What a will actually does
A will is a legal document that sets out what you want to happen to your estate after you die. Your estate is simply everything you own minus what you owe: your home or share of it, savings, possessions, vehicles, and any money owed to you, less debts like a mortgage or loans.
A will does three main jobs. First, it says who inherits what. These people are your beneficiaries, and you can leave them specific items, fixed sums or shares of whatever is left. Second, it names the people who will carry out your wishes, called your executors. Third, if you have children under 18, it lets you name legal guardians: the people you would want to raise them. That last point is the reason many parents finally get round to it, and it is often the part that has nothing to do with money at all.
A will can also cover smaller, human things: who gets a particular ring, whether you want to be buried or cremated, a gift to a charity that mattered to you. It is one of the few documents where the everyday and the significant sit side by side.
What happens if you do not have a will
If you die without a valid will, you die intestate, and the law decides who inherits through a fixed set of rules. These rules do not know anything about your relationships, your intentions or your circumstances. They simply follow an order, and that order is different in each part of the UK.
England and Wales
Under the intestacy rules in England and Wales, if you are married or in a civil partnership and have children, your spouse or civil partner receives your personal possessions, a fixed statutory legacy of the first £322,000 of the estate (the figure set in July 2023), and half of whatever is left. The other half is divided between your children. If you have no children, your spouse or civil partner inherits everything.
The detail that surprises people most: an unmarried partner inherits nothing under these rules, no matter how long you have lived together or whether you own a home together. The idea of a common-law spouse with automatic rights is a myth in England and Wales. Stepchildren you never legally adopted are not included either. A will is the only way to provide for them.
Scotland
Scotland works differently again, and the difference is worth knowing if you live there. Scots law gives a surviving spouse, civil partner and children certain protected entitlements called legal rights, which apply to your moveable estate (broadly, everything except land and buildings). Legal rights mean that close family can claim a set share even if a will tries to leave them out, so the balance between what you can freely give away and what is reserved for family is struck differently than south of the border. The order of inheritance when there is no will, through what are called prior rights and legal rights, is its own framework rather than a copy of the English one.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has its own intestacy rules. They follow a broadly similar shape to England and Wales, with a surviving spouse or civil partner and children sharing the estate, but the thresholds and the precise split differ. As in the rest of the UK, an unmarried partner has no automatic entitlement.
Who tends to need a will
There is no rule that says you must have a will, and plenty of people never make one. That said, certain moments in life are the ones where people most often decide it is time. Buying a home or moving in with a partner. Getting married or entering a civil partnership. Having children. Separating or divorcing. Coming into money, or starting a business. Being diagnosed with something serious, or simply watching a friend deal with the aftermath of a death that had no plan attached.
If you own property, have children, are unmarried but in a committed relationship, or have specific wishes about who gets what, a will is the mechanism that makes those wishes count. If your situation is genuinely simple and you are content for the intestacy rules to apply, that is a legitimate choice too. The point is to make it a choice rather than an accident.
What makes a will legally valid
A will only works if it is valid, and the formalities matter more than people expect. In England and Wales the core requirements are straightforward. You must be 18 or over (the age is lower in Scotland). You must have the mental capacity to understand what you are doing and the effect of it. The will must be in writing. You must sign it, or direct someone to sign on your behalf in your presence. And you must sign in the presence of two witnesses, who then sign in your presence.
One rule trips people up: a witness, or the spouse or civil partner of a witness, cannot be a beneficiary. If they are, the will can still be valid but that person usually loses their inheritance. So the neighbour you ask to witness should not be someone you are leaving anything to. Scotland has its own, slightly different signing rules, generally needing one witness, which is another reason the jurisdiction you live in matters.
A will does not have to be drawn up by a solicitor to be valid, and many perfectly good wills are not. What matters is that it is clear, correctly signed and witnessed, and genuinely reflects your wishes. Where things are more involved, for example blended families, business interests, property abroad or anything you expect might be contested, having a qualified legal review reduces the chance of an expensive mistake surfacing later, when you are not around to fix it.
Executors and guardians: choosing the right people
Your executors are the people who deal with everything after you die: registering the death alongside family, valuing the estate, paying any debts and tax, applying for probate and distributing what is left. It is a real job, sometimes a months-long one, so the usual approach is to pick people who are organised, trustworthy and likely to outlive you, and to ask them first. You can appoint more than one, which spreads the load and provides a backup.
Guardians are the people who would look after your children under 18 if both parents died. This is the appointment that carries the most weight and the least money. Naming a guardian in your will means the decision rests with someone you chose, rather than being worked out by others after the fact. It is worth a conversation with the people involved before you write their names down.
What probate is, in one paragraph
When someone dies, their bank, pension providers and others usually will not release assets to the family on request. The executors normally need a legal document confirming their authority to act, called a grant of probate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and a grant of confirmation in Scotland. Getting it involves listing the estate, working out whether any inheritance tax is due, and applying to the probate registry. A clear, valid will makes this process meaningfully smoother, because the executors and the wishes are already set out in black and white.
When to update a will
A will is not a write-once document. Life moves, and a will that no longer matches your life can cause as many problems as no will at all. In England and Wales, getting married or entering a civil partnership automatically revokes an existing will, unless that will was specifically written in contemplation of the marriage. Divorce does not revoke the whole will, but it generally treats your former spouse as having died before you, so any gift to them falls away. New children, a house move, a death among your executors or beneficiaries, or a change of heart are all good prompts to read it through again. A light review every few years, and after any big life event, keeps it current.
Where it is kept matters too
A will that no one can find does very little. Executors need to be able to locate the original document, because a copy is generally not enough to prove the will. People keep wills with a solicitor, with a will storage service, at the Principal Registry, or securely at home. Wherever it lives, the people who will need it should know where to look. Storing the document and telling the right person where it is are two halves of the same job.
A few common myths, cleared up
Living with a partner for years does not make you common-law spouses with inheritance rights; in England and Wales it gives you none. A will written on the back of an envelope can in principle be valid if the formalities are met, but homemade wills are also where most costly errors happen. You do not need to be wealthy or old to benefit from a will; if you have children or own anything you care about passing on, it applies to you. And making a will does not tempt fate or bring anything forward. It simply means that if the worst happens, the people you love are dealing with grief, not paperwork and uncertainty.
This guide is general educational information about how wills work in the UK. It is not legal or financial advice and does not assess what is right for your individual circumstances. Rules differ across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and can change over time. For guidance on your own situation, consider speaking to a qualified professional.
Rest Easier in one line
Rest Easier gives employees a simple way to create a UK will with qualified legal review, set up Lasting Powers of Attorney, and keep the documents their family would one day need in one place, provided through their employer.