How to Write a Will in the UK: The Complete 2026 Guide

I draw on a career of nearly four decades as a will writer and estate planner to write this article.

Let’s make understanding writing your will as simple as possible. My mission is to help you understand why you should write a will, and how to write the will that is best for your family. In my career, I have seen what can go wrong; therefore, I have used my experience of what could go wrong to guide you past all the mistakes you could possibly make.

In following this article you would see and address only the points relevant to you. This is not a series of hypotheticals. This essay is structured for you to focus on what’s important to you.

A simple example: you would only discuss guardianship if your children are under eighteen. If you are not responsible for minor children, you’d simply skip the guardianship section. Another example of this being built for relevance: there’s a simple inheritance tax calculator where you would learn on the face of it if you had an inheritance tax problem. If you don’t have an inheritance tax problem, you skip the section on inheritance tax. After all, the aim is to help you master your will quickly and easily; therefore we shall not dwell on matters outside our concern.

We shall go through the best practices of writing your will; therefore, we would avoid fashions.

Scope

The central point of your will is clarity. Believe it or not, there is only one rule. We shall come to that rule later. I want to arm you with the knowledge with which to write your will. I want you to get that knowledge quickly and easily. I’ve come across lots of people who don’t write their wills because they don’t know where to start. They don’t know the rules of inheritance that are relevant to them. They’ve been told writing a will is a job for specialists, and it’s impossible to write their wills themselves.

In my experience, 85% of people in England and Wales can write their wills themselves; all they need is a guiding hand. If you are part of the 85%, happy days.

At the end of this essay, you’ll find free software to write your will yourself. If you’re one of the 15% who need professional help, at the very least you’ll have mastered the principles of wills and estate planning and you’ll know the language of the industry. Further, you’ll be pointed in the right direction.

So, what are your objectives? What are your motivations? I’ll ask you to take a couple of minutes to consider your motivations and objectives; you might want to write them down.

Now we’ve seen what this is about and what it would do for you.

Table of Contents

What Is a Will and Why Do You Need One?

The result of all our efforts in this enterprise would be the final document that is the last will and testament. It breaks into two parts: the will and the testament. We mostly are concerned here with the will. The terms ‘last will and testament’ on the one hand, and ‘will’ on the other, are synonymous with each other. They are used interchangeably, partly because last will and testament is a bit of a mouthful. More importantly though, the will and the testament are two different things.

The will refers to your belongings, your assets, your things; these are the things that you can sell or give away. The testament refers to your non-monetary wishes. In my experience, the main use of the testament is appointing guardians for children.

There’s some logic to this: your will would always be your last will, because the will you’re writing today would supersede the will you wrote yesterday, and the will that you wrote tomorrow would supersede the will that you wrote today.

The scope of the will would be to dispose of your assets. For now, we should leave it there. You should not use your will to make unpleasant comments about people you don’t like, or use your will to address slights.

Your will is used to apply for probate.

What is Probate: Permission from the courts to handle the affairs of a person who has just died.

Your executors, whom we shall encounter later, would need your will to apply for the grant of probate.

With your will, your estate would easily pay the right amount of tax.

And finally: everything, absolutely everything in your will, is at your discretion.

The Purpose of Your Will

The primary purpose of your will is clarity. You want there to be no questions on whom you wanted to get your estate, or what proportion of your estate you wanted them to get.

One of the parties that might benefit from your estate is the Treasury. Therefore, the question is this: do you care if the state gets your money, or would you rather your family got as much of your wealth as was legally possible?

Your will would avoid disputes. Later, I’ll show you a simple method (it’s dead simple, but effective) to help prevent disputes, and you’ll see why it is 99% effective.

Intestacy: Dying Without a Will

Intestacy really is nothing but a dressed-up term for dying without a will. Intestacy is the state’s will for people who have not got round to writing a will for themselves. Intestacy prescribes how much of your estate would go to which of your relatives, and intestacy makes no allowances for your living arrangements, your wishes or your personal circumstances.

I’m not a betting man, but I’m ready to put money on the fact that intestacy is not what you’d have wanted; it’s counter to what we’ve been talking about all along this treatise: that your will provides clarity.

Intestacy is messy. It’s expensive. And it might lead to your estate paying more inheritance tax than it otherwise might.

Clearing Common Myths About Will Writing in the UK

This essay assumes no previous knowledge of will writing; if you’ve been able to understand thus far, you’ll be fine.

One request I make of you is that you clear your mind of clutter. Forget everything you’ve read on Facebook or anywhere else. I’m sure you’ve seen bits of film and TV that refer to wills and inheritance; forget all such things you might have seen. Many of them are inaccurate. Because they are not designed to educate or inform you (their mission is to entertain you), the movie and TV program makers take liberties with the facts of law. I think they call it artistic license.

One thing you might have seen on film or TV is a ceremony they call the ‘reading of the will’, in which the interested parties gather in the office or study of some lawyer or accountant or other such person, and the will is read aloud. Such a thing never happens. There is no such thing as the reading of the will. The document is simply retrieved from storage and the executors get on with the business of carrying out the provisions of the will. So, forget what you might have seen on film and TV.

There are several myths in wills. Most of them are lies or at best half-truths. Here’s a list of some of the more common false myths. The list is nothing but an entertaining diversion, not to be regarded with any seriousness. If I give you a couple of minutes to think about most of them, you’ll find they were silly, some are stupid, and a couple are plain wicked.

Let’s go through some of these myths quickly:

There is no such thing as common law spouse, at least not in this context. When two people live together but are not married to each other, for the purposes of your will this is not a common law marriage.
Except if your estate is very small, your spouse would not get it all. And even if your spouse got it all, it might cause inheritance tax complications.
If you want to cut someone out of your will, leave them a pound, that way they can’t contest a will. (False.)
It’s my money and I can do with it as I please. Yes, but. We shall deal with this as it comes up later. For now, it’s your money but you must fulfil your obligations to your family.
A will avoids probate. No, a will will not avoid probate. Indeed, probate is simply a fact of life. Probate is not to be avoided. We’ll come to probate later.
Your debts die with you. No, they do not. Debts must be paid first. It is only the ‘surplus’ that your beneficiaries get.
Executorship is an honour. Later we would see the hard work involved in being an executor and then work out why it’s not an honour.

