When Should You Make or Update a Will in England and Wales? A Planning Guide
Reviewed internally by SuccessionKeeper October 2026.
In short: This guide focuses on England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different succession rules, and readers in those jurisdictions should seek guidance that reflects local law.
A will allows you to decide what should happen to your money, property and possessions after your death and to appoint the people who will administer your estate. It is not a one-off task. GOV.UK recommends reviewing a will every five years and after major life events such as marriage, having a child, moving home, separation or divorce, or the death of an executor named in the will.
There are two points that often surprise people. Marriage normally revokes an existing will in England and Wales, with a narrow exception for wills specifically made in contemplation of that marriage. A will also does not cover everything you own: pensions, life insurance held in trust and property held as joint tenants typically pass under their own rules rather than through the will.
You can write a will yourself in England and Wales, but GOV.UK recommends professional advice where circumstances are not entirely straightforward. Whether written by a solicitor, a will writer or by you, the signed original must satisfy specific formal requirements and must then be stored somewhere your executor can actually find it.
The will gives legal instructions. It does not give your executor a live map of your financial life. That is why a will should usually sit alongside a separate private record of where your accounts, pensions, insurance policies, property documents and important contacts are held.
What Does a Will Actually Do?
A will is the legal document through which you set out what should happen to your money, property and possessions after your death. It can identify the people you want to benefit, appoint the executor or executors who will administer your estate, name guardians for children under 18 and explain what should happen if somebody you intended to benefit dies before you. GOV.UK’s Making a Will guidance sets out these core functions.
In England and Wales, a will must also satisfy formal requirements. The person making it must normally be at least 18, act voluntarily and be of sound mind. The document must be in writing, signed by the person making the will in the presence of two adult witnesses and then signed by those witnesses in the person’s presence. GOV.UK also warns that anything left to a witness, or the witness’s spouse, cannot take effect in the usual way, which is one of the most common reasons a technically signed will fails to achieve what the person intended.
Those rules matter because a document expressing someone’s wishes is not automatically a valid will merely because everybody understands what the person wanted.
A will can also record funeral or other personal wishes. Those wishes are not always legally binding and may not be seen before funeral arrangements are made, so it is worth recording them separately and telling the people closest to you where they are kept.
What Doesn’t a Will Cover?
One of the most common misconceptions about wills is that they govern everything a person owns. In practice, several important arrangements operate under their own rules and may pass to specific people regardless of what the will says. Understanding what sits outside the will matters because leaving it out of your wider planning can produce outcomes you did not intend.
Assets That May Pass Outside the Will
Pension death benefits usually fall outside the will. Most workplace and personal pensions are held in trust, and the trustees or pension provider decide who receives death benefits based on the member’s expression-of-wish nomination. MoneyHelper’s guidance on pensions after death explains that trustees will commonly consider the nomination but may retain discretion. Your will cannot override a scheme’s nomination process, so if your expression-of-wish form is out of date, that document may matter more than your will for the pension in question.
From April 2027, the government has confirmed that most unused pension funds and pension death benefits will be brought within the value of the estate for Inheritance Tax purposes, subject to the final legislation and guidance. The practical point for will planning is that pension nominations and will provisions need to be reviewed together, not separately. Your executor may also need to know where your pensions are held, even if the pension itself does not pass under the will in the ordinary way.
Property held jointly as joint tenants passes to the surviving owner by survivorship rather than under the will. GOV.UK’s joint property ownership guidance explains the difference between joint tenants and tenants in common. If you want your share of a property to pass under your will, the ownership structure needs to reflect that, which is not something the will itself can change.
Life insurance written in trust passes to the beneficiaries chosen under the trust without first forming part of the probate estate. Death-in-service benefits provided through an employer scheme operate under scheme rules. Certain accounts and arrangements held in another country may also be subject to local succession laws rather than the will made in England and Wales.
The practical lesson is that a will is essential, but it is not the whole estate plan. Pensions, life insurance, property ownership, nominations and trusts should be reviewed alongside the will so that they work together rather than contradict each other.
Information That Should Sit Outside the Will
There is also a separate question about what should not go into a will.
A will is a legal instruction, not a record of account numbers, passwords or live balances. Once probate has been granted in England and Wales, the will normally becomes part of the public probate record and copies can be ordered through GOV.UK’s probate search service. Including sensitive personal or financial detail in the will itself can therefore create a security and privacy issue that only becomes apparent after death.
Account information also changes too often. A will might be signed in 2026 and not used for decades. During that period, bank accounts may close, pensions may transfer, investment platforms may merge, insurance policies may be replaced and balances will change repeatedly.
Your executor does need practical information. They need to know where your accounts, pensions, insurance policies, property documents, advisers and important records are held. But those practical details are usually better kept in a separate private record that your executor can reach, not written into the will itself.
