Yes, they are very important.

And yet another thing that I haven't got round to doing yet. 

Me neither 

They most certainly are. Get it sorted now! You can get a DIY one if neccessary. You need to work out to whom you want to leave your estate, and who will carry out your wishes.

Ooops! 

On it Joe!!! 

Yes, did mine 10 years ago when we bought the house.

Listen to Joe he speaks wise words.

Wot if you have nothing to leave 

RIGHT STOP THIS slimfern !!!

Ya gettin' me worried

 . . .morbid bugger

I wrote mine 30 years ago......REALLY need to change it big time....advise please Joe..

As in DIY....

lal we bought DIY ones from WH Smith, but we never did them and ended up getting our solicitor to do them.

*ponders LAL's age*

I echo slim's question. I don't have much. In fact less than my children have. I've decided to make a will and say throw everything into a skip apart from personal stuff and the car and be done with it. My ex-husband (father of my children) has just been diagnosed with the same problem I have (copd) and has immediately responded by making my daughter his excecutor. He has 2 more children from his second marriage and actually has a house, so something to share between the the 4 of them.

A clue for Renton....OLDISH....X

be careful what you guess!!!

I have one from nearly 30 years ago, I don't own my flat or have any money or anything materially valuable but I had it drawn up solely to state my wishes regarding my sons if I had died while they were young.

Now they are both nearing 30 it has no relevance but I suppose I should really do a new one

Now that's just encouraging me so . . .

62?

on behalf of lal

61 then?

I knew it !!! LOL 

Funnily enough, I was just reading about Malcolm McLaren, who left a will expressly cutting his son off, and I thought we should probably update ours.

To be honest, the only thing that needs changing is that we originally said that if anything happened to the two of us, my brother and his wife would look after the children. Said children are all grown up now, so that bit isn't relevant.

Our will is all concerned with who'll take care of the kids - being that they are now 32, 30 and 29 I think they may object to my sister 'looking after them'.

We have a solicitor who has acted for us for 36 years - he lives and works in Leyburn in the Dales and although very familiar with him on the phone we had actually only met him once. We arranged a trip to discuss a Will - we had a couple of hours discussion - went for an incredibly boozy and lovely lunch at the Wensleydale Heiffer. Five years on - no bill and no will - he knows what we want I guess we should chase him up on it. Our affairs are a bit complicated as we have four shops and one of our kids works for us.

My first one was 14 years ago. Did a new one when I got married and did another new one last year. 

I need to update mine

I haven't got one.  I really should though because, although I have nothing worth to leave my kids, it's MY KIDS who I would be leaving so I would need to state my wishes as to who I would want to look after them if both me and my OH died  I'd hate to think of my siblings fighting over who should take them or worse....no1 wanting them!  I have witnessed my 3 year old nephew being fought over because his mother didn't state who she wanted to look after her kids when she killed herself.  It has caused terrible family rows on her side and my OHs side (it's his brothers kid) and the wee boy has suffered the most in it all.

So I will have to make more of an effort to actually get something in writing!

It's also important to state what you want to happen to you.

had mine done about 25 years ago,,, even though I'm divorced now, the ex spouse the is automatically taken out of the will 

my will was kept at the solicitors I used throughout my married life Sooz until I was divorced and then my I changed  and my new solicitor sent me a copy.... if you're not sure give them a ring, but it's normally kept at the solicitor who made it. 

Really Dame?    Our solicitor did wills for free when me and my ex bought our first house, then when split up mine offered to re-do mine, again for free.   I went a bit Dallas/Dynasty then and cut a couple of the beneficiaries share down a bit .. given that I had them all equal and two of them treat me like a mum and the other two hardly ever get in touch.  Not that I'm likely to leave owt though.. so looks like the favourites get to pay off most debt then! 

That's what my solicitor informed me kaffy...he automatically was struck off after the divorce, she said change it if you want or leave it as it is...his share would just be shared with my daughters. She'd better be right, I've not altered it 

I'll take the money and the house.

I'm sure it'll be fine Dame.. maybe Scottish solicitors are just more vindictive    She did say it didn't matter if I didn't change my name on it (but I did anyway taking no chances!) 

I think your sister might object as well  i hope you haven't forgotten your adopted daughter in your will 

I've told Mr Cinds that whatever happens if I die first he MUST get 3 prices for the funeral.  Everything we do (new windows, blinds, building work, buying machinery for work etc) he insists on 3 prices before he makes a decision, so I think he should do it for my funeral.

He knows I want to be cremated.  But if it gets too expensive I'm quite happy for him to throw my body over the back fence on to the motorway embankment in a hessian sack.

With reference to the kids, we did ours 10 years ago when they were all still minors and accounted for other people having to look after them, but worded it in such a way that it wouldn't have to be updated once they became adults.  

We also stipulated that if we both died close together then all inheritance for the children would be held in trust until they were 30.  Sounds harsh, but they will all get a decent amount of money and we didn't want them to think they could sit back and do nothing with their education/life because they had all that money sitting there.  We thought at least if they had to wait until they were 30 they would make an effort to do something for themselves. 

Wow did I really just type all of that