Why Every Adult Should Make a Will

What actually happens if you die without a will

Die without a valid will and you are said to have died intestate, which means the law divides your estate using a fixed formula. The intestacy rules take no account of your relationships, your intentions, or the promises you have made to the people you love.

In England and Wales, if you have a spouse or civil partner and children, your spouse receives the personal possessions, a statutory legacy (currently £322,000, reviewed periodically) and half of anything above that. The children share the rest, taking their inheritance outright at 18. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules, but the principle is the same: a template, not a plan.

If you are not married or in a civil partnership, the picture is bleaker. A partner of twenty years has no automatic right to inherit a penny. The phrase "common law spouse" has no legal standing in the UK.

Who the rules leave exposed

• Unmarried partners — they may inherit nothing, and have no automatic right to stay in the family home.
• Stepchildren — not treated as yours for inheritance unless you formally adopt them.
• Children from a previous relationship — in a second marriage the whole estate often passes to the new spouse, leaving the first family dependent on that spouse's goodwill.
• Friends and charities — anyone outside the family tree receives nothing.

What a will lets you decide

A will is a short document with a long reach. It does more than say who gets what.

• Guardianship — you can name who should raise your children if both parents die. Without that, the decision falls to the courts, and it may not be the person you would have chosen.
• Age of inheritance — hold a child's inheritance in trust until 21 or 25 instead of handing it over at 18.
• Executors — the people who will sort out your affairs. Choose someone practical and tell them where the will is kept.
• Specific gifts — a watch, a ring, a sum to a godchild, a donation to a local cause.
• Protecting a partner — give an unmarried partner the right to remain in the home, or hold assets in trust for them for life.
• Funeral wishes — not legally binding, but they spare your family agonising guesswork at the worst possible moment.

Making your will: the practical bit

A straightforward will is not expensive — often a few hundred pounds for a single will, a little more for a pair of mirror wills, and some charities run free will-writing schemes. The important thing is that it is done properly.

• A will must be signed in front of two witnesses, both present at the same time and neither of them a beneficiary.
• Marriage or civil partnership revokes an existing will unless it was written in anticipation of the ceremony. Divorce does not revoke a will, but it removes the former spouse as a beneficiary.
• Keep the original somewhere safe and tell your executors where it is. A will nobody can find is nearly as bad as no will at all.

Where protection insurance fits in

A will decides what happens to what you own. Protection insurance decides whether there is enough to inherit — and whether the mortgage is paid while your family is grieving.

Life cover, critical illness cover and income protection are the three main types. For a household with a mortgage and young children, life cover usually comes first: it can clear the mortgage, cover childcare, and replace a lost income for an agreed number of years.

One detail deserves more attention than it usually gets. If a life insurance payout lands in your estate, it can attract inheritance tax and may be frozen in probate for months. Writing the policy in trust — free with most providers and arranged at the application stage — normally keeps it outside the estate and lets the money be paid directly to the people you choose, often within weeks. Ask about it when you take out the policy, and check whether existing policies are already in trust.

Pensions work the same way: a will does not control them, but a nomination form does. Keep it up to date.

Keeping it current

Review your will after any major change: a birth, a death, a marriage, a divorce, a house purchase, or a business starting to do well. The same goes for your protection policies, especially the trust arrangements and the amount of cover. As children grow and the mortgage shrinks, the numbers that suited you five years ago may no longer fit.

It is an uncomfortable afternoon's work. It is also one of the kindest things you can do for the people you love. If you have been meaning to sort it out, treat this as the nudge.