A will doesn’t need to be 15 pages long! If you want to leave your estate to your spouse or children for example, and it’s just a simple ‘all to spouse’ or ’50/50 to children’ then a single page will is sufficient. The legal requirements should be adhered to though for it to be acceptable.

Make one of your heirs or a trusted family member or friend the executor of the will, as this will save your heirs a stack of money! Normal fees charged by institutions for the administration of a deceased estate are 3.5% plus VAT (approx 4% total) of the gross value of the estate: this means the value of all the assets, moveable as well as immovable, investments, bank accounts, etc. This means that if there is no cash in the estate to pay the creditors and the executor, some of the assets may need to be sold in order to pay up – not nice to say the least. Alternatively the heirs might require a loan to pay the creditors and the executor if the assets cannot be sold – still not good.

Either way, nominating an executor who stands to benefit from the estate (ie an heir) means all the money which would’ve been paid to an executor goes to the heirs, which is much better solution, not so? Or appointing someone whose main concern is for the heirs and will therefore charge only 1 – 2% say is still better than paying the full 4%.