Who Can Legally Write a Will (Testamentary Capacity)?

In England and Wales, the minimum age to write a will is 18, except if you are in the armed forces where the minimum age is sixteen. The Law Commission made proposals in 2017 to lower the age at which one could make a will to 16; nothing happened. The same commission made the same proposal in 2025; we’re still waiting.

Meaning of Testamentary Capacity: The mental ability to understand and make a will.

Just because granny is a bit forgetful, doesn’t mean granny lacks the mental capacity to write a will. Also, mental capacity is specific to the task at hand. For example, the mental capacity required to write a will is different from the mental capacity required to get married.

Current mental health problems or a history of mental health problems would not, as a matter of course, mean you lack sufficient mental capacity to write a will or to give instructions for a will. However, to be on the safe side, if there are any doubts on possessing sufficient mental capacity to write a will, you should err on the side of caution by seeking professional help to write your will.

Earlier, I mentioned something about film and TV. One more thing: in films and on TV they say things like, ‘I, John Smith, being of sound mind, do make this to be my final will, etc. etc.’ There is no need to write ‘I being of sound mind…’; this is as pointless as saying water is wet. You have to be of sound mind to write a will. If you were not of sound mind, then your will might not stand.

Who Can You Leave Your Estate To (Testamentary Freedom)?

A central point of inheritance law in England and Wales is the matter of testamentary freedom. Testamentary freedom is a flamboyant way of saying you may leave your wealth to whoever you wish, in whatever proportions you wish.

The rules are different in other jurisdictions. For example, in Scotland, as in several European countries, certain proportions of a person’s estate must be left to certain relatives, such as a surviving spouse or the children. If you have assets in overseas countries as well as in England and Wales, your gifts in those other countries may have to follow the local rules.

It’s possible to overdo the concept of testamentary freedom. Although you may leave your money as you wish, your estate has obligations to certain people. To the extent that it’s possible, the people you looked after in your life should also be looked after on your death.

How to Calculate Your Estate Value for Probate

The word ‘estate’ is just a jumped-up way of saying ‘things’. Your things are all the things in your name and all the things you could give away. We need a proper totting up of your assets. This totting up is required to apply for the grant of probate. We shall talk about probate later. This totting up is required to pay the right amount of inheritance tax. And finally, it’s important because that’s what your beneficiaries would get. Remember we said intestacy could lead to a larger inheritance tax bill. Intestacy is the default position for distributing your assets; the main law that governs intestacy is over 100 years old.

What You Own

Don’t forget to include your pensions as assets. We keep one eye on expected gifts and inheritances; those are a special class of asset in that they are not yours yet, and you have no control over them.

You might have read somewhere that the valuation of your assets is to be done as if you were doing an insurance valuation. No, this is not an insurance valuation. The insurance value of the contents of the average house is about £50,000. That’s how much it will cost you to replace the items in the average home. But you try selling the contents of the average home; you’d be lucky to get more than a few thousand pounds. For the purpose of your estate, it is almost zero.

With all valuations, especially this valuation, you have a duty to yourself to be honest and realistic.

The value of your house is a simple matter. We all know how much you would expect to get for selling our houses. Except if there is something special about your house, everyone can find out what every building in the land is worth. So, the value of all land and buildings is a relatively simple thing.

Chattels (those are the lower value things we own, such as cars and jewellery) again require our judgement. If you have something that’s of greater value than you’d normally expect, then make an especial note of it.

Income is a matter of contract, so you list all income as an asset. Such income would normally be treated like loans, which we shall discuss next.

Loans You Have Made

These are loans granted; if you’ve lent someone money. Put another way: if someone borrowed money from you, HMRC expects loans you made to be repaid. The loan is an asset. If you think about it for a second, the repayment of a loan with any agreed interest is money coming into your hands; therefore it is an asset.

Joint Ownership

If you own an asset with someone, write only your share of the asset. So if your house is worth, say, half a million pounds and you own it with a partner in equal shares, you would write only £250,000. Your share is your share, but we’ll come to part ownership later when we talk about joint tenants and tenants in common.

What You Owe

What you owe is simpler. Simply approximate what it would cost you to repay the loan today. Some loans have repayment penalties. It’s a matter of judgement if you need to add such penalties to your loan. Loans and credit cards must be repaid. Contracts must be repaid.

Overpaid income (money that’s overpaid) should be refunded.

If you are a joint borrower on a mortgage with someone, record only your portion of the debt. If you own a property on a 50:50 basis with someone on which, say, there’s a £100,000 mortgage, then you would record only 50% of the loan; you would record your liability as £50,000.

Calculating Your Net Estate

We’ve seen what made up your assets and what made up your liabilities. Here we see that your estate is your assets minus your liabilities. Say your total assets were £750,000, and your liabilities were £150,000, then your net estate would be £600,000.

Here we see your debts are paid out of your estate. It is only the net estate or the ‘surplus’ that your beneficiaries inherit. It is your net estate that will in the main be reported to HMRC.

Here we see the demolition of one of the false myths of wills: the myth that your debts died with you. No, your debts must be paid to the extent that there’s any money in the estate to pay them. Your debts die with you only if your liabilities exceed your assets.

You will pay your debts; the only kind of estate the beneficiaries want to hear about is where there is a positive balance for them to inherit.

Listing Assets in Your Will

Some people list their assets in the will. I wouldn’t. The will is not the place to list your assets. Listing your assets in the will would make the document untidy. You should use the schedule of assets.

Naturally, there are exceptions. If you own a vintage car such as the Jaguar E-Type, or the Mercedes-Benz SL300, fair enough. If your jewellery collection is worthy of its name, happy days. Otherwise, I would not list your assets in the will.

For now, the letter of wishes is what you should use for the distribution of low-value items (items of greater sentimental rather than financial value).

Pensions and Digital Assets: What Your Will Cannot Cover

Pensions

You might have heard that pensions are not directed by your will. This is true. Pensions are held in trust for you; this is the reason they are not directed by your will. Generally, your will can only direct the assets that you hold, the things that you can sell or give away. You need to inform your pension trustees whom you want to inherit your pension savings. You can do this by a letter of wishes. We shall talk more about the letter of wishes later.

