Making a will.

Your executor

The person who carries out the will. Usually a spouse, an adult child or a friend. Name a second one in case.

Specific gifts

A house, a sum of money, a particular item. Be precise about which item and which person.

The residue

Everything left after the specific gifts and the debts. This is the part that matters most and is most often forgotten.

Guardians and trustees

If your children are under eighteen, say who raises them and who minds the money until they are old enough.

A will is not a blank page.

A spouse or civil partner has a legal right share

One third of the estate if you have children, one half if you do not. That share applies whether or not the will mentions it.

Children may apply to the court

Under section 117 of the Succession Act a child can ask the court to say a parent failed in their moral duty to provide for them. It is worth planning around.

A witness cannot be a beneficiary

Two witnesses must watch you sign, at the same time, and neither of them nor their spouse can take a gift under the will. This is where home made wills usually fail.

Marriage revokes an earlier will

So does a divorce in some respects. Review the will after a marriage, a separation, a birth, or the sale of a property named in it.

Tax on what you leave

Beneficiaries pay capital acquisitions tax above their threshold. The three thresholds are set out on our tool page.

Gather your thoughts here, before the meeting.

Six short steps: your family, what you own, who benefits, who carries it out. It never writes a will and never gives advice. It sends us a structured note, and the first appointment takes twenty minutes instead of an hour.