Making a will: your options, what they cost, and when cheap becomes expensive.
Work out what your will needs to cover before anyone tries to sell you one. Our free checklist walks through every decision, from executors to guardians, in plain English.
Why a will matters more than most people think
Around half of UK adults do not have a will. Most of them assume one of two things: that everything will automatically go to their partner, or that their family will “sort it out”. Both assumptions fail more often than people expect, and the failures land on the people you most want to protect, at the worst possible time.
A will is not really a document about money. It is the only legal mechanism you have to decide who inherits what, who manages the process, who looks after your children, and what happens to things the law would otherwise distribute by formula.
What happens if you die without a will
Die without a valid will and the intestacy rules decide everything. They are rigid, and they regularly produce results people would never have chosen:
- Married with children? Your spouse or civil partner receives your personal possessions, the first £322,000 of your estate (the statutory legacy), and half of anything above that. The other half goes to your children, even if your spouse needs it to stay in the family home.
- Unmarried partner? They receive nothing automatically, however long you have been together. “Common law marriage” has no legal status in England and Wales. An unmarried partner's only route is a court claim against the estate, which is slow, expensive and uncertain.
- No spouse, no children? The estate passes down a fixed list of relatives: parents, then siblings, and so on. Stepchildren you never adopted inherit nothing. If no qualifying relative exists, the estate passes to the Crown.
- Children under 18? A will is where you name guardians. Without one, the decision can end up with the family court.
Intestacy also decides who administers the estate, which can hand control to a relative you would never have picked.
Your three ways to make a will, honestly compared
There is no single right answer here. The right route depends on how complicated your life is, not on how much anyone wants to charge you.
1. DIY will (free to around £30)
A stationery shop template or a handwritten will can be perfectly legal if it is properly signed and witnessed. For a single person with a simple estate leaving everything to one or two people, it can genuinely be enough.
The catch is that DIY wills fail silently. Nobody checks your work, and the errors (a missing signature, a beneficiary acting as witness, an ambiguous phrase, a forgotten asset) only surface after you die, when they cannot be fixed. Contested or invalid DIY wills routinely cost estates thousands of pounds to untangle, dwarfing the saving.
2. Online will services (roughly £50 to £150 for a single will)
Online services guide you through structured questions and generate a will from tested wording, which removes most drafting errors. Many include a review by a professional and optional annual updates. For couples with straightforward finances, mirror wills online are often good value.
Check three things before you pay: whether a qualified person actually reviews your answers, what happens to your data and documents if the company disappears, and whether the service will simply tell you when your situation is too complex for its templates. The better ones do.
3. Specialist drafted will (roughly £300 to £1,000 or more)
A professionally drafted will costs more because you are paying for judgement, not typing. A specialist will spot the issues you did not know you had, draft around them, and carry insurance if something is still wrong. Typical prices at the time of writing run from around £300 to £1,000 for a simple single will, with mirror wills for couples usually priced below double the single fee, and more where trusts are involved.
Some charities also offer free will drafting schemes through participating firms, usually in the hope (not the requirement) of a legacy gift.
When DIY is a false economy
Move straight to specialist help if any of these apply. These are the situations where cheap wills most often go wrong:
- Blended families. You want to provide for a current partner and children from a previous relationship. Getting this wrong disinherits someone; getting it right usually needs a trust structure, not a template.
- You own a business or farmland. Reliefs and succession need deliberate drafting.
- Assets abroad. Foreign property may be governed by foreign succession law, and some countries have forced heirship rules. You may need coordinated wills in more than one country.
- A beneficiary is vulnerable or receives means tested benefits. A direct gift can do more harm than good.
- You want to exclude someone who might expect to inherit. Certain people can claim against your estate, and exclusions need to be handled carefully to survive challenge.
- Your estate may face inheritance tax. The will is one of the main levers for structuring what your family keeps. See our inheritance tax guide for the thresholds.
- You have remarried. In England and Wales, marriage automatically revokes a previous will unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage (Scotland is different: marriage there does not revoke a will). Many people do not know this, and it silently reinstates intestacy.
What makes a will legally valid
Whatever route you choose, the formalities are non-negotiable. In England and Wales a will is valid only if:
- It is in writing
- You are 18 or over and have mental capacity, making it freely
- You sign it (or someone signs at your direction, in your presence)
- Your signature is made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses, both present at the same time
- Both witnesses then sign in your presence
Two rules trip people up constantly. First, a beneficiary (or the spouse or civil partner of a beneficiary) must not act as a witness; the will stays valid, but that person's gift fails. Second, the will everyone relies on is the signed original, so store it somewhere findable, tell your executors where it is, and consider registering its location with the National Will Register.
Scotland has its own rules on signing, witnessing and family “legal rights”, so take Scotland specific guidance if you live there.
Keeping it alive
A will is not a one off. Review it after every major life event: marriage or civil partnership (which revokes it), divorce (which cancels gifts to the ex-spouse but does not revoke the will), a new child, a house move across borders, a significant inheritance, or the death of an executor or beneficiary. A quick review every three to five years catches the rest.
Common questions
Do I need a solicitor to make a will?
How much does it cost to make a will?
What happens to my estate if I die without a will?
Who can witness a will?
Does marriage cancel my existing will?
Where should I keep my will?
Start with clarity, not a sales pitch.
Work through the making a will checklist to map out exactly what your will needs to do. If your situation turns out to be simple, you will know a low cost route is safe. If it is not, we will connect you with a vetted will specialist who deals with situations like yours every week.