Although your pensions are held in trust for you, pensions will be subject to inheritance tax for all deaths that occur after March 2027, so they’ll be counted towards your estate for inheritance tax.

Digital Assets

There are digital assets, there is digital access, and there is social media.

My friend Ingrid, for example, runs a photography business; it’s called Ingrid Weel Photography. She stores her work on computers and on the cloud. She created the material on her firm’s computers; it’s hers, she can give it away at any point, and she can sell it at any point. The material on her computers are assets she may direct. Those things may be directed by her will.

This is not giving any advice on digital currencies or, as was fashionable not that long ago, NFTs, but those are assets.

Digital Access

Some people confuse digital assets with digital access. Digital access is when an organization such as a bank grants you digital access to your money. Almost all banks have online-only accounts (accounts that can only be managed online), and some banks such as Starling, Atom and Smile are online-only banks because they have no cash machines or branches. All these banks are merely giving you digital access to your money: the things you could have held, the pounds, shillings and pence you could have held and that you could have given away. That’s digital access.

Finally, we come to social media. Most social media has no value to you and me. Some social media firms have procedures for dealing with the accounts of their members who have died. But by the law of contract, as you’ve paid nothing for those accounts, you really can’t give them away in your lifetime; therefore, you can’t give them away on your death.

Expected Inheritances

They are not yours, not yet. You’ve no control over them. You live in hope that the holders of those assets would leave them to you. Such an inheritance would create an inheritance tax problem for you; therefore, you should encourage the person leaving the inheritance to you to get professional help with their will.

Property Ownership: Joint Tenants vs Tenants in Common Explained

For 99% of the people I’ve ever met, and 99% of the people you’d ever meet, the family home would be the most valuable asset. Our question here is: who owns the property?

In my travels, I find it’s useful to confirm the ownership of the property. You can do that by following the link to HM Land Registry.

Sole Ownership

Well, we are home free. Sole ownership might however have consequences for inheritance tax, more of which later.

Owning Property with Another Person

Most homes are owned by more than one person, usually with a spouse or partner, or sometimes when someone helps their friend or relative buy a property.

If you own a property with another person, your first concern is: where does the co-owner live now? Further, on your death, do you want your co-owner to continue to live in the property? If it’s a spouse or partner, the answer might appear straightforward; we don’t want to make a partner homeless. However, on the death of the spouse or partner, how would the property or the value of the property be divided? Most likely, your wish would be that the property be sold, and your beneficiaries split the proceeds.

If you own the property with a third party (with a friend or relative other than your spouse or partner), the same considerations as previously would apply. You need to check who owns the property. The nature of the ownership.

The people who own the property could result in an inheritance tax bill, or rather, an increased inheritance tax bill. For instance, if I own a half million-pound flat with my brother on a 50:50 basis, and I wanted to leave the flat to him while my daughter gets the rest of my estate, fine. Here’s the thing: I would in effect be making a quarter million-pound gift to my brother in my will. That’s all well and good. However, it would create a £100,000 inheritance tax bill. We’ll deal with inheritance tax later, but for now, personally, I would rather my brother pay the inheritance tax bill on his gift rather than shift the tax bill to my daughter.

So, the way in which you own property with another person could have effects on inheritance tax liabilities.

Tenancy: Joint Tenants vs Tenants in Common

If you own land or buildings with another person, the term ‘tenancy’ would crop up. You might say: ‘we own the building; we are not tenants.’ True! But in this case, tenancy is simply how assets are held. If there is more than one person on the title, there are two terms: ‘joint tenants’ and ‘tenants in common’.

Let’s take the scenario where I owned a flat with my brother. If my brother and I owned the property as joint tenants, on the death of one of us, the deceased’s share would pass to the survivor automatically. So, if I died first, my share would pass to him; if he died first, his share would pass to me, irrespective of what we might have written in our wills.

However, if we had held the property as tenants in common, each of us would have the right to spell out who inherited their share in their respective wills. So, as tenants in common, I could write that I wanted my share of the flat to go to my brother.

Previously we talked about not listing small gifts in your will. By every measure, the share of a building (which in this case is a quarter of a million pounds) is not a small gift, at least not to you and me. Therefore, I would certainly put this gift in my will.

Sell or Keep?

Most people gift the value of their estate rather than the specific components of the estate. That’s another way of saying most people are happy that, say, their £500,000 house would be sold and the proceeds of the sale would go to the beneficiaries. That’s straightforward.

If there is just one beneficiary, then the distribution of the estate is simple. That beneficiary can do as they please with their inheritance; they can sell it, they can keep, they can give it away.

However, as the testator you have the right to spell out what happens to the building. If you want the building to be kept rather than sold, you will have to create a trust that would accept the building. We shall see how to deal with trusts of this kind later.

Inheritance Tax Thresholds UK: Nil Rate Band and RNRB

Every person in the land has an amount they can give away before inheritance tax becomes a bother. This is called the nil rate band, or NRB. The value of the nil rate band today is £325,000.

Nil Rate Band: The £325,000 threshold below which no inheritance tax is payable.

Additionally, most people can claim the residential nil rate band, the RNRB. The value of the RNRB is £175,000. There are some conditions to claiming the RNRB, the main of which are:

That the testator owned residential property or owned a portion of a residential property. I say ‘portion’ because most of the time people buy houses with other people. Most houses are owned by couples. So your half, or your portion, of the property would come into the reckoning.
The second condition is that the value of the house be inherited by a close relative, a close descendant: that would be a child, a grandchild or great-grandchild. The term in law is ‘closely related’, but we’ll stick to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The third condition (and this would affect very few of us) is that the RNRB is lost if the value of the estate exceeds £2.7 million.

A simple example: if your estate was £600,000, and you had a house, you could leave up to £500,000 to your children or remote descendants before inheritance tax became a consideration.

Inheritance tax would usually be payable on everything that exceeded your allowances. So, remember the rule is: the first half million pounds is tax-free.

Married Couples and Civil Partners

With a married couple or civil partners, when the first party to such a relationship dies there is usually no inheritance tax to pay. This bears an assumption that no gifts were made to anybody other than the surviving partner.

