A will is one of the most important documents most people will ever make, yet a large number of adults in England and Wales still do not have one. Your will lets you decide what happens to your money, property and possessions after your death, and it is the only reliable way to make sure your wishes are followed. If you die without a will, the law decides who gets what, and that outcome may not be the one you would have wanted. This guide explains, step by step, what a will should contain, who should be involved, what makes it legally valid, when to get professional advice, and how to keep it up to date, using the official guidance published by GOV.UK and Citizens Advice. It is general information, not legal advice, and the rules described here apply to England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules.

Why making a will matters

There are several reasons why making a will matters, whether or not you consider yourself to have many possessions or much money. First, if you die without a will, there are fixed rules, known as the rules of intestacy, which dictate how your money, property and possessions should be allocated, and that may not be the way you would have wished them to be distributed. Second, unmarried partners and partners who have not registered a civil partnership cannot inherit from each other unless there is a will, so the death of one partner may create serious financial problems for the one who is left behind. Third, if you have children, you will need a will so that arrangements can be made for them if one or both parents die. Fourth, with advice taken in advance, it may be possible to reduce the amount of tax payable on the inheritance. And finally, if your circumstances have changed, for example if you have separated and your former partner now lives with someone else, it is important to make or update a will so that your money and possessions are distributed according to your current wishes.

What your will should set out

Before you speak to a solicitor or start writing, it helps to think through the main decisions your will has to record. According to GOV.UK, your will should set out who you want to benefit from it, who should look after any children under 18, who is going to sort out your estate and carry out your wishes after your death, and what happens if the people you want to benefit die before you. You can also include a charity in your will. Citizens Advice suggests the same preparation: work out what money, property and belongings you have, for example savings or your home; decide who you want to have them after you die, those people being called beneficiaries; consider whether you want to give anything to charity; decide who should look after any children under 18; and choose who your executors will be.

Valuing your estate is a practical first step, and it is worth doing properly before any appointment. Citizens Advice lists the kinds of assets to count: property, savings, occupational and personal pensions, insurance policies, bank and building society accounts, and shares. You should also list what you owe, because debts, taxes, funeral costs and administration costs are paid out of the estate before gifts are distributed. A clear list saves time, reduces the cost of professional help, and makes it less likely that something important is overlooked.

Choosing executors and guardians

Executors are the people who will be responsible for carrying out your wishes and sorting out the estate. They collect together all the assets, deal with all the paperwork, pay the debts, taxes, funeral and administration costs out of the money in the estate, and then pay out the gifts and transfer any property to the beneficiaries. It is a job that involves a great deal of work and responsibility, so executors should be chosen with considerable care.

You only need to appoint one executor, although you can have up to four, and it is better to have more than one in case there is a problem, for example if one executor is unwell. If any of your beneficiaries are under 18, or if the will includes a trust, you will need at least two executors. The people most commonly appointed are relatives or friends, solicitors or accountants, banks, or the Public Trustee, and in some cases the Official Solicitor if there is no one else willing and able to act. You should always approach anyone you are thinking of appointing to see if they will agree to take on the responsibility, because a person who is appointed but unwilling has the right to refuse. If an executor dies, any surviving executors can deal with the estate, but if there are no surviving executors, legal advice should be sought.

Guardians are the people you choose to look after your children under 18 if you die. Naming guardians in your will is one of the most important decisions a parent can make, and it is worth discussing it with the people concerned before you write it down. GOV.UK lists guardianship alongside beneficiaries and executors as one of the essential contents of a will, and Citizens Advice makes the same point: deciding who should look after children under 18 is a decision to make before you approach a solicitor, not an afterthought.

Do you need a solicitor?

There is no legal requirement for a will to be drawn up or witnessed by a solicitor. You can write your will yourself, and GOV.UK says so directly, but it also says you should get advice if your will is not straightforward. Citizens Advice takes the same view: you should only consider making a will yourself if it is going to be straightforward, and it is generally advisable to use a solicitor, or to have a solicitor check a will you have drawn up, to make sure it will have the effect you want. That is because it is easy to make mistakes, and if there are errors, they can cause problems after your death. Sorting out misunderstandings and disputes after a death may result in considerable legal costs, which reduce the amount of money in the estate.

Professional advice is particularly advisable in certain situations. Both GOV.UK and Citizens Advice list the same examples: you share a property with someone who is not your husband, wife or civil partner; you want to leave money or property to a dependant who cannot care for themselves; several family members may make a claim on your will, such as a second spouse or children from another marriage; your permanent home is outside the United Kingdom; you have property overseas; or you have a business. A solicitor will charge for drawing up or checking a will, and the charges vary between solicitors and depend on the complexity of the will, so it is advisable to check with a few local solicitors before deciding. They should give you the best possible information about the cost of their services at the beginning of their work. You can find a solicitor through the Law Society website, and Citizens Advice can advise on free or affordable legal help.

There are cheaper alternatives, but they come with warnings. Will-writing services are usually cheaper than a solicitor, but most are not regulated, which means that if something goes wrong with your will, you cannot make a legal complaint or claim compensation. If you decide to use a will-writing firm, Citizens Advice suggests choosing one that belongs to the Institute of Professional Willwriters, which has a code of practice approved by the Trading Standards Institute Consumer Codes Approval Scheme. Some charities can also help you make a will, and every November some solicitors offer free will-writing services in exchange for a donation to the charity Will Aid. If you are aged 55 or over, you can take part in Free Wills Month, which runs each March and October, and choose to leave a gift in your will to one of the participating charities.