For a fuller account of what sits alongside a will and why keeping a practical record matters, see our companion article What Financial Information Should You Keep Alongside a Will?.
When Should You Make a Will?
There is no rule saying that everybody must make a will at a particular age, but there are points in life when relying on the intestacy rules becomes increasingly likely to produce a result different from what you would have chosen.
Buying property is an obvious example because a substantial asset has entered your estate and its ownership structure can matter after death. Having children creates decisions about guardianship as well as inheritance. Starting a business, acquiring property abroad or building a more complicated family structure can also make professional advice more important.
GOV.UK specifically identifies situations such as overseas assets, businesses, dependants requiring care, property shared with somebody who is not a spouse or civil partner, and complex family arrangements as circumstances in which professional advice may be appropriate.
Cohabiting couples have an especially strong reason to understand the position. Under the current intestacy rules in England and Wales, an unmarried partner does not automatically inherit simply because the couple have lived together for many years or have children together. The government is consulting on reforms to cohabitation and inheritance, but those proposed changes should not be mistaken for the law already being in force. For couples who have chosen not to marry, a valid will is often the main mechanism through which they can provide for each other.
The point of making a will is therefore not that everybody needs a complicated estate plan. It is that if the statutory default would not reflect what you want to happen, a valid will is the mechanism through which you can set out a different plan.
When Should You Update Your Will?
GOV.UK recommends reviewing a will every five years and whenever there is a major life change. The examples it gives are marriage, separation or divorce, having a child, moving home and the death of an executor named in the will.
Marriage deserves particular attention. The general rule in England and Wales is that marriage or formation of a civil partnership revokes an existing will. There is an exception where a will was specifically made in contemplation of marriage or civil partnership to the particular person concerned, so this is an area where the shorthand statement “marriage cancels your will” can be too broad if applied without qualification. If you are about to marry, or have recently married and do not know whether this exception applies to your existing will, that is a point at which checking with a solicitor is worthwhile.
Divorce operates differently. The will is not simply erased in the same way, but legislation generally treats provisions appointing or benefiting a former spouse as though that former spouse had died when the marriage was dissolved. A recently separated or divorced person should therefore review the whole will rather than assume that the old document still produces the intended outcome.
Changes in wealth can also justify a review even where the family itself has not changed. A new property, business, inheritance or significant overseas asset may alter what the will needs to achieve. Equally, the death of a beneficiary, executor or guardian can leave the document technically valid but practically different from what you intended.
Updating the will does not mean writing changes into the margins of the signed document. GOV.UK explains that formal amendments require a codicil executed with the relevant formalities, while major changes usually justify making a new will that revokes earlier wills and codicils.
Who Should Write Your Will?
You can write a will yourself in England and Wales, but GOV.UK recommends professional advice where the circumstances are not straightforward. The more important practical distinction is that not everyone selling will-writing services has the same regulatory status.
Will writing is not itself a reserved legal activity. The Competition and Markets Authority explains that consumers can use a regulated professional such as a solicitor, an unregulated professional will writer, or write the will themselves. An unregulated will writer may still belong to a voluntary professional organisation and carry insurance, training requirements and complaint procedures, but those protections are not identical to those of a regulated solicitor’s firm.
The CMA therefore recommends checking qualifications and experience, professional indemnity insurance, complaint procedures, total fees, whether another business actually drafts the document, how the original will will be stored and, importantly, what happens to the stored will if the business later stops trading.
That last question can seem unimportant on the day the will is signed. Twenty years later it can become one of the most important questions in the entire arrangement.
Can I Write a Will by Myself?
Yes. In England and Wales there is no legal requirement to use a solicitor or professional will writer. You can draft a will yourself using a template, a will-writing kit, an online service or a plain blank sheet of paper. What matters legally is that the finished document satisfies the formal requirements set out in the Wills Act 1837.
That means the document must follow these steps:
● be in writing
● you must be at least 18 and of sound mind and
● you must sign it in the presence of two adult witnesses who then sign it in your presence.
Witnesses must not be beneficiaries, or the spouses or civil partners of beneficiaries, because any gift to a witness or their spouse normally fails. Those requirements apply equally to a professionally drafted will and a DIY will.
A DIY will can be a reasonable option for very straightforward circumstances where you own simple assets, have no complex family structure and intend to leave your estate in a conventional way. It is often not the right choice where circumstances are more involved. Citizens Advice and the CMA both note that DIY wills are a common source of later disputes, usually because of unclear wording, incorrect witnessing, failure to deal with specific assets, provisions that have become out of date or arrangements that interact with pensions, trusts or jointly held property in ways the person did not expect.
For readers unsure which route is right for them, Citizens Advice sets out the main options and the circumstances in which each is more suitable. The Law Society’s Find a Solicitor service can be used to locate regulated firms in your area if you decide to seek professional help.
