“People make homemade wills even for estates valued around €3-€4 million, they can cause chaos and are ripe for challenge,” says solicitor Maeve Carney. “I know it sounds like solicitors advising against homemade wills because we will lose out, but that is the reality.“Maybe one in 10 wills we see will be challenged, but often there is no way of knowing a challenge will come,” adds Carney, a specialist probate lawyer. “The issue of the testator’s capacity is often raised. Proceedings can easily wipe out an entire estate if there is a capacity challenge. Capacity must be high on the agenda of solicitors when dealing with clients making wills.”Carney’s views were echoed by other solicitors who spoke to The Irish Times about the costs and challenges relating to making wills, administering estates and dealing with will disputes.For most people whose main asset is their home, with maybe a modest pension and savings, there is general agreement that the average costs of instructing a solicitor to make their will range from zero to several hundred euro. [ Judge refuses to reconstitute will linked to €1.5m estate after it was lost when solicitors office burgledOpens in new window ]Making a will when the estate is more valuable and/or complex can cost multiples of that. Irrespective of how much an estate is worth, the price of not making a will, or making an unclear one, is likely to run well into six figures if a High Court dispute results.The most recent complaints report by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA), published in April, shone a spotlight on the nature of complaints relating to probate, citing some case studies.Maeve Carney, solicitor with the firm Lawlor Kiernan LLP in Smithfield, Dublin. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times