Making a will: what makes it valid and what to put in it

What makes a will valid

The rules on how a will must be made in England and Wales are in section 9 of the Wills Act 1837. The will must be in writing and signed by you, or by someone else in your presence and at your direction if you cannot sign yourself, and it must be clear that you intended your signature to give effect to the will. You must sign, or acknowledge your signature, in front of two witnesses who are both present at the same time. Each witness must then sign the will, or acknowledge their signature, in your presence.

You must be 18 or over to make a will, and you must have the mental capacity to make it and be making it of your own free will. If there is any doubt about capacity, for example because of illness, memory problems or advanced age, a doctor's assessment around the time the will is signed can help if the will is questioned later.

Choose adult witnesses who do not benefit under the will. Under section 15 of the Wills Act, a gift to a witness, or to a witness's spouse or civil partner, fails, although the rest of the will remains valid. You and both witnesses should sign the same original document. The temporary rule that allowed witnessing over a video link applied only to wills made between 31 January 2020 and 31 January 2024, so a will signed now needs its witnesses physically present with you.

If the rules are not followed, the will is not valid, and your estate passes under an earlier valid will or, if there is none, under the intestacy rules. Signing errors are hard to put right after a death, so have the signing supervised or checked by someone who knows the rules.

What happens if you die without a will

If you die without a valid will, the intestacy rules in section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 decide who inherits your estate, in a fixed order.

If you leave a spouse or civil partner but no children or other descendants, your spouse or civil partner inherits the whole estate. If you leave a spouse or civil partner and children, the estate is divided. For deaths on or after 26 July 2023, your spouse or civil partner receives your personal possessions, the first £322,000 of the estate with interest from the date of death, and half of what is left. Your children share the other half. A child's share is held for them until they reach 18, or marry or form a civil partnership before then, and if a child has died before you, that child's own children take their share.

If you leave no spouse or civil partner, your children inherit in equal shares. If there are no children or other descendants, the estate goes to your parents, then to your brothers and sisters or their children, then to half-brothers and half-sisters or their children, then to grandparents, and then to uncles and aunts or their children. If there is nobody in any of those groups, the estate passes to the Crown.

Some people are left out altogether. An unmarried partner has no automatic right to inherit, however long you lived together. Stepchildren do not inherit unless they were legally adopted. A spouse or civil partner who dies within 28 days of you is treated as not having survived you. Someone who is left out, such as a partner who lived with you as a couple for the two years before your death, may be able to ask the court for financial provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, but a claim takes time and money and the outcome is uncertain.

For example, say someone dies without a will, leaving a wife, two adult children and an estate worth £522,000 after debts, not counting personal possessions. Leaving interest aside, the wife receives the possessions, £322,000 and half of the remaining £200,000. The children share the other £100,000 equally, so each receives £50,000.

Property you own as joint tenants, such as a home owned that way with a partner, passes automatically to the surviving owner whether or not there is a will. A share owned as tenants in common forms part of your estate and passes under your will or the intestacy rules.

Choosing executors

Your executors deal with your estate after you die. They find and value what you owned, pay your debts and any inheritance tax, apply for the grant of probate, and pass the estate to the people entitled to it. Executors can be held personally responsible for some mistakes, so choose people who are organised, trustworthy and likely to be available when the time comes. Our guide to probate sets out what the job involves.

You can appoint relatives, friends, professionals or a combination, and an executor can also be a beneficiary. No more than four people can take out a grant of probate for the same part of an estate, so name no more than four to act at once, and consider naming a replacement in case your first choice dies before you or cannot act.

Executors do not have to take the role on. An executor can step back and keep the right to apply later while others deal with the estate, or give up the role permanently by signing a renunciation. If none of your executors can or will act, someone else, usually a beneficiary, has to apply for letters of administration with the will annexed instead. Speak to the people you want to appoint before you name them, and tell them where the original will is kept.

Appointing guardians for children

If you have children under 18, your will is where you name the people you would want to look after them if you die. Section 5 of the Children Act 1989 allows a parent with parental responsibility to appoint a guardian, either in a will or in a separate document that is in writing, dated and signed. Once the appointment takes effect, the guardian has parental responsibility for the child.

When the appointment takes effect depends on who else is alive. If the other parent survives you and has parental responsibility, your appointed guardian does not normally take over until that parent has also died. The appointment takes effect on your death if no parent with parental responsibility survives you, if a child arrangements order named you as the person the child was to live with and did not also name the surviving parent, or if you were the child's only or last surviving special guardian.

