A person appointed by you in a Lasting Power of Attorney to look after your Affairs and/or Personal Welfare if you become unable to do so yourself.
If you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney and you become unable to look after yourself, then your relatives have to apply to the Court of Protection to have somebody appointed - who will almost certainly be somebody you don’t know and will almost certainly charge for their services. What's more, the process of appointing somebody can take up to a year and cost around 1,000.
It is for this reason that everybody who makes a Will at our site is also asked if they would like to make a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Any person or organisation (e.g. a Charity) that you leave a legacy, and/or all or part of your Residuary Estate, in your Will.

Two people of the same sex who have undergone a so-called gay marriage since the Civil Partnership Act was passed in 2004.

To change an existing Will you can write a document called a codicil describing the changes to be made to the Will. The original Will document, plus the codicil , then comprise the new Will.
You can write as many codicils as you like, but as you can imagine things can soon get messy with so many documents to look after.
As re-writes to your Will at our website are free for 60 days after purchase (and at a 20% discount after that), it makes more sense to simply amend your Will online, generate the revised document, and print/sign/witness it - a process that automatically revokes your previous Will.
This is a major benefit of our service.

This is an entire subject in itself and we advise you to read our page on Discretionary Trust Wills.

The people you choose to make your Will happen. Their job is to obtain probate, pay any debts you may have, distribute any gifts/legacies you have left in the Will and then distribute your Residuary Estate to your beneficiaries.

Directions you can give in your Will regarding your wishes such as details of your burial, cremation, etc. These are not legally binding on your Executors unless you forbid cremation. Our Wills do, however, authorise your Executors to use funds from your Estate to pay for your funeral - this is the important issue.

A person with legal control or responsibility for a child under 18 when nobody with parental responsibility remains alive or able/willing to act. Your Will allows you to legally appoint Guardians: you simply name them on the online form, and we generate the legal wording.

We have a special page here dedicated to this subject.

When someone dies without making a Will, they are said to have died intestate .

In a Will made at our site, if you leave a legacy or any part of your Estate to somebody under 18 (or some other age you specify - e.g. 25) then what you leave to them is automatically held in Trust by your Executors until they reach the age at which they can inherit it. Your Executors are given powers in the Will to allow them to 'apply' some or all of the inheritance towards the 'Education, Maintenance, and benefit' of the child.

If you and one or more other people own a property together, then you will own it either as Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common.
Please click here for an explanation of what these two terms mean, the difference between them, and a description of the service we offer for converting to Tenants in Common.

There are TWO types of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA):-
One where you appoint one or more attorneys to look after your Property & Financial Affairs should you become unable to do so yourself, and one where you appoint one or more attorneys to look after your Personal Welfare (i.e. take decisions about how you are looked after, where you live, medication you are given, etc.) should you become unable to do so yourself. Click here for more details.

A gift in a Will for example a specific item, (sometimes called a Specific Legacy ) or a gift of money (sometimes called a Pecuniary Legacy ) or a gift of a house or property, etc.

This is not a legal term, but an explanation of the facility that you will see at the top of every page of our website.
Once you have drafted or paid for a Will and/or Lasting Power of Attorney at our website, you automatically become a 'Member' of our service and you can then check or amend your documents and download any previous documents by clicking on ‘Login’ and entering your email address and password. If you have lost - or never received - your password then don’t worry: once you've clicked on ‘Login’ you will see a facility that allows you to get a password reset link emailed to you.

After you have died, your Executors must take your Will to the nearest Probate Office (which can be found in the Yellow Pages) and apply for Probate. At the successful conclusion of the process, your Executors are given an official document called a ‘Grant of Probate’. This effectively makes them the legal owners of your Estate (e.g. they can legally access your bank accounts) and enables them to distribute it.
ALL Will packages purchased from tenminutewill.co.uk include a free comprehensive document for you to give to your Executors explaining how to go about obtaining probate.
What's more, if you take out our Document Storage Service, you and your Executors have access to a FREE Probate Helpline as soon as you've made your Will.

Unless she has it removed by a court, a child's mother has parental responsibility. So (if he was married to her at the time, or if he successfully applies for it) does the father. Your Will allows you to appoint Guardians who automatically have legal responsibility for any child for whom you have parental responsibility, should you die and nobody with parental responsibility remains alive.

This is something that happens on TV and in films only and is not a necessary process. See Obtaining Probate above.

What is left of your Estate after the deduction of inheritance tax and debts, the expenses of administration (i.e. expenses incurred by your Executors in obtaining probate and then distributing your Estate), the cost of your funeral, and after the distribution of any gifts/legacies you have specified in your Will.

If you and one or more other people own a property together, then you will own it either as Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common.
Please click here for an explanation of what these two terms mean, the difference between them, and a description of the service we offer for converting to Tenants in Common.

(or testatrix if female) This is the legal term for the person who has made the Will - i.e. you.

To make your Will legal, it must be signed by you in the presence of two witnesses, who must not only see you sign it but also be able to testify (if ever required) that you understood its contents and were of sound mind.
A witness cannot be a beneficiary of the Will. If this 'rule' is broken, the Will remains legally valid but the witness loses all of his/her entitlement.
Every Will purchased from our site includes a detailed Instructions Document explaining exactly how to carry out the signing and witnessing process.