5 Reasons to Write Your Will This Week (Not Next Month)

You already know you should have a will. You have probably known for years. But it stays on the list, below everything else, because there is always a reason to do it next week instead of this one.

According to Royal London's 2024 research, 54% of UK adults do not have a will. That is more than 28 million people who have not written down what should happen to their home, their savings, or their children when they die. Here are five reasons to stop delaying.

1. Without a will, the law decides — not you

If you die without a valid will in England and Wales, the intestacy rules kick in automatically. These are a set of default inheritance rules set out in the Administration of Estates Act 1925. They do not know your family, your wishes, or your circumstances. They apply mechanically, regardless of what you would have wanted.

Common surprises: unmarried partners inherit nothing under intestacy (regardless of how long you have been together), stepchildren are treated differently to biological children, and if you have no close relatives, your entire estate passes to the Crown as bona vacantia.

2. A will is the only way to appoint a guardian for your children

If you have children under 18, a will is the legal mechanism for appointing a guardian under section 5 of the Children Act 1989. Without one, the courts decide who looks after your children. The court will make a decision it believes is in the child's best interests, which may or may not align with who you would have chosen.

Writing a will and naming a guardian is one of the most concrete things any parent can do. It takes one conversation with the person you have in mind and one afternoon with a template.

3. Contested probate costs an average of £9,700

When there is no will, or when a will is unclear, families sometimes end up in probate disputes. According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the average cost of contested probate is £9,700 — and that is only the average. Disputes in the High Court cost far more and can take years to resolve.

A clear, properly witnessed will is the single best protection against this. It does not need to be long. It just needs to exist and to be correctly signed.

4. It takes less than an afternoon

This is the objection that stops most people: writing a will sounds time-consuming and complicated. In practice, a straightforward will — naming your executors, your beneficiaries, and your guardians if you have children — takes most people two to three hours to complete from start to signing.

Will-writing is not a reserved legal activity in England and Wales under the Legal Services Act 2007. Any adult with mental capacity can write their own will without a solicitor. A plain-English template walks you through every section. You fill it in, print it, and sign it with two adult witnesses present.

That is it.

5. Life changes faster than you plan for

Marriage revokes any existing will made before it (s18 Wills Act 1837). Divorce does not revoke a will, but it does remove your ex-spouse from it automatically — which may leave gifts with no recipient. Having a child does not automatically update your will. Buying a property, starting a business, or receiving an inheritance all change what you have to leave.

A will you write this week can be updated. A will you never write cannot be. And if something happens between now and "next month", there is no going back.