Ask the people you have in mind before you appoint them, and make sure both parents' wills say the same thing. The will should also deal with money: an inheritance for a child under 18 has to be held for them, so appoint trustees to look after it, allow them to use it for the child's upkeep and education, and say at what age the child receives what is left. The guardians and the trustees can be the same people or different people.

How marriage, divorce and other changes affect a will

Getting married or forming a civil partnership revokes any will you made before, under sections 18 and 18B of the Wills Act 1837. The exception is a will which shows that, when you made it, you were expecting to marry or form a civil partnership with a particular person and did not intend the will to be revoked by it. If you marry without that wording in your will and without making a new one, you may die without a valid will even though you signed one.

A divorce or dissolution leaves the will in force, but once it is finalised your former spouse or civil partner is treated as if they had died on that date, so any gift to them fails and their appointment as executor or trustee no longer takes effect, unless the will says otherwise. Separating does not have this effect, so until the divorce is finalised a will made during the relationship still benefits your spouse. A former spouse or civil partner may still be able to make a claim against your estate under the 1975 Act.

In May 2025 the Law Commission recommended reforms to the law of wills, including abolishing the rule that marriage revokes a will, but the law has not been changed.

You cannot alter a will by writing on it after it has been signed and witnessed. A small change can be made with a codicil, which must be signed and witnessed in the same way as a will. For anything more than a small change, a new will that revokes the old one is clearer.

Wills for business owners

If you own a business, your will decides who inherits your interest in it, but it cannot override the documents that govern the business. For a company, those are the articles of association and any shareholders' agreement. For a partnership or limited liability partnership, it is the partnership or members' agreement.

When a shareholder dies, the shares pass first to their executors, and what happens next depends on the company's documents. Under the model articles that many private companies use, the directors can refuse to register a transfer of shares, and some companies' articles or shareholders' agreements require a deceased shareholder's shares to be offered to the other shareholders first. If your will leaves your shares to your children and the company's documents require them to be offered to your co-owners, the two conflict. Read the will and the business documents together and make them consistent. Our guide to shareholder agreements covers the business side.

Business relief can take much of the value of a trading business, or of shares in a private trading company, out of the inheritance tax calculation. Since 6 April 2026, relief at 100% has been limited to the first £2.5 million of qualifying business and agricultural property for each person, with 50% relief above that, and unused allowance can pass to a surviving spouse or civil partner. How the will is written affects how the relief is used. A specific gift of your business interest carries the relief with it, whereas business property that falls into a residue shared with an exempt spouse or charity has its relief spread across the whole residue. Our guide to inheritance tax for business owners explains the April 2026 changes in detail.

If you are a sole trader, the business assets are part of your personal estate, so your executors need to be people who can keep the business running or sell it. If you are a partner, the partnership agreement should set out what happens to your share when you die and how it is paid out. Whatever the structure, consider making a separate lasting power of attorney for your business affairs, so that someone can act if you lose capacity during your lifetime.

Inheritance tax and your will

Inheritance tax is charged at 40% on the part of an estate above the nil-rate band of £325,000. An additional residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 applies when your home passes to your children or grandchildren, including adopted, foster and stepchildren, and it is reduced by £1 for every £2 that the estate is worth over £2 million. Both bands are fixed at those levels until 5 April 2031.

Gifts to your spouse or civil partner, or to charity, are generally exempt. Any part of the nil-rate band and the residence nil-rate band that is unused when the first spouse or civil partner dies can be added to the survivor's, so a married couple or civil partners can pass on up to £1 million between them without inheritance tax. If you leave 10% or more of your net estate to charity, the rate on some of the estate falls to 36%.

Your will decides who receives what and in what form, and that affects the tax. The residence nil-rate band, for example, depends on your home going to direct descendants, and whether it goes to them outright or through a trust can affect whether the band is available. Life insurance policies written in trust, and most pension death benefits, are paid under their own terms rather than under your will. For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits will count towards the value of an estate for inheritance tax, so review your pension nominations when you make your will.

Storing your will and keeping it up to date

Your executors will need the original signed will to apply for probate, because a copy will not be accepted. Keep it somewhere safe and tell your executors where it is. You can leave it with your solicitor or bank, use a will storage company, or deposit it with HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which keeps wills at the Newcastle District Probate Registry for a fee of £24. Once a grant of probate has been issued, the will becomes a public record.

