A yellow pen resting on a blue background; our Wills Solicitors in Preston discuss how to sign a Will correctly to ensure it's legal.

How to Sign your Will Correctly

Posted on 3rd June 2024

When you are instructing a solicitor to prepare your Will, you will be wondering what the process is of signing the final document. Usually, when you instruct our Wills Solicitors in Preston, we arrange for you to attend the office, after you have approved your final Will, and one of our Wills Solicitors, and another member of staff, will act as witnesses when you put pen to paper and formalise your Will. In some cases, our Wills Solicitors visit your property, with an independent second witness, such as your neighbour or a friend, and sign your Will from the comfort of your own home.

Another less common form of signing that our Wills Solicitors in Preston come across is when clients, specifically those who live further away from our offices, opt to sign their Wills at home, with their own witnesses. This option has certainly increased in popularity over the past few years, in large part due to the COVID pandemic, so our Wills Solicitors think it’s a good time to discuss how to correctly sign a Will, and some common pitfalls to avoid.

Signing in the presence of independent witnesses

An important thing to remember when singing your Will is that the witnesses to the Will must be independent. For example, the two witnesses, who will need to counter sign your Will to confirm they watched you sign it, should not be related to you, a minor, or a partner or spouse of your relatives. For the avoidance of any issues, the best advice we can give is that you attend one of our offices – Garstang, Lancaster, Longridge, or Lytham- and two members of staff will counter sign your Will.

If this is not possible, providing they are not related to you, you could ask a neighbour, colleague, or friend, providing they are not in the above categories.

Dating your Will

A further mistake our Wills Solicitors in Preston see is when a client returns their signed Will to us, for us to check it is valid, and the Will has not been dated, meaning there could be issues with the Will, and proving the same in the Probate process, after the Testator’s death.

It is important to make sure that, once signed, the Will is dated on the date it is signed, in all the relevant places, with the same date completed throughout.

Believe it or not, our Wills Solicitors have seen Wills dated with more than one different date on more than one occasion, and it has incurred more costs trying to sort the issue out than it would have for the Testator to simply pay for a Wills Solicitor to prepare their Wills.

Making an amendment to the Will by hand

When a Will is amended, any change should be initialled, by the Testator and the witnesses, to show that the change was made by the person making the Will, and that it was a valid change. Our Wills Solicitors have sadly come across Wills where the Testator has seemingly removed beneficiaries and changed their executors, however, as no changes were witnessed or signed by the Testator, they were not valid, so the original terms of the Will stood. In some cases, the original Will could not even be read, which made the Probate process costly and very time consuming.

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If you are looking to instruct our solicitors, we have offices in Garstang, Longridge, Lancaster and Lytham for your convenience.

How do I sign my Will correctly?

When it’s not possible for a client to attend the office to sign their Will, our Wills Solicitors in Preston will send them their final Wills, with strict instructions for signature. These are usually as follows, as required by s9 of the Wills Act 1837, which dictates how a valid Will is signed:

The Testator, the person making the Will, must sign next to their name on the final page. This should be their usual signature and done before anyone else signs the Will.

When you are signing your Will, there must be two witnesses present. They cannot just sign afterwards or before: they must watch you sign the document. It is important to note that your witnesses must not be beneficiaries of your Will, or related to you or other beneficiaries, and they must be over 18, with capacity.

The witnesses must also sign, and print the necessary details below their signature, underneath your signature on the final page.

Once you have followed the procedure outlined in our letter to you, strictly as instructed by us, you can return the Will to our Wills Solicitors, who will check the Will is signed and witnessed correctly, and then arrange to send you a copy. Normally we will send you a copy of the Will and retain the original for safe keeping, but if you want the original, just let us know, and we will arrange for you to collect this after you have signed.

How do I instruct Wills Solicitors in Preston to prepare my Will?

Our Wills Solicitors in Preston, Naomi Pinder, and Trainee Solicitor, Hope, are available to see Wills clients from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, with out-of-office appointments available, in either of our Preston offices, Longridge and Garstang. Offering home visits in the local area at no extra costs, or telephone appointments when more convenient, our Wills Solicitor do their best to make their Will-drafting services accessible to all clients.

You can arrange an appointment by calling 01772 783314, or email wills@mglegal.co.uk and one of our Wills Solicitors will be in contact to confirm the fees within one working hour.

Our Wills Solicitors offer fixed fees for preparing Wills, starting from £185 plus VAT for single Wills, and £345 plus VAT for couple’s Wills. Speak with Hope or Naomi today to get your Will preparation started.

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To speak to a solicitor today, contact us online here. Or give us a call on 01772 783314