Where Should the Original Will Be Kept?
A signed will can be kept at home, with a solicitor, with a bank, with a specialist will-storage business or with the national probate registry in Newcastle. GOV.UK specifically recommends telling your executor, a close friend or relative where the original is held.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service also provides its own will-storage facility, as explained in the HMCTS guidance on storing a will. As at October 2026, the one-off fee for depositing a will or codicils with HMCTS is £24. The original is then held securely and can later be withdrawn by the appropriate person.
There is a separate commercial option to register the location of the will with the National Will Register. Registration does not mean sending the National Will Register the original will; its service records information about the will and where the original is held. Will registration is voluntary rather than compulsory. The register should not be confused with a government register. It is a commercial service, although the Law Society describes it as its preferred nationwide provider of will registration and will search services.
The practical objective is simple. The executor should not have to guess whether the original is in a drawer, a bank vault, a solicitor’s archive or the storage facility of a will-writing company.
What Should You Do When You Make a Will to Prevent a Search Later?
The best time to solve the missing-will problem is while the person who made it is still alive. Once the will has been signed, record the date of the current will, the name and contact details of the person or organisation holding the original and the names of the executors. Tell at least the executors where the original is stored. If the will writer offers storage, understand where the physical original is actually kept and what happens if the business closes.
You can also consider registering the location with a will-register service or depositing the original with HMCTS. Neither is compulsory, and neither replaces the need to keep the people you trust informed.
What matters is that the executor should be able to move from “I know there is a will somewhere” to “The original will dated 14 September 2026 is held by Smith & Jones Solicitors, and this is how I contact them.” That single piece of context can remove an entire search from an already difficult process.
If somebody has already died and the family does not know whether there is a will, that is a different problem. The family or personal representative may need to search home records, contact known solicitors and will writers, check whether the will was deposited with HMCTS, use a will-search service and understand what happens if only a copy is found. That post-death process is best dealt with separately because it involves a different set of questions from planning your own will.
Where SuccessionKeeper Fits
SuccessionKeeper does not write wills, provide legal advice or administer estates. Its role is the practical record that sits alongside those legal arrangements.
You can use SuccessionKeeper to record that a will exists, the date of the current document, where the original is held, which solicitor or will writer should be contacted and which people have been appointed as executors. The same record can show where accounts, pensions, insurance policies and other important documents are held.
Provider names and basic information are enough to get started. Account numbers, balances, notes and documents are optional, and bank or provider passwords are not required or stored.
The purpose is not to replace the will. It is to make sure the will and the financial life behind it are findable when somebody eventually needs them.
Key Terms Explained
Will: A legal document setting out what should happen to a person’s money, property and possessions after their death. In England and Wales, a valid will must satisfy formal requirements including writing, signature and witnessing.
Testator: The person who makes a will.
Executor: A person appointed in a will to administer the estate and carry out its instructions.
Beneficiary: A person or organisation entitled to receive something under the will or another relevant arrangement.
Codicil: A formal amendment to an existing will, executed using the same signing and witnessing formalities as the original will.
Intestacy: The legal position that arises when somebody dies without a valid will, leaving statutory rules to determine who inherits.
Joint Tenants: A form of joint property ownership under which the surviving owner or owners automatically continue to own the property after one owner dies. The deceased person’s interest cannot usually be left to somebody else in their will.
Tenants in Common: A form of property ownership under which each owner has a separate share. That share can pass under the owner’s will.
Expression of Wish: A pension nomination indicating who the scheme member would like to receive pension death benefits. Pension trustees commonly take the nomination into account but may retain the final decision.
Guardian: A person appointed in a will to look after children under 18 if both parents, or those with parental responsibility, have died.
Residue: What remains of the estate after debts, taxes, funeral expenses, administration costs and specific gifts have been dealt with.
Specific Gift: A particular item or sum of money left to a named person or organisation under the will.
Letter of Wishes: A separate, usually non-binding document that can accompany a will to give executors, trustees or guardians context on how the person would like decisions to be made. It is not a substitute for provisions that need to be legally binding.
Testamentary Capacity: The mental capacity required by law to make a valid will. Lack of capacity at the time of signing is one of the recognised grounds on which a will may be challenged.
Caveat: A formal step a person can take through HM Courts & Tribunals Service to stop a grant of probate being issued while a dispute about the will or the right to apply is considered.
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA): A separate legal arrangement under which a person appoints others to make decisions on their behalf if they lose mental capacity during their lifetime. An LPA is not a will and takes effect only while the person is alive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does getting married really cancel my will?
In most cases, yes. The general rule in England and Wales is that marriage or forming a civil partnership revokes an existing will. There is a narrow exception for wills specifically made in contemplation of that particular marriage. If you are not sure whether the exception applies, check with a solicitor rather than assume the old will still stands.