If we think back to earlier in this write-up where I left a quarter-million-pound share of a flat to my brother, that gift would have generated an inheritance tax liability, which we said my brother would pay.

Back to the matter at hand: if the first of a married couple dies and no gifts were made to anyone, the survivor of the couple could potentially give away £1 million to the children and other descendants without the pain of inheritance tax. In the jargon, the unused allowances are carried forward.

How to Calculate Inheritance Tax: Step-by-Step

Remember, previously we said your estate was the net estate, which is your assets minus your liabilities, and remember all debts must be paid. So if your assets are £750,000 and your liabilities are £150,000, your net estate would be £600,000. If you’re thinking nothing could be simpler, you’d be correct.

We shall use this net estate figure for a basic inheritance tax calculation. Inheritance tax is calculated on the net estate. The inheritance tax calculation is: the net estate minus allowances. This gives us the taxable estate.

Example Calculation:

Assets (£750,000) – Liabilities (£150,000) \= Net Estate (£600,000)
Net Estate (£600,000) – NRB (£325,000) – RNRB (£175,000) \= Taxable Estate (£100,000)
Taxable Estate × 40% \= £40,000 tax due

Single Wills vs Mirror Wills: Which Do You Need?

Your will is a single will, and essentially all wills are single wills. We’ll alight on the exceptions shortly.

Your will deals with your assets. If you own assets jointly with another person, your will will only deal with your portion of that asset. Most of the time, if you own property with another person, your will will only deal with that share.

Mirror Wills

You might have heard of mirror wills. Mirror wills arise when two people, usually a couple, make a will at the same time, mostly because: they live together, they own assets together, their beneficiaries are the same, and they’re talking about the same children. That’s how the term ‘mirror wills’ arises.

Really, mirror wills are just two single wills. The mirror will is simply a term for administrative convenience, and we should not let the tail of administrative convenience wag the dog of our intention. Our intention is a well thought out document that would ensure your estate went where you wanted.

Joint Wills and Mutual Wills

Briefly we’ll talk about two types of wills that we hardly use; we never use them these days.

The first is a mutual will. This is an arrangement by which two people write a will and any alterations to the will must be by agreement. If Janet and John wrote mutual wills, Janet could not change her will without John’s agreement, nor could John change his will without Janet’s agreement. If John died, his widow would need the dead man’s agreement to change the will. You see the obvious problem.

The second type of will we hardly use is the joint will. This is when two people write their wills on the same document. There’s no point to it; paper’s not that expensive.

It’s easy to use the terms ‘mutual will’ and ‘joint will’ instead of ‘mirror wills’, but they are different things.

Choosing Executors, Guardians and Trustees

The officers are people you’re asking to do things in your will: the executors, the guardians, and the trustees.

You might not need all these officers. For instance, if you don’t have minor children, you have no need for guardians. Most wills only need executors. As with everything else, every job is to be performed by the best possible person.

I always avoid relatives by marriage. For example, if I was going to appoint my sister as my executor, I’d appoint my sister. I wouldn’t appoint my sister and her husband as my executors, for the simple reason that if my sister’s marriage broke down, I wouldn’t want my sister and her ex-husband using my estate as another item over which they could fight, and so mess up the fruit of my life’s work.

Sometimes I come across people who are in a bind because the circle of people they would trust to look after their children is so small that they have little choice but to appoint relatives by marriage. Well, as we said, the main thing is that we get the best person for the job.

We want redundancy. By redundancy, we mean substitutes. For example, my will might read: ‘I appoint my sister to be my executor, but if my sister is unwilling or unable to become the executor (she might have died, for instance), then I appoint my brother.’

Back to the principle of getting the best person for the job: where possible, when your children are young enough to need guardians, you want to appoint guardians who are separate from the executors. When a person under 18 inherits money, because they are children they are not allowed to hold assets in their names; so automatically, a trust would be formed. The executors would generally become the managers of the trusts, the trustees. It is good practice to appoint an executor separate from the guardian. The fact of there being another pair of eyes would tend to keep the parties honest.

Debunking Executor Myths

Earlier, we encountered a couple of false myths.

The first is that being appointed executor in a will is an honour. The thinking goes something like: ‘Oh, the testator thinks so highly of me they’ve named me executor in their will.’ No. Such an appointment is no honour..

The second false myth worthy of our attention is the one that says: ‘A beneficiary cannot be an executor.’ This one is something of a half-truth. There is no rule that says a beneficiary cannot be an executor, but it is sometimes better that the executors were not beneficiaries. We’ll see the reason for this when we come to the section on disputes.

What the Executor Does

Let’s go through what the executor does:

They find all the assets: the house, the car, the bank accounts, the shares… all the assets.
They resolve all contracts: the car loan, the car lease, the mortgage, phone contracts, council tax, window cleaner… all such things.
They pay debts: the mortgage, the equity release, the personal loans.
They defend litigation (which we hope does not arise).
At the end of it all, they distribute the gifts in the will.

When most people think of an executor to a will, especially if they are beneficiaries, the first thing that comes to mind is the distribution. This ties in with what we will talk about when we come to disputes.

The Executor’s Duties

Now let’s see what being an executor involves. Let’s look at them as if they were stand-alone jobs:

The executor has to keep accounts, so they would do the work of an accountant, or if the estate were simple enough, the work of a bookkeeper.
They would be like a conveyancer, because they have to transfer the property to the new owners.
Most of the time they would be something of an estate agent, as they are looking to sell a house if there’s a house in the estate.
They would be something of a housekeeper, because they want to keep the assets, the house in good condition and to make the house presentable, especially if the property takes a long time to sell.
They then take on the role of estate manager: making sure the buildings and any adjoining land are in good condition and being on top of the insurance and repairs.
In their role as solicitor or legal executive, they would apply for the grant of probate.
When they get the grant, they would run the emerging entity. If a trust was formed because the beneficiaries were unable to manage their money (either because they were children or were intellectually disabled), they would run the arising trust.
At the end of it all, the executors bear the legal responsibility for the rest of their lives.

All of a sudden you might see being an executor for what it is: a lot of work.

