Wills
- Unite Legal Services’ free will* service is available to all members once they have been a member of the union for 13 weeks
- The service enables you to have a simple will prepared free of charge by a legal professional
- Using a high street solicitor to make a will can prove to be expensive
- Our experts will guide you through the will writing process, explaining the stages clearly to you
Contact your local Unite office for more information.
If you are a Unite member in Scotland, click here to find out more about the legal support available to you and to find details of your local office.
It is easy to assume that your property and possessions will automatically pass to your loved ones when you die, but sadly this is not always the case. Writing a will is the only way to guarantee that your estate is administered and divided in accordance with your wishes – so it’s important you take the time now to make a will.
Making a will with a high street solicitor can be an expensive exercise, but Unite members can have a simple will drawn up for free* by one of Unite Legal Services’ panel of expert solicitors.
What happens if I die without making a will?
If a person dies without making a will they are ‘intestate’. This means the estate becomes subject to a strict set of inheritance laws, which quite simply do not take the deceased’s wishes into account. For example, the Rules of Intestacy make no provision for unmarried and unregistered partners. This means that on Intestacy, the surviving partner will not automatically inherit any of the property and possessions owned in the sole name of the deceased.
Similarly, the rules only recognise natural and adopted children, and so do not acknowledge step-children. As you can imagine, this situation can lead to complications for your loved ones when they come to sorting your affairs.
By choosing Unite the Union’s free will writing service, members can avoid such complications.
Making a will with Unite Legal Services
The Unite the Union free will* service is available to all members once they have been a member of the union for 13 weeks. Contact your local Unite office for more information.
*If your affairs are complex a small charge may be made for the service. However, the overall cost will be significantly lower than using a high street solicitor.
