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Written by Adam McIlroy.
25 minute read
Making a will lets you decide who inherits your money, property and belongings, who should care for your children if they’re under 18, and who manages your estate. Without one, intestacy rules determine who inherits, potentially leaving unmarried partners, stepchildren and friends with nothing. In England and Wales, a will generally needs two witnesses to be valid.
Writing a will is something many of us put off. Thinking about what happens after we die can feel uncomfortable, but having a will in place can bring peace of mind. It helps make sure your wishes are known and can make things easier for the people you care about.
Much like preparing a funeral arrangements checklist or planning your own funeral, making a will is an important part of getting your affairs in order. And while it might seem complicated at first, understanding the process can make it feel much more manageable.
In this guide, we’ll explain why having a will matters, what to include and how to get started, so you can feel more confident about planning for the future. We’ll focus on the rules in England and Wales, which differ from those in Scotland and Northern Ireland. This article offers general guidance, so it’s always worth seeking professional legal advice if you have questions or need support with your will.
Key takeaways:
A will, put simply, is a legal document which we can write in order to outline our end-of-life wishes formally. It is an essential element of end-of-life planning, and we use it to declare our final intentions on a whole range of things: Who our executors should be (which of our loved ones or trusted agents should take charge of our estate when we’re no longer here); where our assets should go; whether we want any donations to be made to charity; and even what kind of funeral we want. We can make certain aspects of our will legally binding by following certain steps. And, in writing a will, we can spare our family all kinds of hassle (and internal disputes) when they go to pick up the pieces after we’re gone.
Making a will is one of the most important ways to protect the people you care about and make sure your wishes are respected after you die. Without one, your estate will be distributed according to intestacy rules, which may not reflect what you would have wanted.
Here are nine reasons why writing a will matters.
If you’re unmarried or not in a civil partnership, your partner won’t automatically inherit your estate under intestacy rules in England and Wales, regardless of how long you’ve been together. A will lets you make financial provision for them and helps protect their future.
If you have children under 18, you can use your will to appoint a guardian to care for them if needed. You can also decide how your assets should support your children, including setting up trusts to manage their inheritance until they’re older. Guardianship arrangements depend on your circumstances, so it’s worth seeking legal advice.
Your home may be one of your most valuable assets. A will can help you decide who inherits your share of a property, particularly if you own it jointly or have children from a previous relationship. This can be especially important if you want your partner to continue living there.
When someone dies without a will, uncertainty about their wishes can sometimes lead to disagreements. A clearly written will helps your family understand your decisions and can reduce the risk of disputes during an already difficult time.
A will gives you the freedom to leave money, belongings or other assets to people and causes that matter to you. This could include close friends, stepchildren or a charity you care about, who might otherwise receive nothing under intestacy rules.
Making a will can help you organise your estate in a tax-efficient way, potentially reducing the inheritance tax payable. For example, leaving at least 10% of your net estate to charity may qualify your estate for a reduced inheritance tax rate of 36%, where the relevant conditions are met. Professional advice can help you understand which rules apply to you.
Your will allows you to appoint one or more executors to carry out your wishes, settle debts and distribute your assets. Choosing someone you trust, and discussing the responsibility with them beforehand, can make the process easier for your family. Executors will usually need to apply for probate before administering the estate.
From online accounts and digital photographs to websites and cryptocurrency, many of us now have valuable or meaningful digital assets. Your will can explain how you’d like these handled and who should manage them. Keep passwords and other sensitive access details in a separate, secure place rather than including them in your will.
Pets are an important part of many families, and you may want to make arrangements for their care after you die. Your will can name someone you’d like to look after them and leave money towards their ongoing needs. It’s best to discuss this with the person beforehand to make sure they’re happy to take on the responsibility.
A will doesn’t need to be complicated to make a difference. By putting your wishes in writing, you can give your loved ones greater clarity and help make an emotional time a little easier to manage.
Making a will is important for most adults, but particularly if you:
Even if your circumstances are straightforward, a will can make things easier for your loved ones. It’s worth reviewing it after major life changes, such as marriage, divorce or having children.
If you die without a valid will, you’re said to have died intestate. This means your estate is distributed according to intestacy rules, rather than your personal wishes.
