Moving/changing will to a new solicitor

My husband and I made a will 12 years ago, when our children were small, with a local solicitor.

I have had cause to consult this same solicitor twice since over those years. The advise was bad advise and thankfully I sought a second solicitor's opinion and thankfully took that advise. Given this, my confidence is not high in him to say the least.

Our children are older now, so the issue of their guardianship has changed, as has our financial affairs, so we think it time to update and amend our will to reflect this.

Can a will be changed from one solicitor to another and if so do we simply to go a new solicitor and get him to invalidate the original one and do up a new one, or is it more complicated than that?

Thanks

It’s no more complicated than you have said.

A subsequently executed valid will will revoke any previous wills, provided the correct formula of wording is used.

Simply tell your new Solicitor of the existence of the older will.

Ideally, get your old will from your Solicitor (if they are in possession of it) and destroy it once the new will is made.

Thank you, both for replying so quickly and for the advise.

I believe you can simply write a new will with your new solicitor. Its the last will that counts.

As your children are now older it may be a good idea to let them know that you have updated your will and who your new solicitor is, just in case they may need to know.

tom_12345 said:

I believe you can simply write a new will with your new solicitor. Its the last will that counts.

Click to expand...

Correct. So long as the new will expressly revokes the older one(s).

+1 above.

One brief point. An executor has no obligation to retain the services of the solicitor who has executed the will when the testator dies.
This is why people need to think about where to leave the original will for safekeeping.

DirectDevil said:

An executor has no obligation to retain the services of the solicitor who has executed the will when the testator dies.

Click to expand...

Absolutely get prices from others, a real example;

The solicitor who held my relations will and assumed they would be getting the job, quoted a legal fee of €7k for probate and €7k for house sale. I got another to do it for a legal fee of €2k & €2k.

If solicitor has the last will, make it very clear that you will be doing probate. In my case, the solicitor tried to pull a fast one and said he would start the house evaluation process, he also mentioned a boundary issue before swiftly hanging up. I called back the next day and got through to receptionist, I asked her could I speak to solicitor, said he was busy, this happened twice. On the 3rd time I said I was calling into the office to collect original will, and to have it ready, they still charged me over €300.

tom_12345 said:

they still charged me over €300.

Click to expand...

For what? The phone call you made?

Laramie said:

For what? The phone call you made?

Click to expand...

Finding the file !, I think solicitors dont charge for a will assuming they will do probate...in this case they werent...hence the €300 , typical solicitors..

I think that there is a "make a will" week where you can avail of the services of a solicitor to make a will for a nominal charge?