Avanquest Will Maker Deluxe 2009

It’s important to have a will but people are often deterred from making one by the cost of hiring a solicitor.

A low-cost piece of software that simplifies the process of drawing up a legally binding will sounds attractive, then.

But while Will Maker Deluxe 2009 from Avanquest does provide useful help in drawing up your will, we encountered a few flaws along the way.

Installing the program from its CD took just a few seconds, and once installed it displays a simple window that lists the three main steps in creating a will – selecting the correct type of will, planning its contents, and then actually filling it in.

The first two steps – Will Selection and Will Planning – simply present the user with documents to read, which explain the different types of will and how to estimate the value of your estate.

This is useful information of course, although it can be found for free on the Age Concern or the Citizen’s Advice Bureau's websites.

The third step is to Create Your Will. At this point the program uses one of its built-in will templates to ask a series of questions and uses that information to draw up the will, couched in all the appropriate legal jargon.

But although the earlier selection process refers to three different types of wills – basic, comprehensive and discretionary – the Will Maker program only includes templates for four variations on the ‘comprehensive’ format.

As a result of our feedback, the software publishers tell us that they will be adding new templates for ‘basic’ wills, and making those available as a free download soon.

Unfortunately, you will still have to pay an extra £65 to order templates for the ‘discretionary’ will online, but most of us will be able to get by with just the ‘basic’ or ‘comprehensive’ wills, so that’s not a major problem.

Will Maker does have the potential to save both time and money when making a will, but the without those additional ‘basic’ templates we can’t truly recommend it as a reliable alternative to using a solicitor.