Does divorce cancel my will?
Divorce does not revoke a will in the same way, but legislation generally treats provisions appointing or benefiting a former spouse as though the former spouse had died when the marriage ended. A recently separated or divorced person should review the full will rather than assume it still produces the intended outcome.
How often should I update my will?
GOV.UK recommends reviewing a will every five years and after major life events such as marriage, separation or divorce, having a child, moving home or the death of an executor. Formal changes require either a codicil or a new will executed with the required formalities, not handwritten amendments.
Can I write a will on a piece of paper?
Legally, yes, provided the document satisfies the formal requirements of the Wills Act 1837. The paper itself does not matter. What matters is that the will is in writing, signed by the person making it in the presence of two adult witnesses who are not beneficiaries, and signed by those witnesses in the presence of the person making the will.
Do I need a solicitor to make a will?
No. GOV.UK confirms you can write a will yourself in England and Wales, but recommends professional advice where the circumstances are not straightforward, such as blended families, overseas assets, businesses, trusts or complex arrangements. The CMA guidance on will-writing services sets out the questions to ask any provider you consider.
Will my unmarried partner automatically inherit if I do not have a will?
No. Under the current intestacy rules in England and Wales, an unmarried partner does not automatically inherit simply because you have lived together, share a home or have children together. The phrase “common law spouse” has no inheritance meaning in English law. A cohabiting partner may be able to bring a claim in some circumstances, but that is not the same as automatic inheritance and can involve delay, cost and uncertainty. For couples who have chosen not to marry or enter a civil partnership, a valid will is often the main mechanism through which they can provide for each other.
Does my will cover my pension?
Not usually in the same way as ordinary estate assets. Pension death benefits commonly follow scheme rules and the member’s expression-of-wish nomination. You should therefore keep your pension nominations under review alongside your will, because the two documents govern different things.
Should I put my passwords or account numbers in my will?
No. A will is a legal instruction and, once probate has been granted, it normally becomes part of the public probate record in England and Wales. Including passwords, account numbers or live balances in the will itself can therefore create a security risk and expose detail that is likely to be out of date by the time anybody reads it. Those details are better kept in a separate private record that your executor can reach.
Is a photocopy of my will enough if the original cannot be found?
Usually not without additional steps. In England and Wales, the original signed will is normally required for probate. If only a copy can be found, the person applying may need to provide evidence explaining what happened to the original and why the copy should still be accepted. A missing original can also raise difficult questions about whether the person deliberately revoked the will. That is why storage and findability of the signed original matter.
Can a will be contested?
Yes, but usually only where there is a legal basis for doing so. A will may be challenged if there are questions about mental capacity, undue influence, fraud, forgery, whether the person knew and approved the contents, whether the will was properly signed and witnessed, or whether a later will exists. Certain people may also be able to bring a claim for reasonable financial provision from the estate. If there is a dispute about whether a will is valid, whether a will exists, or who should apply for probate, GOV.UK explains that a person may be able to enter a caveat to stop a probate application while the dispute is considered. Will disputes can become legally complex, so specialist advice is important.
Related Reading
What Financial Information Should You Keep Alongside a Will?
Digital Accounts Inventory Checklist: What to Record and Why It Matters
How to Talk to Ageing Parents About Money, Wills and Financial Accounts
UK Financial Preparedness Statistics 2026
Sources
GOV.UK, Joint Property Ownership
HMCTS, Store a Will With the Probate Service
MoneyHelper, Where to Store Your Will and How to Tell Your Executor
MoneyHelper, Pensions Help After Someone’s Death
Competition and Markets Authority, Consumer Protection in Will-Writing and Legal Services
Citizens Advice, Making a Will
The Law Society, Find a Solicitor
Wills Act 1837, Section 18A: Effect of Dissolution on Wills
GOV.UK, Make, Register or End a Lasting Power of Attorney
GOV.UK, Search Probate Records or Find a Will
GOV.UK, Who Inherits if Someone Dies Without a Will
GOV.UK, Challenge Someone Else’s Probate Application
About the Author
Peter Vulchev, CFA, is co-founder of SuccessionKeeper, a private financial inventory that helps people keep track of what they have and where it is held, so someone they trust knows where to start if needed. He spent his career in investment management, including senior roles at BlackRock and within the investment advisory teams of Apollo and Lone Star Funds, before building SuccessionKeeper with co-founder Deyan Nenov.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, pension or estate-planning advice. It focuses on England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules for wills, succession and estate administration. If your circumstances include a blended family, overseas assets, a business, a trust, cross-border connections or anything else that is not entirely straightforward, consider obtaining advice from a suitably qualified solicitor or regulated will-writing professional. SuccessionKeeper does not draft wills, provide legal advice or administer estates. It is a private financial record designed to help people keep track of what exists and where it is held.