In England and Wales, who inherits depends on your family circumstances. A spouse or civil partner may inherit all or part of your estate, while children and other close relatives may also be entitled to a share. Unmarried partners, stepchildren who haven’t been legally adopted and friends don’t automatically inherit.
Someone will also need to apply for a grant of letters of administration to manage your estate, rather than acting as an executor appointed in a will. This can add uncertainty and extra work for your family at an already difficult time.
Understanding what happens when someone dies without a will can help you see why putting your wishes in writing is so important.
The hardest part of writing a will is to get started. You can begin by assessing your assets and liabilities; consulting a professional; and, if you’ve already written one a while ago, you can review it and make sure it is still relevant to you and your estate and interests.
It can be difficult for your family to find lost or dormant assets belonging to you after you’re gone, especially if they are operating from a position of ignorance about your affairs. Deciding to write a will means that you are going to have to think about what assets you have: savings in different bank accounts (you may also want to think about what happens to bank accounts when you die); investments or shares in your name; over-50s life insurance policies; property, and so on. You will also need to take account of any debts that your estate is likely to incur, to make sure that your family is aware of this, and to preemptively lessen or remove their burden, if you can.
When writing a will, you can seek a bespoke service with expert guidance, which will come at a significant cost. Or you can find simpler, more streamlined and mainstream services which are often available online at low-cost. Depending on the size of your estate, or the complexity of your bequests (or indeed, the size of your family), you may wish to seek specific legal advice about how to draft a watertight will that truly achieves what you want it to.
It’s a good idea to review your will every few years, or whenever something important changes in your life. This helps make sure it still reflects your wishes and provides for the people you care about.
You should consider updating your will if:
It’s also worth checking any specific gifts you’ve included, such as a car or jewellery, to make sure you still own them and the descriptions are accurate.
If you need to make changes, it’s important to do so legally, either through a codicil or by making a new will. Simply writing changes onto an existing will could make them invalid. A solicitor can help you make sure everything is properly recorded.
You can ensure that your property goes to your intended beneficiaries; manage shared ownership of your home among beneficiaries; and address mortgage and financial liabilities through proper estate planning.
If you are a homeowner, it’s likely the most valuable asset which you own. It means that listing who will inherit the family home (and any other properties you own) is likely the most important part of any will. Therefore, any provisions relating to what happens to it need to be expressed as clearly as possible – especially around beneficiary names – to avoid conflict and confusion among those we leave behind.
How you leave your property behind will depend on whether you are the sole owner, or one of two joint-owners, and whether the joint-owners each possess an equal share of the property. The simplest situation is when you are the sole owner, and the mortgage is fully paid off. In this case, the house is simply left as an asset for whichever beneficiary you choose, and they can do as they see fit with it.
If you’re part of a couple and own a home together, what happens to the property after one of you dies depends on how it’s legally owned. If the home is owned as joint tenants, the surviving partner will usually inherit the share of the person who has died automatically, regardless of what’s written in the will.
But if the home is owned as tenants in common, the share becomes part of their estate and will be passed on according to their will or the rules of intestacy.
If you want someone who doesn’t own the property, such as a child or relative, to be able to live in the home after your death, you might consider setting up a Property Trust. Understanding how to set up a trust like this can be especially important in second marriages, where people want to protect the interests of children from a previous relationship, or to prevent future complications if the surviving partner remarries or has more children.
For debts that need to be settled, you can also include instructions in your will about how you would like your estate to be used to repay them. While debts must be settled according to the law before any inheritance is distributed, making your wishes clear can help your executors understand your intentions and reduce uncertainty for your loved ones during an already difficult time.
If you have an equity release plan secured against your home, it’s also worth making your executors and beneficiaries aware of it. Our guide to what happens to equity release when you die explains how these loans are usually repaid, what they mean for your estate, and what your loved ones can expect after your death.
Taking the time to record important financial arrangements alongside your will can make administering your estate more straightforward and help your family feel better prepared when the time comes.
These are some of the most important things to consider when writing a will, helping ensure your wishes are clear and legally sound. The most important elements of will writing concern the following: naming your executor(s); specifying the beneficiaries of your assets; making specific bequests; and addressing debts and liabilities, all of which are crucial for effective estate planning.