What makes a will legally valid

The formal requirements for a valid will are strict, and getting them wrong is the most common reason a homemade will fails. For your will to be legally valid in England and Wales, you must be 18 or over, make it voluntarily and without pressure from any other person, be of sound mind, make it in writing, sign it in the presence of two witnesses who are both over 18, and have it signed by your two witnesses in your presence. Being of sound mind means you must be fully aware of the nature of the document being written or signed, and aware of the property involved and the identity of the people who may inherit.

The signing ceremony itself has detailed rules. You and your witnesses must sign the same document, and when you sign, both witnesses must have a clear view of you and the act of signing. You can ask someone to sign on your behalf if you are unable to do it yourself. When your witnesses sign, you must have a clear view of them and the act of signing, although your witnesses do not need to sign at the same time as each other. The will should also be dated, even though it can still be legally valid without a date. As soon as the will is signed and witnessed, it is complete.

One rule catches more people out than any other: you cannot leave your witnesses, or their married partners, anything in your will. If a witness is a beneficiary, or the married partner or civil partner of a beneficiary, the will itself is still valid, but that beneficiary will not be able to inherit under it. That is a devastating way to disinherit someone by accident, so witnesses should be independent people who gain nothing from the will, and whose partners gain nothing either. An executor may witness the will, provided they are not also a beneficiary, although choosing entirely independent witnesses is tidier.

Common mistakes to avoid

Citizens Advice lists the mistakes that most often cause trouble. People fail to take account of all the money and property available, so part of the estate is left undealt with. They fail to take account of the possibility that a beneficiary may die before them, so the will says nothing about what should happen to that share. They change the will after it has been signed and witnessed, without realising that alterations which are not themselves signed and witnessed are invalid. They are unaware of the effect of marriage, a registered civil partnership, divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership on a will. And they are unaware of the rules that enable dependants to claim from the estate if they believe they are not adequately provided for, which can mean the provisions in the will are overturned by a court.

Getting married or entering a civil partnership cancels any will you made before, unless the will was made in contemplation of that marriage, so a new will is needed after the wedding. That is why GOV.UK advises reviewing your will after any major change in life, including getting separated or divorced, getting married, having a child, moving house, or the death of the executor named in the will. If you are in any doubt about whether you should make a will, or whether the one you have still does what you want, Citizens Advice advises consulting a solicitor.

Updating your will: codicils and new wills

You should review your will every five years and after any major change in your life. You cannot simply cross out a line or write in a correction after a will has been signed and witnessed. The only way to change a will is by making an official alteration called a codicil, or by making a new will. A codicil is a supplement to a will that makes some alterations but leaves the rest of it intact, for example increasing a cash gift, changing an executor or guardian, or adding beneficiaries. You must sign a codicil and get it witnessed in the same way as witnessing a will, and there is no limit on how many codicils you can add.

For major changes, you should make a new will. Your new will should explain that it revokes, or officially cancels, all previous wills and codicils, and you should destroy your old will by burning it or tearing it up. Keeping an old will alongside a new one is an invitation to confusion and dispute, so the old document should not be left lying around as though it were still in force.

Where to keep your will safe

Once a will has been made, it should be kept in a safe place, and other documents should not be attached to it. You can keep it at your home, or store it with your solicitor, your bank, or a company that offers the storage of wills. You can also store it with the national probate registry in Newcastle, through the Probate Service. Whoever holds it, you should tell your executor, a close friend or relative where your will is. A will that nobody can find is almost as useless as no will at all, and your family may have to deal with your estate as though you had died without one.

There are also ways to make a will easier to find after a death. The person who made the will may have registered it with a commercial organisation such as the National Will Register, and after the death, a search of its database can be paid for. If a will was stored with the Probate Service, a certificate of deposit will have been sent to the person who made it, and the registry can be checked even if that certificate cannot be found. Solicitors, accountants and banks in the area where the person lived can also be asked whether they hold the will. If no will can be found, the estate will usually have to be dealt with as if the person died without leaving a will.

What happens if you die without a will

If you die without a will, the law decides who gets what under the rules of intestacy, and that outcome may not match your wishes. Unmarried partners get nothing under the intestacy rules, however long they lived together, and no provision is made for stepchildren, close friends or charities unless they are named in a will. The rules also make no provision for who should look after your children, although the courts can decide guardianship separately. Making a will is the only way to be sure that your money, property and possessions go to the people you choose, in the shares you choose.

Making a will does not have to be expensive or complicated, and for most people with straightforward affairs it is a short task that brings real peace of mind. Start by listing what you own and what you owe, decide who should benefit and who should look after any children, choose executors you trust and ask them first, and then decide whether to write the will yourself or get professional help. If your affairs are at all complicated, get advice before you sign anything. Then sign it correctly, with two independent adult witnesses watching, date it, store it safely, and tell your executor where it is. Review it every five years, and sooner if your life changes. This guide is general information based on the official GOV.UK and Citizens Advice guidance, not legal advice, and you should check the official pages or speak to a solicitor if you are unsure about your own situation.