A will is the one document that decides where a lifetime’s things go, and the rules for making one are short enough to fit on a card. Two witnesses, a signature, a sound mind. What goes wrong is the edges: a will cancelled by a wedding, a gift lost because the beneficiary witnessed it, a will-writer nobody regulates. This page sets out the rules with their sources and the pages beneath it cover the harder cases.
Do you need one
GOV.UK says your will lets you decide what happens to your money, property and possessions after your death, and that if you die without a will the law decides who gets what (GOV.UK, Making a will, checked 1 November 2026). The law’s answer suits fewer families than they expect.
A spouse inherits everything only where there are no children; with children, the spouse takes the possessions, a fixed sum of £322,000 and half the rest (Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 46, which sets out the structure, and the Fixed Net Sum Order 2023, which sets the £322,000, checked 1 November 2026). A partner who was never married or in a civil partnership takes nothing. Our dying without a will page sets out the order, and for anyone in a second marriage or with an unmarried partner the answer to the question is yes.
What it should set out
GOV.UK says a will should set out who you want to benefit, who should look after any children under 18, who is going to sort out your estate and carry out your wishes, your executor, and what happens if the people you want to benefit die before you (GOV.UK, Making a will: write your will, checked 1 November 2026).
The last of those is the one a short will can leave out. A gift to a son who dies first needs a fallback, and our will terms page covers what the law does when there is none.
What makes it valid
GOV.UK’s list is exact: for a will to be legally valid you must be 18 or over, make it voluntarily, 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 (GOV.UK, Making a will: make sure your will is legal, checked 1 November 2026).
The Act behind it says the signature must be made or acknowledged in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and that each witness then signs or acknowledges their signature in the presence of the testator, the person making the will (Wills Act 1837, section 9, checked 1 November 2026). Both witnesses in the room together, then each signs while you watch. No form of attestation is required beyond that.
The witnesses
GOV.UK says both witnesses must have a clear view of you and the act of signing, that you and they must sign the same document, and that you cannot leave your witnesses or their married partners anything in your will (GOV.UK, Making a will: make sure your will is legal, checked 1 November 2026).
The Act’s version is that a gift to an attesting witness, or to their husband or wife, is void so far as it concerns them, while the witness is still admitted to prove the will (Wills Act 1837, section 15, checked 1 November 2026). The will survives; the gift does not. A daughter who witnesses her mother’s will loses her share, which is why the witnesses should be two adults who take nothing.
Video witnessing is over. The Act allowed presence by video for wills made between 31 January 2020 and 31 January 2024 (Wills Act 1837, section 9, checked 1 November 2026), and GOV.UK’s guidance confirms the temporary law applied to wills made until that date (GOV.UK, Guidance on making wills using video-conferencing, checked 1 November 2026). Witnesses must now be in the room.
Who writes it, and what it costs
GOV.UK says you can write your will yourself but should get advice if it is not straightforward: a property shared with someone who is not your spouse, a dependant who cannot care for themselves, a second spouse or children from another marriage who may claim, a permanent home abroad, property overseas, or a business (GOV.UK, Making a will, checked 1 November 2026).
Will-writing is not regulated. The Competition and Markets Authority said in 2023 that anyone can legally write a will and that will-writing itself is not a regulated service, and listed its concerns: advertising a low initial fee with costs that rise, unfair terms that appoint the firm as executor for a fee, and pressure selling to vulnerable customers (GOV.UK, CMA investigates will-writing and other legal services, checked 1 November 2026). It raised the same concerns about pre-paid probate plans sold to older people.
GOV.UK publishes no price for a will, and this page does not invent one. A solicitor is regulated and insured; a will-writer may be neither, and the executor clause is the one to read before signing. Our LPA cost page covers how solicitors charge for the sister document.
Marriage cancels it; divorce does not
A wedding cancels a will and a divorce does not. GOV.UK says to review a will every five years and after any major change, and lists getting married with the note that this cancels any will you made before (GOV.UK, Making a will: update your will, checked 1 November 2026).
The Act says a will is revoked by the testator’s marriage, subject to narrow exceptions for a will made in expectation of that marriage (Wills Act 1837, section 18, checked 1 November 2026).
Divorce works differently. The Act says that where a marriage is dissolved or annulled, gifts to the former spouse, their appointment as executor or trustee, and any power of appointment given to them take effect as if they had died on the date the marriage was dissolved or annulled, unless the will says otherwise (Wills Act 1837, section 18A, checked 1 November 2026). The rest of the will stands. A widower who remarries at 75 has cancelled the will that provided for his children, and our blended families page is about what replaces it.
Changing it
GOV.UK says you cannot amend a will after it has been signed and witnessed, and that the only way to change it is an official alteration called a codicil, signed and witnessed in the same way. For major changes it says to make a new will that revokes the old, and destroy the old one (GOV.UK, Making a will: update your will, checked 1 November 2026).
The Act says an alteration made after execution has no effect unless it is executed like a will, with the signatures near the alteration (Wills Act 1837, section 21, checked 1 November 2026). A crossing-out in biro changes nothing.
Where to keep it
GOV.UK says you can keep your will at home or store it with your solicitor, your bank, a company that offers will storage, or the national probate registry in Newcastle (GOV.UK, Making a will: write your will, checked 1 November 2026). The probate service charges a one-off £24 to deposit a will or codicil (GOV.UK, checked 1 November 2026).
Wherever it goes, the executors need to know. The original is what the probate registry wants; our probate hub covers what happens to it after a death, and the seeing a will page who can read it before then.
Sound mind, and dementia
GOV.UK’s test is two words, sound mind, and it does not say more. The Mental Capacity Act’s code of practice says capacity to make a will is a test produced by the courts, which the Act’s definition sits alongside and does not replace (Mental Capacity Act code of practice, chapter 4, checked 1 November 2026).
The code adds that the starting assumption must be that the person has capacity, and that an assessment should be carried out when capacity is in doubt. Where dementia is present, a doctor’s assessment on the file gives the executors evidence of capacity, and the blended families page covers it. Our LPA hub covers the document that manages money while you are alive.
Scotland
A will in Scotland is validly executed once the granter signs it, and one witness aged 16 or over makes it self-proving, rather than the two England requires. A will of several sheets is only presumed signed by the granter if signed on every sheet (Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995, section 3, checked 1 November 2026).
The rest of Scots succession law differs too, on what a spouse and children can claim regardless of the will and on intestacy, which our page on dying without a will sets out.
The pages in this hub
Four pages sit beneath this one, and each covers a question this page has only opened: what the law does when there is no will, how a will protects both a second spouse and the children of a first marriage, what the words in a will mean, and who may read or challenge one once the person has died.
- Dying without a will: the intestacy order, the £322,000 the spouse takes first, who gets nothing.
- A will for a second marriage or blended family: the life interest trust, mirror and mutual wills, the claim a partner can bring.
- Will terms explained: codicil, residue, executor, chattels, lapse.
- Seeing and contesting a will: who can read it, the £4 caveat, the grounds and deadlines.