Working out how to choose an executor – assessing the capability and willingness to do the job of those you leave behind – is a longer process than you might expect. Before naming them in your will, you will have to think hard about whom you can trust to carry out the responsibility of administering your estate according to your wishes. Whilst you don’t need their legal consent to name them as such, given the burden of the responsibility it entails, it would be polite and sensible to check with them first to see if they are comfortable.
Executors apply for probate, but registering the death is usually done by the next of kin, if different from appointed executor(s).Once probate is granted, they will then see to the execution of your wishes, alongside other matters like filing a final accounting of your assets and paying. As such, they will need to be a competent and trustworthy person.
If you want a certain person to receive an amount of money or a portion of your property, then you will need to name them specifically. Include in your will their:
It’s important to keep beneficiaries’ contact details up to date, but writing changes directly on the will after it’s been signed can invalidate it. Instead, you may wish to enclose a separate note with any updated addresses, and let your executors know where to find it.
Wills can also be used to make specific bequests, rather than just a general allocation of your assets. Items and possessions of great sentimental importance can be passed down officially and unequivocally to different members of your family, such as pieces of furniture which have been in the family for generations, or a piano or guitar that has had pride of place, for instance. You can also name certain charities in your will, too, if you’d like to make a final donation to a cause that was dear to you in life.
For debts which need to be settled, you can also provide instruction for how to use the estate for this purpose. This can help your family to avoid stress and uncertainty, as well as unnecessarily taking on the burden of debts themselves.
To be legally valid in England and Wales, your will must be signed by you and witnessed by two people who are present at the same time. These witnesses cannot be beneficiaries. If they are, they’ll lose their entitlement under the will. This rule applies whether your will is written using a free template or by a solicitor.
If these steps aren’t properly followed, the probate court may question the validity of the will—and in many cases, they may request formal statements (affidavits) from the witnesses to confirm it was signed correctly. This is actually more common than a family dispute, and can potentially cause delays or even prevent probate being granted.
The advantages of writing a will go far beyond legal clarity, offering reassurance, stability, and peace of mind for both you and those you care about. The importance of writing a will is really about the benefits which you can get for yourself and others. You can secure peace of mind for yourself and for your family that you’ve thought about what you want to happen; you can thereby prevent family disputes after you’re gone; and you can support causes which you care about.
Perhaps the biggest benefit – and one it has in common with funeral plans – is that writing a will is a great way to give yourself true peace of mind. Many people also find reassurance in setting up power of attorney, knowing that trusted people can step in if decisions ever need to be made on their behalf. Those who’ve written a will know that they’ve tied up all the loose ends: they’ve given an account of their assets and wishes; they’ve selected a trusted person to execute their will; and they’ve made the relevant people aware of where their will is located.
Meanwhile, their family can also breathe a sigh of relief that the possibility of disputes has been preemptively closed, and that everyone can focus on enjoying life without worry. They can also be sure that, when the time comes, there is a clear plan, as well as a person or group of people to execute it.
Even if your family comes to disagree over what you’ve written in your will, it will serve as an unambiguous account of what you wanted to happen. In that sense, assuming your family agrees with your thinking, it will head-off the possibility of rival interpretations of who has the right to what when you’re no longer around to judge for yourself. For this reason, it is essential that your wording is as clear as possible: if you want to bequeath a car to your son, make sure to specify the make and model of the car, and even to include the registration number, to make it unequivocal. The same standard applies to all other bequests you want to make.
The real risk to families, however, is the possibility of a parent dying without a will in place. It can be hard enough to cope with the death of a parent, say, or the unexpected death of a loved one from whom we stand to inherit something, without also needing to worry about whether there is a clear record of their wishes. All too often, families who should be dealing with their grief are instead snarled up in protracted (and often depressing) conversations about money and property. Having a will in place is a clear way of preventing this kind of disagreement from occurring at all.
A will is a great place to include your wishes about what charities you would like to donate to, out of the value of your estate. Not only does this give you the chance to make a final donation to causes you support, but, depending on the amount you donate, you could reduce the inheritance tax which is due on certain assets in your estate for your family.
