My in-laws insist on filling out a hand written "Stat declaration" for a will and get my wife and her brother ( the beneficiaries) to co sign it to agree on the way the estate is divided between them. He insists on doing this way because he is too stingy to pay a solicitor. i have advised my wife to seek legal advise but she does not want to upset her father. I went and got him a legal will kit but he insists on doing it his way. do i have just cause to be concerned?.
It might pay to enquire at the requisite Govt agency with regards to whether they will recognise a stat dec in lieu of a will. If they do (unlikely) I would say that your worry would be anyone contesting the will. If they don't then it is entirely possible that the Govt will split the assets accordingly to a strict formula and take a bunch of said assets, thank you very much. How much does he own? I would suggest that you just walk away from the whole mess as there doesn't seem to be much you can do. Mark
The in- laws will. Hi Mark, thanks for the reply. After a lot of negotiating i finally talked the in-laws into seeing a solicitor this Thursday and completing a will. What a relief,i had visions of me doing a lot of chasing around and spending a lot of money on my wifes behalf trying to sort a legal minefield.
