Know your options before you decide
No will, a will, or a will with a trust?
Each option has advantages and drawbacks. Here they are side by side, so you can see what fits your family before your call.
If you don't make a will
The law decides who inherits under the intestacy rules, which may not match your wishes:
- An unmarried partner inherits nothing automatically, however long you've lived together.
- A husband, wife or civil partner gets your personal belongings, the first £322,000 and half of the rest. Your children share the other half.
- Children inherit outright at 18, whatever their maturity.
- You can't choose guardians for young children or who deals with your estate.
- Stepchildren, friends and charities receive nothing. With no close relatives, everything can go to the Crown.
A will (no trust)
Best when your beneficiaries are adults you're happy to receive everything outright.
Advantages
- You choose who inherits, your executors and your children's guardians
- Simple and lowest cost
- Beneficiaries receive their inheritance outright, with no ongoing paperwork
- Easier and quicker for executors to finish the estate
- Can include charity gifts, and family home allowances for inheritance tax when your home passes to children or grandchildren
Drawbacks
- No protection once money is paid out: it can be lost to a beneficiary's divorce, debts or bankruptcy
- If your partner inherits everything and later remarries or changes their will, your children may receive nothing
- A young beneficiary gets full control at 18
- An inheritance can stop a vulnerable person's means-tested benefits
A will with a trust
Best when you want control over who benefits, when, and how the money is protected.
Advantages
- Control: set the age children inherit, or let trustees decide based on future needs
- Protection from a beneficiary's divorce, debts or poor money management
- Blended families: your partner is looked after for life, and your children are guaranteed what's left
- Can protect your share of the home if your surviving partner later needs care
- Support for a disabled or vulnerable loved one without affecting their benefits
Drawbacks
- Costs more to set up, and trustees may face running costs
- Trustees take on legal duties: investing sensibly, keeping records, acting fairly
- May need registering with HMRC's Trust Registration Service, and some trusts file tax returns
- Discretionary trusts can face inheritance tax charges every 10 years and when money leaves, and higher rates of income tax
- The wrong type can lose the family home allowance for inheritance tax, so it must be set up with advice
- Beneficiaries have less control and must ask the trustees
Things a will or trust doesn't cover
- Jointly owned property held as "joint tenants" passes automatically to the other owner, whatever your will says. We check how you own your home.
- Pensions and life policies written in trust follow your nomination forms, so keep them up to date.
- Family claims: certain relatives and dependants can ask the court for reasonable provision if they're left out. We'll record your reasons to reduce this risk.
- Marriage or civil partnership cancels an earlier will unless it was made with that marriage in mind.
General information for England and Wales, not advice for your situation. We advise on your call, and confirm any trust fee before work starts.
Trust services
Trusts in your will: choose the right protection
Bare, discretionary, life interest and vulnerable beneficiary trusts, side by side, plus trust registration support.
Complex wills
Simple will or complex will?
A simple will leaves everything outright, usually to your partner and then your children. A complex will controls how and when people inherit, often using trusts, and plans for tax, a business or property abroad. You don't need to decide which you need: answer the questions and we'll tell you on your call.
| Simple will | Complex will | |
|---|---|---|
| How gifts pass | Outright: sums of money, shares of your estate, or particular items | Controlled or staggered through trusts, with trustees you choose |
| Family | First marriages and straightforward families | Second marriages, step-children, former partners or a vulnerable family member |
| Tax | Uses the standard allowances | Plans for inheritance tax on larger estates |
| What you own | Your home, savings and UK bank accounts | Business interests, partnerships, rental properties or property abroad |
Second families
Look after your partner for life and still make sure your children inherit in the end, using a life interest trust.
Business owners
Say who takes over your shares or business, and keep it running smoothly.
A vulnerable family member
A discretionary trust lets trustees support someone who is disabled, struggles with money or faces debt, without handing them a lump sum.
Protecting your share of the home
A property protection trust may help keep your half of the home for your children if your partner later remarries or needs care. It protects only your share, and it isn't a way to avoid care fees.
Property abroad
We make sure your English will works alongside your overseas property, and tell you if you also need a will made by a lawyer in that country.
Business partners and property abroad: how we plan it
If you own a business with partners and property in another country, your plan usually needs two things working together: arrangements that protect the business, and wills that work in each country.
1. Your business and partners
The aim is to protect the value of your share for your family, without your partner or children having to vote on running the business.
- Cross-option agreement: on your death, your partners have the option to buy your shares, and your executors have the option to require them to buy. Your will is written to work with it and with your company's articles or partnership agreement. If you don't have one, we can introduce a firm to prepare or review it.
- Business trust in your will: your shares, or the money from their sale, go into a trust run by trustees you choose for your partner and children, instead of passing to them outright. We explain the inheritance tax position, including Business Relief, on your call.