There are plenty of common misconceptions about the importance of writing a will. People tend to worry that they don’t have enough assets to make it worth their while; that they are too young to bother; or that it’s too complicated or expensive.
Wills are not just for the wealthy. Even if your assets are modest, it is still worth issuing a final view on how they should be apportioned in order to help your family to avoid tension. But, your will doesn’t have to just be about financial matters. If there are sentimental or valuable possessions you’d like to take account of, then your will could be the place to do it. You can even use it to notify your family about the existence of your funeral plan, and to make sure your family has a clear idea of your funeral preferences.
Whilst preferences about funerals, such as those in line with the different beliefs on death and funerals in religion, are not legally binding if they are placed in a will, they give your family a clear idea of how to honour your memory and your wishes.
It’s never too early to write a will (nor to plan your own funeral, for that matter); the sooner we start to think about these matters, the sooner we can live out the rest of our days with a peace of mind that can’t otherwise be obtained. It always pays to be prepared, and, in any case, even if you need to amend or alter matters later in life to take account of changing circumstances, it’s always easier to do this than to start from scratch.
Many people worry about the cost of writing a will, assuming it must be expensive or difficult to manage. A will is a weighty document with a great deal of significance, but it doesn’t mean that it has to be overly complicated, or even particularly expensive. There are lots of different simple templates for will writing available online, and relatively affordable services for making them legally binding. Due to the tax benefits available to you, and the financial benefits available to them, many charities provide support with the writing of wills on their website.
Companies often offer the option of an online service, which is cheaper, or a phone consultation, which is a bit more expensive. Of course, you can also discuss matters with your local solicitor’s office, or even your bank. With that said, the services of a solicitor will likely be significantly more expensive than other options.
We hope you have found this article on the importance of writing a will useful and instructive. As the top-rated national provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on Trustpilot with a score of 4.9/5 stars, we see it as our mission to promote awareness of all elements of the end-of-life planning process, of which writing a will is a big part.
If you’re interested in getting a funeral plan together for the end of your life, Aura would be delighted to assist you. Feel free to compare Aura funeral plans with other leading plans and get in touch, or perhaps you’d like to request a free brochure that could answer your funeral-planning questions? If so, you can do so by clicking the link below. We are ready and willing to help should you need anything. We also offer our direct cremation services to those requiring support imminently, so whatever your funeral needs, we are able to help.
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A will is a legal document that outlines your wishes for what should happen to your assets, property, and dependants after your death. It helps avoid legal complications, ensures your wishes are followed, and reduces stress for your loved ones.
If you die without a will, you are considered to have died intestate, meaning your estate will be distributed according to the law, not your personal wishes. This can lead to complications, family disputes, and people you care about being unintentionally left out.
Yes. A will isn’t just about money—it can include guardianship for children, funeral wishes, sentimental items, and charitable donations. Even small estates benefit from clarity and direction.
Anyone over 18 should consider writing a will, especially if they:
Own property
Have children or dependants
Want control over what happens to their assets
Are in a blended family or cohabiting relationship
It doesn’t have to be. You can use free templates, online services, or consult a solicitor for complex estates. Some charities also offer low-cost or free will-writing services.
To be valid, a will must:
Be in writing
Be signed by you
Be witnessed by two people who aren’t beneficiaries (at the same time)
Yes, you can update your will at any time. Major life changes—like marriage, divorce, or new children—are good times to review your will. Avoid writing directly on the original; use a codicil or write a new will.
You can:
Name executors to manage your estate
Distribute property and assets
Make charitable donations
Appoint guardians for children
Include funeral or burial wishes
Leave specific gifts or sentimental items
Joint tenants: Your share of the home automatically passes to the other owner when you die.
Tenants in common: Your share becomes part of your estate and can be left to someone in your will.
A Property Trust can protect your share of a home for specific beneficiaries, often used in second marriages to ensure children from previous relationships aren’t disinherited. Legal advice is recommended.
Yes, but it’s important to follow legal rules to ensure validity. For peace of mind, many people choose professional help—especially for complex estates or family situations.
Your will can include funeral wishes and make your funeral plan known. This can guide your loved ones and ease their burden during a difficult time.
Keep it in a safe, accessible place. Let your executors know where it is. You might also store a copy with your solicitor or in a fireproof document box at home.