Covid-19: Finding a Solution to Will Execution
Since the Government’s announcements in March this year, we have continued to provide our usual range of legal services to both new and existing clients. In some areas, our work has been largely unaffected, and we have been able to advise our clients more or less as normal, albeit without any face-to-face meetings. However, some areas of work, including the preparation of new Wills, have presented more difficulties.
As a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, we have seen a sudden increase in the demand for Wills and solicitors involved in Will preparation have been classified as ‘key workers’. For any individual, making a Will is extremely important. For some, the current circumstances have given them time to reflect on their current Wills, and for others who have never made a Will before, it has given them the motive to take advice and put a Will in place.
Our Private Client team have found new ways of working to ensure that they can continue to provide a high level of service for all our clients. We have continued to offer both telephone and video calls, both of which have worked very well. In fact, some clients have found this new way of working preferable as they have been able to obtain the advice they need from the comfort of their own home.
Although taking our clients’ Will instructions at the current time has been relatively straightforward, the execution (signing) of Wills has presented more difficulties due to the legal requirements for valid execution. The requirements for the formal validity of a Will date back to the Wills Act 1837, which provides that the Will must:
- be in writing and signed by the testator/testatrix (the person making the will) or by some other person in his/her presence and by his/her direction;
- the signature must be made or acknowledged by the testator/testatrix in the presence of two or more witnesses who must be present at the same time; and
- each witness must either attest and sign the will, or acknowledge his/her signature in the presence of the testator/testatrix
Also of fundamental importance is that the witnesses to the Will must not also be beneficiaries (or the spouse/civil partner of the beneficiary) under the Will, otherwise any gift to those beneficiaries will fail.
There have been proposals put forward to relax the validity requirements, however, no changes have been made yet. We have therefore had to focus on ways that we can ensure the formal validity of Wills whilst maintaining social distancing requirements and, of paramount importance to us, ensuring the safety of our clients.
To ensure Wills are executed correctly, in normal times, our Private Client team usually act as witnesses during the execution process and this has not stopped during the Coronavirus pandemic. We have been visiting clients at their homes, outside in their gardens or driveways, in order to execute their Wills. Fortunately, the weather has been very kind to us throughout the outbreak, meaning that there have been no issues with outdoor Will signings.
Many of our clients have been creative, setting up their very own makeshift ‘tables’ outside for executing their Wills. To list a few, we have executed Wills on top of wheelie bins, recycling boxes, through windows and many on car bonnets.
Below you can see some of our Private Client team in action during the past 9 weeks.
We expect that it will be some time before we can return back to our usual working practices, but for now, we have embraced this new way of working and we are enjoying being able to provide our expertise in new ways.
If you are considering making an amendment to your Will, or if you have not already got a Will in place, please do not hesitate to contact one of the members of our Private Client team on 01539 723757.