Wills - costs - and mirror wills
Public Trust charges $280 for a simple will, $500 for more complicated wills.
For simple wills, I like the look of ewills.co.nz which produces online wills for $100, but I haven't seen their output yet. Until further notice, I'd be happy to look over the results without charge if people use them, if you email the results to me, just to know what they produce. (There are also other online providers - I think the cheapest I found was about $45 - the same offer applies - I'd be interested to see what they produce and to know whether they are user friendly, and I'll let you know without charge whether what they have produced is 'legally okay'.)
For a will from scratch I would charge between $150 and $700 depending on complications and whether you provide information to me efficiently e.g. by email rather than by personal interview. HOWEVER, I don't provide a will-storage service - you have to make your own arrangements for keeping the original will safe. ALSO, I don't spend time witnessing the will - I send it to you with instructions for you to arrange to sign in front of two adults who are not mentioned in the will.
Mirror wills - where spouses make wills that are identical except for reversing the will-maker and executor - shouldn't cost more than a single will (in my opinion). It takes 30 seconds to reverse those details. If someone tries to charge you twice as much, just do one will and then copy it out yourself, swapping the details.
The main value that lawyers add to the will-making process is advice about how to deal with tricky situations. If you don't have a tricky situation, you don't need a lawyer's will.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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34% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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66% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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