Lay Executors and Professional Executors

Remember the myth that goes something like this: ‘The beneficiary cannot be an executor.’ The other side of the coin is appointing a friend or relative as executor. As we know, no one does anything for no reward, especially when they see the hard work and possible liability involved.

Lay executors (those people who don’t act as executors in their day jobs) are not allowed to charge for acting as executors. Just in the same way that almost anyone with a suitably insured vehicle and driving licence can give driving lessons, but only professional driving instructors can charge for giving driving lessons.

We saw the hard work involved, so why would anyone want to be an executor?

So, we remember the principle of the best person for the job. Appointing your spouse (assuming your spouse would be the only beneficiary of your estate): perfect! If there is no spouse to inherit, if there is a single beneficiary, then appoint that beneficiary as the executor. Again, full marks.

If your children are the beneficiaries and you wish to appoint them as executors, all well and good – as long as they get on. If they are not on best of terms, you might be sowing the seeds of dispute.

So, you’re writing your will today; you’d appoint an executor. In the years between today and the time they needed to act, the person you appointed could have gone bankrupt. It’s not impossible for a bankrupt person to act as executor, but it’s mighty difficult; therefore this is another reason you might want to consider appointing a professional executor.

Appointing Guardians

Earlier we talked about children under 18. If you are the parent or guardian of a minor child, you should appoint at least one guardian for the child. Remember the principle of the best person for the job.

For obvious reasons, I tend to avoid appointing elderly people, especially the children’s grandparents as guardians. Like you, it’s not because I have anything against elderly people (after all, I hope to get old), but imagine the guardianship appointment came to pass when the guardians were in their seventies. You know as much as I do that keeping up with any child, especially a teenager, requires a lot of energy. It would be unwise to place such a burden on an older person. However, that’s all fine as a matter of principle, but remember: the best person for the job.

Make Sure There Is Money

As a parent, you know child rearing is expensive. Children cannot hold assets. If your children are under 18 at the time they inherit, a bereaved young person’s trust would automatically be created. Notice the word ‘automatically’ in the last sentence.

The children will come into their money at age 18. The question is: would you want to leave that sort of money to an 18-year-old? If you think such a person is not reasonably to be trusted with so much money, you might make it a condition that they got their money at 25. That’s all you need to do. The trust that would be created would run till the children were 25.

How to Distribute Your Estate: Specific Gifts and Residue

To most people this is the most interesting part of the will: who gets what, when. This section is necessary because in England and Wales we have testamentary freedom, the freedom to leave your estate as you wish. Some say if we didn’t have testamentary freedom, there would be no need for wills.

If I were not married or if I were widowed, my will would simply read: ‘everything equally between my children.’ If I didn’t have children, I could leave my estate however I wished. As I’m writing this, I’m tidying up the will of a divorced gentleman who had no children, so he is leaving his estate equally among 14 people. One of those 14 people is his sister. Remember, this fellow had no dependents, so he can leave his estate as he pleases.

The Married or Co-Habiting Testator

Most people leave all their assets to their spouse or partner. Most of the time the spouse or partner needs the assets to carry on with the business of day-to-day living. Most of the time a will would simply say: ‘Everything to my wife.’

You spotted the slight problem: the possibility that my wife could die before me. Therefore, I need to account for this possibility. If my wife died before me, I would want my estate to be divided equally between my children, Janet and John. So, my will would read: ‘Everything to my wife, but if my wife died before me, everything would be divided equally between my children, Janet and John.’

Specific Gifts

Some people want to make specific gifts to people outside their immediate families, or even to charities. If we think back to an earlier section where we spoke of me owning a flat on a 50:50 basis with my brother, let’s call the flat No. 12 Church Street. Say we were tenants in common, meaning that I had the right to dispose of my share of the property in my will.

The question is: when I die, whom do I want to get my share of the flat, my brother or my wife? Suppose I want my brother to get my share of the flat, and my wife gets everything else. My will would read something like: ‘My interest in 12 Church Street should go to my brother.’ That’s the flat dealt with.

But before we move on from the flat: if I wanted my wife (or indeed anyone other than my brother) to get my share of the flat, I would make sure we were tenants in common.

Supposing I wanted to leave £50,000 to my friend Lorna Thompson, I’d simply write: ‘I leave to my friend Lorna Thompson the sum of £50,000.’ Those are the specific gifts dealt with. We then come to everything else, called the residue.

How do I want to divide the residue? Everything to my wife. To summarize: my half of the flat to my brother, £50,000 to my friend Lorna Thompson, and everything else to my wife. If my wife died before me, everything else would be split among my children.

If I weren’t leaving any specific gifts, my will would simply say: ‘Everything to my wife.’

The Problem with Specific Gifts

The thing with making specific gifts is that most people don’t know how much money there would be in the estate when they died. This presents a potential problem: specific gifts must be satisfied first.

Let’s say my net estate was £400,000, and in my will I’d left my quarter-million-pound share of the flat at 12 Church Street to my brother, and £50,000 cash to Lorna. My wife would only get £150,000. We then need to ask: is this what I wanted? It just shows that we need to be careful about making specific gifts.

On the matter of cash gifts or specific gifts, it’s better to leave cash gifts as percentages rather than sums. This is because we don’t know what your estate will be worth in the end. You could have spent the money or given assets away. So, if you are going to leave specific gifts, it would be easier to leave percentages rather than sums of cash.

So if your estate today is worth, say, £500,000 and you wanted to leave ‘my friend Lorna Thompson £50,000’, it would be better to write in your will: ‘I leave my friend Lorna Thompson 10% of my net estate.’ Also, it should make things so much easier if there was inheritance tax to pay.

Remarriage and the Blended Family

Marriage revokes a will.

Say my wife and I wrote wills and my wife thereafter died; we’d carry out the instructions in her will. So far, so straightforward. If I then married someone else, my remarriage would revoke the will I wrote when my first wife was alive.

Let’s look at the blended family. In a blended family, what’s fair? Especially if the principals in the family came together later in life. Say my wife and I got married with two children each; we have two sets of children, four children in total. My wife brings, say, £2 million to the marriage and I bring nothing. On the death of both my wife and I, how would the estate be divided up? Equally among the four children, or my wife’s children getting £1 million each? What’s fair?

