people who give a tiny fee out of a hundred.” Robert said, “For those who have the free Wills later on some of them want something else added to their Wills or want another Service and some even recommend another family member to him, then they pay,” He told me the amount and the Services ran into hundreds and some even thousands of pounds!!!! WOW.

I said to Robert, “Last year after my Will had lapsed, I bought a Will pack from WHS for £30 but it was SO confusing, it turned out to be a sheet of paper, I added a draft of information I wanted to put on this sheet of paper but It seemed to me not enough information I would be able to add for something so important, I told Robert, “It was very frustration.” Robert said, “When you do a Will face to face like this you are paying for a Service and my advice, you don’t get that with a sheet of paper,” He was livid, but professional. I told him, “In the queue of my local post office I saw a Will on A5 paper for £10 pack.” Robert even told me how much his four hundred plus free hours is worth! He is a rich man. But then for an hour or less work to get a hundred and fifty pounds an hour, WOW, makes my wages look like peanuts.

When I was with this Company for ten years before, I got them to keep the original Will and it cost me £20 a year I did this for ten years, even when we had nothing in the bank, and was told by the bank Staff, “Don’t stop your yearly payments on that,” I have decided to keep my new and updated Will at home, but I need to let friends and family know where it is. Last night I looked at the sheet of paper and thought, that’s worth £150, but it has given me piece of mind, that’s priceless.

How about you? Have you done your Will? If not, why not?