Australian Legal Will Kit
Do you have a valid will?
If you pass away without having a validly executed will, the law says that you have died intestate. Intestacy results in the government legislature dictating who is to inherit your estate. Your loved ones will not be entitled to obtain a grant of probate, and will instead need to file a summons in the Supreme Court seeking letters of administration. This often comes at great expense.
If you have aleady executed a will, you should consider updating it every five years or so. This is because your circumstances are likely to have changed over the period of time. For example, you may have entered into a new relationship, or ended one. You may have had children, or more children, or there could have been a death in your family. The value and composition of your estate may also have changed.
It is recommended that you have your will professionally drafted by an experienced wills and estate lawyer, however there may be some circumstances where a DIY will kit is a viable option. These include where the estate is of nominal value, or where there is no risk of any legal challenge to the estate.
Download a DIY will kit in PDF format
Obtain your DIY will kit
In order to obtain your downloadable PDF copy of an Australian legal will kit, please call us on 1300 148 110.
Bainbridge Legal offers a DIY will kit, valid throughout all of Australia, for only $30. This price includes a copy of the will kit in addition to the time of a genuine Austalian Legal Practitioner to review your will kit after it has been executed. By obtaining this legal advice, you can rest assured that your will has been properly drafted and validy executed. Free storage in the Bainbridge Legal will register is included at no extra cost.
Free legal advice included
When you obtain your Australian will kit thorugh Bainbridge Legal, you will be entitled to have your final will checked by a qualified wills and probate solicitor. This way, you can be sure that your DIY will kit clauses have been written in enforceable language, and that your will was validly executed by you and two witnesses. We will also store your DIY will at no extra cost.
Credit towards upgraded will
If you later decide to upgrade from a DIY will kit to a will that has been professionally drafted by one of our estate planning lawyers, we will credit the cost of your will kit towards your new invoice.
When is a DIY will kit not suitable?
People who attempt top draft a DIY will kit often make critical errors in drafting. We have had many cases involving homemade wills where Supreme Court litigation was required to rectify the errors made. Supreme Court proceedings are very expensive, usually costing well in excess of $20,000. Due to the frequency of errors involved in DIY will kits, we recommend that you obtain legal advice and have your will professionally drafted by a solicitor with experience in wills and estate planning.
Many people see Australian will kits as a way to save money, but the opposite is often true. DIY will kits run the risk of drastically increasing the legal costs of administering your estate. They are more likely to be successfully challenged, and can give rise to significant tax consequences. For these reasons, we recommend that you have an experienced lawyer draft your will, particularly if you have anything more than a very simple estate of nominal value.