These are the sorts of things you’d need to consider,especially regarding the composition of your family.

Pets

If you’re leaving your pets to someone to look after, whom would that person be: the beneficiaries? Friends? Neighbours?

You know how much it costs to look after your pet. The PDSA reckons it’s £3,000 a year, plus extras, and then you have the end-of-life costs which could come to £2,000.

Disinheriting Someone: Legal Risks and the Letter of Wishes

The Testator: Leaving Your Estate as You Please

You, the testator.

We were introduced to the principle of testamentary capacity and the principle of testamentary freedom a while ago. While a history of mental health conditions is not a reason not to make a will, this is one point on which you should act with an abundance of caution.

Just like we saw with testamentary freedom: although in English law you can leave your estate as you pleased, you shouldn’t, for example, leave nothing to your family while leaving your estate to the local cat’s home. That would simply be courting trouble.

The Beneficiaries

Back to the principle of testamentary freedom: the freedom to leave your money to anyone as you pleased and in whatever proportions. That freedom is all very well, but you must be aware of the principles of the Inheritance Act 1975.

There are classes of people who could bring a claim on the grounds that the will did not make reasonable provision for them. The word that makes litigation profitable is ‘reasonable’. The matter of what is reasonable turns on the circumstances. Nonetheless, my abiding principle of will drafting is that: ‘you should, in death, look after the people you’ve looked after while you were alive.’

As long as you make reasonable provision for those whom you looked after in your lifetime, you’ll be fine.

Children and Adoptive Children

Let’s talk about children for a second: the testator’s children. The meaning of children is clear; it’s in the ordinary sense in which a primary school teacher would instruct their charges.

Now let’s talk about adoptive children. In inheritance law, a child who was adopted into a family would be treated exactly as if the child had been born into that family. So, to the extent that the testator’s children had any rights to the estate, those rights would also extend to adoptive children.

The rule with adoptions is that an adoptive child has only one family at a time. So, if a child born into family A is adopted into family B, that child may only bring a claim in respect of not being provided for in the wills of family B. The child would have no call on the wills of family A. Family A might still leave the child gifts in their wills, just like they could leave gifts to anyone else, but the child may not make a claim on Family A’s wills, at least not under the 1975 Act.

Disabled Beneficiaries

Inheritance and taxation laws grant concessions to people with disabilities, vulnerable beneficiaries. One reason for the concession is that generally disabled people should not lose their benefits because they have inherited some money. We shall see how to deal with disabled beneficiaries later.

Also, we should be aware of the potential for absolutely anybody to become disabled, and see how their inheritances could be protected.

Disinheriting People in Your Will

An impending divorce is no reason to cut your soon-to-be-ex-spouse out of your will. Think about it: if you died before the decree absolute, they could bring a claim against your estate.

On the grant of the decree absolute, your now ex-spouse would get nothing from your estate. This is because when a will is read, a divorced spouse is treated as if they’d died.

So, if someone’s will read: ‘when I die, give everything to my husband, but if my husband died before me, divide everything among my three children’, that’s standard, unremarkable.

If the testator’s marriage had ended in divorce and the will wasn’t changed after the divorce, the will would be read as if the husband had died. Therefore, the children would get everything in equal shares.

If a spouse (and no matter how badly strained the relationship was) were disinherited, the courts would be inclined to award the disfavoured spouse as much as they would have got if the marriage had ended in divorce rather than death.

In sum, there is no need to disinherit a partner you’re looking to divorce.

You then have to apply a certain amount of judgement to other possible beneficiaries: are they likely to be satisfied with the provision you’ve made for them?

If you’re looking to disinherit people, welcome to our good old letter of wishes.

The Letter of Wishes

We come to the letter of wishes. Once a will is admitted to probate, it becomes a public document; anyone can get a copy for £1.50. Like you, I was brought up in the belief: if you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything. Just as we understand the living should not speak ill of the dead, no good would come from the dead speaking ill of the living, at least not in public.

Most people would rather their dirty linen were not broadcast in the Daily Mail or other such paper. If you really must get things off your chest but feel these things could not be said in your lifetime, write them in a letter of wishes.

The letter of wishes is really a letter to your executors, and they will deal with this as the conditions allow them, rather than having such matters broadcast to the world because you’ve written them in your will.

The letter of wishes is also used to direct low-value gifts or knickknacks. Finally, the letters of wishes are used for directing trusts and directing whom you want to receive your pension and death-in-service benefits.

Apart from children’s trusts which are automatic, trusts are outside the scope of this article. Pensions and death-in-service benefits are also outside the scope of this article. For those, you should contact your pension administrators directly.

How to Prevent Will Disputes and Family Litigation

Some say the main point of a will was to avoid disputes. We’ll see some of the things that can cause disputes, and how to avoid them:

Clarity
The document: it must be on paper
Attestation (that’s just a gilded way of saying signing the document)
The document should be up to date, should be stored properly, so it can be found when needed
If you are disinheriting someone, care in doing it
Your choice of executors

Let’s look at these points in turn.

Clarity

The main point of a will is providing clarity on who gets your wealth, and on what conditions. If you followed this essay up till now, you’ve got the hang of things; you’ll be fine.

The only thing to watch out for is the final document. Later in the article, you’ll see software to guide you through step-by-step document production so that you don’t trip over your words.

The Document

The document should be on paper. You might have heard of curiosities such as a will being written on an eggshell, or a will being written on a mudguard of a tractor. Those are merely curiosities. The thing is: you really wouldn’t want your life’s work regarded as a curiosity, or would you? Wouldn’t you rather your family got your wealth simply and quietly?

Attestation

Attestation is the elaborate word for ‘signing the document’. Later in this we’ll talk about attestation in detail. For now, we should note that attestation is one of the points on which a disappointed potential beneficiary might bring a claim.

Keeping the Will Safe and Up to Date

This one’s so obvious that I beg your pardon to state something that’s so clear it can be seen from the Great Wall of China. Your will should be up to date to reflect changes in your family and financial circumstances.

This is another obvious point that I feel a certain embarrassment bringing up, but what is the point of your will if it cannot be found when the time comes? You know that quip: ‘I kept it so safe I don’t know where to find it.’ You don’t want that with your will.

