Witnessing a will

[laurence]

The witnesses can't be people who benefit from the will, or close relatives of such people. If they are beneficiaries, that bit of the will is invalid but the rest of it remains valid.
There is no specific law saying that relatives can't be witnesses, but the danger is that they will fall foul of the 'not a beneficiary' rule.

The reason witnesses are required is so that they can testify that the will was signed in their presence if there is ever a challenge to its authenticity. Having independent people as witnesses prevents arguments about giving false evidence because of a vested interest in the outcome.
You should also try to choose witnesses who will outlive you.

^^^^^^^ this and this alone. (the entire reply)

also, if you're in Scotland you only need 1 witness. the witness(es) don't have to know what you are signing, just that you have signed. they are witnessing your signature, not that it is a Will.

 

[Profpointy]

Administer? Do you mean you appointed them as your executors?

I help run an Estate Planning business which includes Wills, trusts and Powers of Attorneys. In response to the OP, the Witness must be totally independent. Even a long-term partner of a beneficiary (a girlfriend or boyfriend of your child say) could be contestable, so neighbours that you trust are often the best choice or friends of the family.

I'd be very wary of naming a firm of solicitors as executor of the will - if that's what you meant by administrate. Usually the main beneficiary or two is named - there's nothing then stopping them hiring a solicitor to do any sorting out and charging costs to the estate as a whole - but the solicitor is not then "in charge" but providing a service for a fee - a rather better arrangement I'd say. I did pay a solicitor to write the will - or top and tail my draft - and it was a hundred quid or so - but mine was fairly simple. I could have diy'd it quite happily but the fee I paid was OK

 

[Stu Plows]

Due to the complexities of shutting the practice down if anything premature happened to me it seemed a good idea to have one of them included with Mrs A_T when the children were small.

Now they are grown up it isn't so critical but Mrs A_T would still need some help to wind everything up with the mid-term projects, numerous collateral warranties and such like, or ideally, sell it as a going concern! If anything were to happen to both of us before I retire, it would be essential to guide the children through the minefield!

Note to self: need to do some checking before I forget.... thanks Stu!

Just to expand a little further, we have the option of using professional executors with our clients Wills which are a firm of Tax and Trust specialists for our clients - they charge a one off fee of 1.5% of the total estate with no other fees attached. Just have a look into it and see what they say mate.