Want your last wishes honoured? Don’t draft your will in your Notes app

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It can be easy to forgo the legalities and formalities of planning for life after you’re gone – after all, you won’t be here for it. Yet in the interest of ensuring any inheritance makes its way to your loved ones as you intend it to, your will must be legally sound.

A valid will protects your final wishes from being misrepresented, misconstrued or misinterpreted, providing your nearest and dearest with the peace of mind that your estate is being divided as you intended.

While it might be tempting to consider leaving the legalities for “later on” and just doing it yourself, there are good reasons why you shouldn’t attempt to prepare your will yourself, for example, by just jotting down your last wishes on a Post-it note (something that actually occurred in 2013).

A DIY will or “informal will” is when someone chooses not to formally prepare their will in accordance with legal requirements. Instead, they communicate their wishes through simpler means such as a handwritten letter, a text message, a video recording, the use of an online will creation service, or even a digital note left on an iPhone.

The latter serves as the latest cautionary tale I share to discourage anyone from taking a DIY approach to estate planning if they wish to protect their loved ones........

© The Age