It may be that you feel that you don’t need a lawyer to draft a will, and in certain instances, you can do it on your own is it’s a simple passing on of property or money to a spouse or family member. That being said, it is wise, and always so, to have the expert legal advice ensuring that you have dotted the eyes and crossed the tees.

The requirements for drafting a will are relatively simple. You are bright, you know what to do, it’s not rocket science and you could even do it in an hour or so.

You didn’t get your degree for nothing. If it’s not a degree in law, though, you could be in for trouble and no computer science qualification is going to help you out of this.

Meaningless oversight?

Even though it may seem to be easy enough, a simple meaningless oversight could see the entire document become null and void. Even though this could be contested successfully in court, don’t take the chance that the outcome may not be in your favour. Don’t even take the chance that it ends up in court.

Human nature being what it is, and it’s at its worst where wills are concerned, be on the safe side and get a lawyer to go over everything.

It will be well worth any amount that you pay the lawyer to do so. The lawyer will immediately come across any oversights on your part and ensure they are corrected so there no confusion whatsoever.

The biggest business that lawyers become involved in the world over is wills being contested in court. It has been noted that human nature not being great when it comes to wills, there always seems to be someone in the family or a distant cousin twice-removed that lays claim to the will. Any claims on the will must be contested in court and outcomes could go any way.

Devastating outcome

This will naturally create outrage and not comply with all the good intentions that the testator (you) had when drawing up the will, but emotions do not take much precedence as far as the law is concerned.

Someone could prove that you were extremely depressed at the time you drew up this will and therefore were not in your right mind. The outcome could be devastating for you.

The above scenario has happened many times in court. It is far more common than you think. However, if you involve a lawyer in the proceedings, it cannot happen.

If someone is seriously ill, make sure that a lawyer is present when that person makes out a will and attests to the fact that dementia was not present, and the signatures obtained are bone fide correct.

As far as amending the will goes – say, there is suddenly a large inheritance coming your way – you can revoke or alter the will to include that before your demise. This could be the major cause of the will being contested so let your lawyer ensure that the inheritance is meant for you and attest in writing to that fact.

This is of the utmost importance as some devious lawyer who’s contesting the will could come up with anything that could see your will going your way of the wild dogs. You most certainly wouldn’t want that.

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