As I say to all my clients: ‘Let the important people know there is a will, let them know what’s in it, and let them know where to find it.’ If your will is in a safe or such place, be sure your executors can get at it.

Disinheriting and Professional Executors

We’ve covered throughout the principle of testamentary freedom, which gives you the right to disinherit anyone you might wish. While on the matter of disinheriting people, we considered your possible obligations to your family and to people who might have expectations of you.

If there are several beneficiaries to an estate and if the executors don’t get on, then you can see a situation pregnant with conflict. You might want to prevent the family warfare by appointing a professional executor.

Mental Capacity and Claims

In my experience, when someone makes a claim, especially when they are on shaky ground, they tend to throw mud at the wall in the expectation that something, anything, would stick. One point that is brought up more often than not, and indeed more often than most, is that the testator lacked sufficient mental capacity to write a will. They might say this especially if the person was of advanced years or was ill. They’d say something like: ‘Oh, they were ill and all those drugs they take for such illnesses, you know, they tend to make people a bit confused.’

While the testator might have the mental capacity required for the task, by definition, because the testator would be dead when the claim was being made, they wouldn’t be around to say how compos mentis they were when they were making the will.

So, if there is any doubt on mental capacity, I’d say simply: get professional help to do your will.

Let the Important People Know

You might remember from previously, I said: let the important people know there is a will, let them know where to find it, and let them know what’s in the will.

Often, often, often, most cases can be prevented because, by implication, when a case is being brought, what’s being said is: ‘Oh, we didn’t know if a will was being made. If only we’d known what was in the will, we would have discussed it with the testator and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.’

So let the important people know there is a will, let them know what’s in it, and let them know where to find it.

Legal Requirements for Signing a Will UK: Attestation Rules

In the introduction I said there was only one rule to writing a will. This is the only rule. Even this single rule has an exception: members of the armed forces are exempt from this rule.

And here’s the rule: The document must be signed.

The law says a will must be signed by the person making the will (that’s the testator), and the signature must be dated. The testator’s signature must be witnessed by two independent witnesses. A witness may not be a beneficiary; the witness may not be the spouse or civil partner of a beneficiary.

So to keep it simple, I generally say: ‘The witnesses to your will should not be members of your family. Ideal witnesses would be your next-door neighbours, or perhaps your work colleagues.’

There is no law that says your will must be on paper, or to put another way, there is no law that says your will cannot be on other material or be recorded electronically. However, the law says the document must be signed in the presence of two witnesses. The only thing you can sign in the presence of two witnesses is paper. E-signatures cannot be witnessed, not in this sense. There was a High Court ruling just before the first Covid lockdown, the long and short of which was that signatures cannot be witnessed by video. Therefore, your will must be on paper, witnessed by two independent people.

As we see, paper is the only medium that meets the requirements that the will be signed and dated, and the details of the witnesses be recorded.

You may write your will by hand, but I bet your handwriting is not good enough for this task. Handwriting tends to get worse the more words you write. A short will would be several hundred words, and your handwriting would likely not be clear enough to avoid mischief or misunderstanding.

A typewriter or word processor: the problem arises with the clauses that you need to make sure your wishes are carried out. It’s just a bit messy. Templates are far too confusing; avoid them.

In these modern times, there’s software to make writing a will, the will that’s best for you, to make writing that will a doddle. Click here to access the software.

Procedural Clauses

Most of the time, your will would start with a revocation clause, something that says: ‘I revoke all former wills.’ Most of the time you want to revoke all former wills because you want this to be your last will.

Now, not revoking all former wills, to me, is a red flag. If you are not revoking all previous wills, maybe perhaps you have property in other nations or countries. You’ll need professional help to write your will.

Records to Keep

In addition to the will, you want to keep certain records that would help ensure your wishes were carried out. You want to record the circumstances of the will: make a record of the circumstances of the will such as state of health, who was in the room when the instructions to write the document were given, or what prompted you to write the will.

Earlier we talked about the schedule of assets. Keep records of your assets: cars, land and buildings, boat builder certificates and such like. Keep records of birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce certificates, etcetera, because such papers are useful to pay the right amount of inheritance tax (even if the tax is zero), or to apply for the grant of probate.

Where to Store Your Will and How Often to Update It

Storage and Access

We’ve talked about the attestation previously; it’s only mentioned here for completeness. We encountered the principle of telling the important people there was a will, telling them what was in it, and telling them where to find it.

We talked about that thing where something is kept so safely it can’t be found. If your will is in bank custody, the bank might not give the document to your executor. After all, the contract to keep the document is between you and the bank. You really wouldn’t want the bank handing your valuables to anyone willy-nilly. So your executors might be in something of a catch-22 situation.

Likewise, if you’re keeping your will in a safe, be sure your executors can get at it. After all, your will’s no good if it cannot be found.

Updating Your Will

As we pointed out earlier, a will is worthless if it is out of date.

If we think of a will being about the people in your life and the things in your life, when your relationships with those people or things change, you should change your will.

We now come to the question of how often to update the document. Some people say every three years, people say every five years. I don’t subscribe to that view. A will should be updated as your family and financial circumstances change.

Think of those events at which you might send greetings cards:

Events such as the birth of a child or grandchild
The death of a close relative, the sort of person who might have been in your will

Think of the people you named in your will as executors or guardians. If you fall out with them, or they leave the country, or fall ill, or die, you should change your will.

Think of those big life events such as retirement, or dramatic change of fortune, a substantial inheritance, or even less likely, a big win on the football pools or any of the big lotteries. For instance, you might make a big gift that might affect what your beneficiaries in your will might get.

Of course it wouldn’t hurt to update your will on big birthdays such as 65, 70, 80, etc.

The moral of the story is: update your will as needs must.

Free Will Writing Software vs Professional Draftsman

We now come to the final document. We now come to what it’s all about.

Can you write the document yourself?
Are you confident that your affairs are within your competence?
Are you confident there would be no disappointed potential beneficiaries?
Are you sure the nature of your estate and reconciling your obligations with your family means there would be almost zero chance of disputes and heaven forbid lawsuits?

