Wills week: Making a Will in the Coronavirus pandemic

In the second post of the week Umar Shaikh speaks about making a Will in the Coronavirus pandemic.

Although we are still taking instructions from clients, we will no longer be able to witness their signatures whilst these social distancing measures are in place. That is why we have prepared a Will signing instruction sheet specific to the coronavirus pandemic to offer additional guidance to our clients whilst adhering to the current restrictions.

We are able to supervise the Will execution via video link to make sure our clients know exactly how and where to sign. If this is not possible, we are inviting clients to make and send us a video recording of their signing of the Will to ensure that everything has been completed correctly, if they think this is necessary.

We are advising our clients to get their Wills witnessed in an open space if possible and to make sure that they stand at least two metres away from their witnesses. Their witnesses should also stand two metres away from each other. Some people have come up with innovative ways of doing this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52215141

If a client is self-isolating and needs to stay indoors, their Will can even be executed through a window if their witnesses are able to clearly make out the Will and the client signing it. We advise that our clients and their witnesses use their own pens to sign and that everyone wears gloves if possible because the virus can survive on paper.

To further ensure the safety of our clients, we are no longer binding our Wills in plastic before we send them out to our clients for signing, as the virus can survive for up to a few days on this and other hard surfaces. Instead, we are now sending out paper Wills to clients and these will be bound in plastic once they are returned to the office for safekeeping. Alternatively, some clients are opting to print their own Wills at home as we will email this across.