Do not attach anything to the will or remove anything from it, because that can raise questions about whether it has been altered. When you make a new will, destroy the old one.

The government's guidance suggests reviewing your will every five years and after any major change in your life. Changes that often call for a new will include marriage or a civil partnership, separation or divorce, the birth of a child or grandchild, moving house, an executor or guardian dying, moving abroad, a significant change in what you own, and starting, buying or selling a business.

Preparing to make your will

Before you see a solicitor, make a list of what you own and what you owe: each property and how it is owned, bank and savings accounts, investments, pensions, life insurance, business interests, and anything held outside England and Wales. Write down who you want to benefit and in what shares, any particular gifts of money or possessions, and who should inherit if your first choices die before you. Think about who you would trust as executors, guardians and trustees.

Bring copies of documents that affect the picture, such as an earlier will, a pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement, your company's articles, a shareholders' or partnership agreement, and your pension nomination forms. Mention any property or other assets abroad early, because they can be subject to the law of the country where they are.

We take your instructions, explain the options that suit your circumstances, and prepare a draft for you to check. When you are happy with it, we arrange for it to be signed and witnessed correctly. We agree the scope of the work and the cost with you in writing before we start.

Frequently asked questions

Does a will need two witnesses in England and Wales?

Yes. You must sign your will, or acknowledge your signature, in front of two witnesses who are present at the same time, and each witness must then sign in your presence. Use adult witnesses who do not benefit under the will, because a gift to a witness or to a witness's spouse or civil partner fails. Witnessing by video was only allowed for wills made between 31 January 2020 and 31 January 2024, so witnesses to a will signed now must be physically present.

Who inherits if I die without a will and I am not married?

Your unmarried partner has no automatic right to inherit, however long you have lived together. Under the intestacy rules your estate goes to your children in equal shares or, if you have none, to your parents, then brothers and sisters, then more distant relatives in a fixed order. A partner who lived with you as a couple for the two years before your death can apply to court for financial provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, but a will is a far more reliable way to provide for them.

Does getting married cancel a will?

Yes. In England and Wales, marriage or forming a civil partnership revokes an existing will. The exception is a will made in expectation of marrying, or forming a civil partnership with, a particular person, which shows you did not intend it to be revoked. If you marry without a new will or that wording, your estate may pass under the intestacy rules. The Law Commission recommended in May 2025 that this rule be abolished, but the law has not changed.

Can an executor also be a beneficiary of the will?

Yes. An executor can inherit under the will, and a spouse, partner or adult child is often both an executor and a beneficiary. The restriction applies to witnesses: a gift to someone who witnessed the will, or to their spouse or civil partner, fails. No more than four people can take out the grant of probate for the same part of an estate, so there is no benefit in naming more than four executors to act together.

Can I leave my company shares to anyone I choose?

Your will decides who inherits your shares, but the company's articles of association and any shareholders' agreement can limit who ends up holding them. Some require a deceased shareholder's shares to be offered to the other shareholders first, and directors often have power to refuse to register a transfer. Check those documents when you make your will, so that the will and the business agreements say the same thing and your family is not left with a dispute.

Where should I keep my original will?

Keep the original somewhere safe where your executors can find it, because they need the original, and not a copy, to apply for probate. You can leave it with your solicitor or bank, use a will storage company, or deposit it with HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which stores wills at the Newcastle District Probate Registry for a £24 fee. Tell your executors where it is and avoid writing on it or attaching anything to it.

How often should I review my will?

Review your will at least every five years and after any major change in your life, which is what the government's guidance recommends. That includes marriage or a civil partnership, separation or divorce, having children, moving house, an executor dying, and changes in what you own, such as buying or selling a business. A small change can be made with a codicil, which must be signed and witnessed like a will, but larger changes are clearer in a new will.

Sources & further reading

• GOV.UK — Making a will
• legislation.gov.uk — Wills Act 1837, section 9
• legislation.gov.uk — Wills Act 1837, section 18
• legislation.gov.uk — The Administration of Estates Act 1925 (Fixed Net Sum) Order 2023
• GOV.UK — Intestacy: who inherits if someone dies without a will
• legislation.gov.uk — Children Act 1989, section 5
• GOV.UK — Inheritance Tax
• Law Commission — Wills

This article is general information, not legal advice. The law changes and depends on your circumstances — always take advice on your specific situation before acting. Last reviewed 17 September 2026. AD Solicitors is a trading name of AD Solicitors Limited, a recognised body regulated by the SRA (no. 8011228).