Couples regularly sit down together to make their Wills, such as civil partners each wishing to leave everything to the other. Or a married couple with children each wanting to give everything to their spouse or - if the spouse has died earlier - to their children.
But there is one important point to remember. Your plans may be made together, and your decisions may be joint decisions, but you are really need two Wills - one for each of you.
With Bequeathed, you cannot therefore make one Will for you and your partner to sign together. They do need to do their own Will.
That is because a testator (the person making the Will) can only dispose of their own estate, not that of anyone else – even a person with whom they jointly own property while they are alive.
That's why the term 'mirror Wills' reflects the true situation more accurately: two Wills which make matching provision.
You and your partner can make mirror Wills through Bequeathed. You have two options:
Free option each of you register for your own account, each complete your own online Will interview and then each receive online advice on how best to complete your Wills.
£130 option: if you don't want to each go through the online process and if you wish to receive advice together in a video appointment, this is the option for you. One of you registers for an account, completes our online Will interview and selects the option for us to draft mirror Wills for each of you and advise you via a joint video appointment.
It is technically possible for a single document to be created and described as a joint Will. However, in law it it is still treated as two Wills. However, that's not what we or most law firms and professional will writers would ever do.
There have been examples of joint Wills being upheld by the law, but it is on the basis that they are two Wills, separately proved; and the second person is at liberty to change the Will anyway (unless it is a valid mutual Will).
‘Joint Will’ may also be used to refer to:
mirror Wills – which are common and perfectly valid in English law; and
mutual Wills – which are also valid, but becoming less common as they are not very flexible.