Your DIY Checklist

The difference between equality and fairness: for most people these are the same, but depending on your family circumstances, equality may not be fair.
Don’t put unnecessary conditions on gifts. Such conditions are things like: ‘My son would get my house at 13 Church Street if he is married by the age of 35.’ Another common example of a condition would be something like: ‘My daughter would get the E-type Jaguar on condition she never sells it.’
How have you dealt with the family home? Who gets it ultimately? Is the ownership complex?
Do you have disabled beneficiaries? If so, do you want to take advantage of concessions available to such beneficiaries?
Are you disinheriting anyone?
Your executors: do you have a redundancy of executors and other officers such as trustees? Or do your family circumstances mean it is wise to appoint an external executor?

Inheritance Tax

The final point on the DIY checklist, and it is a big one, is: do you have an inheritance tax problem and do you want to solve it?

The simple triggers to inheritance tax are estates being over £325,000 and half a million pounds respectively, depending on two things: whether there was a residential property, and if that property (or the value of the property) was being inherited by children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Of course, these thresholds are for a single testator, so if you are a couple, these thresholds could be doubled.

Of course, we discussed inheritance tax earlier in this document. If there is an inheritance tax liability on your estate and you want your family rather than HMRC to get the fruit of your life’s work, simply click here to find out about solving your inheritance tax problem.

Writing Your Will: The Final Step

We come to writing your will yourself: producing the actual document that is your last will and testament. We’ve talked previously about the means of preparing the final bit of paper, and that your handwriting is not likely to be clear enough to avoid mischief or misunderstanding.

Access free will-writing software in which you would be able to use your understanding of why and how to write your will to produce the perfect document for you and your family. This software would guide you through a foolproof process of writing your will.

You may then print the document at home, or if you don’t have a printer, we would print it and bind it with tamper-proof binding and send it to you.

And finally, if you need help to write your will, simply book a consultation with a draftsman of over three decades’ experience.

Final Thoughts

Finally, congratulations.

You did it. You worked through all the sections of this article. You cleared your mind of clutter. You ignored the false myths you might have come across. And you focused on the parts relevant to you.

You’ve made it further than a lot of people ever will.

Think back to the beginning, where we talked about your objectives and motivations. Think how much progress you’ve made. You now have a better idea how you want your estate divided.

Finally, there are just three things for you to do.

First: Complete any forms and lists you might have downloaded, especially your list of assets and your list of potential beneficiaries. Also, work out if there’s any inheritance tax liability on your estate.

Secondly: Take the DIY questionnaire at the end of Section 4, Lesson 3. You’ll be able to decide if you can write your will yourself. (The questionnaire is also at the end of this page.)

Third: Write your will. Write it yourself or get professional help. Whatever you do, write your will.

Click here for free will-writing software.

Frequently Asked Questions About Will Writing

How much does it cost to write a will in the UK?

If you write the will yourself using proper software, the cost is minimal (paper and ink). If you instruct a solicitor, costs typically range from £150 to £500 for a straightforward will. Complex estates involving trusts or overseas assets may cost considerably more. In my experience, 85% of people can manage with a well-drafted DIY will, but if your affairs are complicated, professional fees are money well spent to avoid problems later.

Can I write my will on my computer and print it?

Yes, provided you print it and sign it correctly. The law requires a physical document signed in the presence of two independent witnesses. An unprinted, purely digital will is not valid in England and Wales. You cannot use an e-signature or have witnesses attend via video call. Print the document, sign it with a pen, and have two witnesses sign it while they can see you doing so.

Who cannot witness a will in the UK?

A beneficiary cannot witness your will, nor can the spouse or civil partner of a beneficiary. If they do witness it, they lose their gift. I generally advise that witnesses should not be family members at all. Your next-door neighbours or work colleagues are ideal. The witnesses must be over 18 and must not be blind (they must be able to see you sign).

What happens to my will if I get married?

Marriage automatically revokes your will. If you write a will while single and then marry, that will becomes invalid. You must write a new will after your wedding. The exception is if your will was made ‘in contemplation of marriage’ to that specific person. Divorce does not invalidate a will, but it does treat your ex-spouse as if they had died, so you should review your will upon decree absolute.

How long does probate take in the UK?

For a straightforward estate, probate typically takes six to nine months from death to distribution. If inheritance tax is payable, HMRC must confirm payment before the grant is issued, which can add several weeks. Complex estates, disputes, or overseas assets can extend this to a year or more. The executor’s diligence (or lack thereof) also affects the timeline significantly.

Do I need a solicitor to write a will?

Not necessarily. If your estate is straightforward (you own property in England and Wales, your family relationships are uncomplicated, and you have no inheritance tax concerns), you can write your will yourself. However, if you have a blended family, disabled beneficiaries, property abroad, or potential disputes, professional help is advisable. At minimum, understand the principles first (which this guide provides) so you know when you need help.

What happens if I die without a will in the UK?

You die intestate. The law (specifically the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and subsequent amendments) dictates who gets what. Your spouse may not inherit everything; unmarried partners inherit nothing; and children may inherit at 18 whether they are mature enough or not. The process is slower, more expensive, and rarely matches what the deceased would have wanted.

Can I leave my house to my children but let my partner live in it?

Yes, this requires a life interest trust or a right of occupation written into your will. Your partner would have the right to live in the property for life or until they remarry or cohabit, after which the property passes to your children. This protects your partner’s housing security while preserving the capital for your children. Do not attempt this with a simple DIY template; seek professional advice to ensure the trust is properly drafted.

How often should I update my will?

Update your will when your circumstances change, not on a fixed schedule. The birth of a child, death of a beneficiary, marriage, divorce, retirement, or receiving a large inheritance all trigger a review. Think of it like sending greeting cards for major life events; if an event warrants a card, it warrants a will review. Big birthdays (65, 70, 80) are also natural checkpoints.

Is a beneficiary allowed to be an executor?

Yes, there is no law preventing a beneficiary from being an executor. In fact, if your spouse is your main beneficiary, appointing them as executor is logical. However, if multiple beneficiaries do not get on well, appointing one of them as executor can sow seeds of dispute. Sometimes appointing a neutral professional, or ensuring there is an independent trustee alongside family executors, prevents conflict.

Complete Guide to Writing Your Will UK [2026]