Making a Will: What to Know

A will states who receives your property after you die and who is responsible for carrying out your wishes. Without one, the intestacy rules decide for you, and the outcome often surprises families. This is general legal information, not legal advice, and the names of documents, the thresholds and the procedures differ by country and jurisdiction, so check the rules where you live.

What a will does, and what happens without one

A will names beneficiaries, appoints one or more executors to collect assets and pay debts, and can set out guardianship for minor children and specific gifts such as a car or jewellery. It can also record funeral wishes, though those are rarely legally binding.

Die without a valid will and the intestacy rules take over. They follow a fixed order, usually a spouse or registered partner first, then children, then parents and siblings. Unmarried partners, stepchildren and close friends normally receive nothing, however long the relationship lasted. Property held jointly in certain ways, pension death benefits and life insurance paid to a named person usually pass outside the will, so check those separately.

• Testator - The person who makes the will.
• Executor - The person appointed to administer the estate and carry out the will.
• Intestacy - The default rules that share out an estate when there is no valid will.
• Beneficiary - A person or organisation named to receive something from the estate.

Capacity, and when a will gets challenged

In most places you must be an adult and understand what you own, who your likely beneficiaries are and what the document does. Capacity is judged on the day of signing, so a diagnosis alone does not automatically block a will.

If someone has dementia or a serious illness, get a doctor's note and have a lawyer supervise the signing. Claims of undue influence, where a carer or a new partner pushed for a change, are much harder to run against a will signed in front of independent witnesses.

• Attestation - The act of witnesses signing to confirm they saw the testator sign.
• Capacity to make a will - The understanding a person needs to sign a valid will.
• Undue influence - Pressure that pushes someone into a will they did not want.

Signing and witnessing rules

Most jurisdictions require the will to be in writing, signed by you, and signed by witnesses who are present at the same time. Two witnesses is common, though some places accept one, and a few accept a will written entirely in your own handwriting with no witnesses at all.

A witness who is a beneficiary, or married to a beneficiary, often causes that gift to fail. Use neighbours, colleagues or the staff at a solicitor's office instead. Sign in the same ink, date the document, and have each witness add their name, address and occupation.

Never sign a blank page and fill it in later. Do not cross out words or write between the lines after signing, because that can invalidate the whole will. Make a short amending document, called a codicil, or sign a fresh will, then destroy the old one.

• Codicil - A short document that changes part of an existing will.
• Probate - The official confirmation that a will is valid and can be acted on.
• Prescribed form - The wording or layout the law in your area requires.

Executors, updates and storage

An executor can be a relative, a friend or a professional. Family members usually charge nothing, while solicitors and banks charge fees taken from the estate, so ask about those before naming one and always name a backup who is willing to act.

Review the will after marriage, divorce, a birth, a death or a move abroad. Marriage often revokes an earlier will automatically, and divorce usually cancels a gift to the former spouse. Tell your executor where the signed original is kept, and remember that only the original is normally accepted for probate. If the original cannot be found, the family may have to ask a court to admit a copy, which takes longer.

• Revocation - The cancelling of a will, whether by a new will or by marriage.
• Safe custody - Storage of the signed will by a solicitor or bank.
• Estate - Everything you own at death, after debts are taken off.

When to get professional help

A template will suits a simple estate. Get a lawyer if you own property in more than one country, run a business, hold assets in a trust, expect a family dispute, or want to leave someone out on purpose. Those situations need wording that untrained drafting usually gets wrong.

If a will is being challenged, or a deadline for a claim against an estate is running, speak to a qualified lawyer or a free legal advice service immediately. Court deadlines do not wait, and the time limits for challenging a will are short in most places.

• Claim against an estate - A request to a court for a share of, or provision from, an estate.
• Trust - An arrangement where one person holds assets for the benefit of another.
• Legal advice service - A charity or public body giving free advice on legal problems.