5 Things the Post Office Will Kit Doesn't Tell You

A post office will kit looks reassuringly straightforward. Pay a small amount, fill in the blanks, get two witnesses — done. Your estate is sorted. Except it's not quite that simple. Physical will kits sold on the high street leave out some important information that can cause serious problems later.

1. One Mistake Can Make Your Whole Will Invalid

The most important thing a post office will kit doesn't tell you is just how easy it is to invalidate a will — and how little recourse your family will have if that happens.

Under the Wills Act 1837, a will must be:

• Signed by the person making it (the testator), in the presence of two witnesses
• Witnessed by two people who are both present at the same time
• Signed by both witnesses in the testator's presence

If any of these conditions aren't met, the will is void. That means the law treats you as if you died without a will at all — and your estate is distributed according to the rules of intestacy, which may bear no relation to your wishes.

Will kits mention that you need witnesses. They don't always make clear how unforgiving the law is if you get it wrong.

2. Your Witnesses Can't Be Beneficiaries (and Neither Can Their Partners)

This is one of the most commonly misunderstood rules in will-writing, and a standard post office will kit mentions it only briefly.

Anyone you name as a beneficiary — or the spouse or civil partner of any beneficiary — cannot act as a witness to your will. If they do, the will itself remains valid, but that beneficiary loses their inheritance entirely.

This catches people out all the time. A couple writes their wills at the kitchen table, witnesses each other's documents, and unwittingly destroys each other's legacies. The will is signed and legal-looking, but neither spouse will inherit a penny under it.

If your family and closest friends are your beneficiaries, your witnesses need to be neighbours, colleagues, or anyone else with no financial interest in your estate.

3. Paper Wills Get Lost — and Lost Wills Can Be Treated as Destroyed

A paper will produces a paper document. That document needs to be stored somewhere safe for the rest of your life — and found after you die.

What the kit doesn't explain:

• If your original will can't be found after your death, it may be presumed to have been intentionally destroyed (i.e., revoked). The law generally assumes a missing will was deliberately done away with.
• There is no register of wills in the UK. No one will look for yours.
• If the will isn't found, your estate is distributed under intestacy rules regardless of what the lost document said.

A common recommendation is to store your will with a solicitor or will storage service — but the kit won't point you there. It just gives you the paper.

4. You Can't Update It Without Starting Again

Life changes. You might have another child, divorce and remarry, fall out with a beneficiary, buy a new property, or simply change your mind about who you want to inherit.

A paper will cannot simply be amended. You can't cross things out, add a note in the margin, or use correction fluid — any amendment to a signed will needs to be witnessed again to be valid, and even then the process is fiddly.

The proper options are:

• Write a codicil (a formal witnessed amendment to an existing will)
• Write an entirely new will (which automatically revokes the previous one)

Either way, you're starting a new process. The kit in your drawer is now a starting point, not a finished solution.

By contrast, a digital will — like those from WillSafe — is an editable document. You can update it whenever your circumstances change and simply print, sign, and witness the new version.

5. Marriage Revokes Your Will Automatically

This is the one that genuinely shocks people.

In England and Wales, getting married automatically revokes any existing will. If you made a will, then got married (or remarried), your will is now invalid — even if you wrote it the week before the wedding.

The only exception is a will made expressly in contemplation of a specific marriage — but this is not standard wording in any high-street will kit.

This matters in both directions. If you are married and haven't made a new will since the wedding, you may have no valid will at all. And if you're currently drafting a will while engaged, it will be cancelled the moment you exchange rings.