2. Your property abroad
An English will can cover worldwide assets, but relying on it abroad often means translations, notarised copies and long delays. The usual answer is two coordinated wills.
- Two wills, each limited to its own country: your English will covers the UK; a will made by a lawyer in that country covers the property there. We liaise with them; their fee is separate.
- No accidental cancelling: each will says which assets it covers and doesn't revoke the other. A standard overseas will often cancels all earlier wills, which could undo your business planning.
- Trusts recognised abroad: countries that have signed the Hague Trusts Convention (given effect in the UK by the Recognition of Trusts Act 1987) recognise trusts made under English law. Recognition doesn't override local property or inheritance rules, so we check these with the local lawyer.
- Avoiding double tax: the UK has inheritance tax treaties with a few countries, including Pakistan, India, Ireland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden and the USA. Elsewhere, UK tax relief for overseas tax may apply. We flag what applies to you.
Faith wills
A will that reflects your faith
Your will can follow your faith's guidance on inheritance, funerals and giving, and still be a valid will under the law of England and Wales. Tell us your faith in the questions and we'll ask only what's relevant to you.
Islamic wills
- Your estate shared between your heirs by Islamic law of inheritance, worked out at the time of death, as family circumstances change
- Up to one-third as a wasiyyah for people who don't inherit a fixed share, such as charities, a mosque, stepchildren or non-Muslim relatives
- Unpaid mahr, zakat or kaffarah settled from your estate
- Burial wishes: prompt burial with Islamic rites, no cremation, burial in the UK or abroad
Jewish wills
- Your English will written to work alongside a halachic will (shtar) arranged with your rabbi or Beth Din, so your wishes are respected under Jewish law too
- Burial wishes: burial according to Jewish law, arranged by your burial society, as soon as possible
- Gifts to your synagogue or Jewish charities
Christian wills
- Funeral wishes: your church, the service you'd like, burial or cremation
- Gifts to your church or Christian charities, which are free of inheritance tax
- Wishes for your children's faith upbringing, in a letter to their guardians
Hindu and Sikh wills
- Cremation with Hindu or Sikh rites, and where your ashes should go, in the UK or in India
- Money set aside for prayers and ceremonies, such as shraddh, Akhand Path or Sahaj Path
- Antim Ardas at your gurdwara, or a funeral in India
- Gifts to your mandir or gurdwara, including a gift in the spirit of Dasvandh
- Property in India: we advise on a separate Indian will, so your English will covers your UK estate and neither cancels the other
Other faiths and beliefs
Buddhist, Bahá'í, Jain, humanist or another belief: tell us what matters to you and we'll reflect it in your will and funeral wishes.
Good to know
- Funeral wishes guide your executors but aren't legally binding. Your executors decide, and the courts can step in if family members disagree. Choosing executors who share your faith, and writing your wishes down clearly, gives them the best chance of being followed.
- Family members can still make a claim. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, a spouse, child or dependant who isn't reasonably provided for can ask the court for more. We explain how to reduce this risk.
- Inheritance tax. Anything left to a husband, wife or civil partner is tax-free. If religious shares leave them less, tax may be due sooner. Gifts to UK charities, including mosques, churches, synagogues, mandirs and gurdwaras that are registered charities, are tax-free, and leaving at least 10% of your estate to charity can reduce the rate on the rest from 40% to 36%.
- Jointly owned property. A home owned as joint tenants passes automatically to the other owner, whatever your will says. If you want it to follow your faith's rules, it may need to be held as tenants in common. This matters too for a home shared with parents, brothers or sisters.
- Religious-only weddings. A nikah, Anand Karaj or mandir wedding that wasn't legally registered isn't a legal marriage in England and Wales. Without a will, your partner would inherit nothing, so we'll make sure your will provides for them.
- Your will in your language. Your will is written in English, but it can be translated and explained to you in Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati or another language before you sign. Your will records this, which helps protect it from challenge. The interpreter must not be someone who benefits from your will.
Please check your wishes with your imam, rabbi, minister or faith adviser.
Fixed prices
Choose your will
Clear prices, agreed before we start. Every will includes your advice call, one round of changes, a check of your signed will, secure storage and National Will Register registration.
Single will
£225
- Online questions with help guides for anything you're unsure about
- 15-minute advice call with a will writer
- Executors, guardians for children, gifts and backup beneficiaries
- Plain-English letter explaining your draft, plus one round of changes
- Signing pack, check of your signed will, storage and registration
Mirror wills
£375 for both of you
- Two matching wills, usually leaving everything to each other, then to children
- £375 covers both wills: £75 less than two single wills
- Each of you completes your own form and is advised separately on the call
- Advice on joint property and inheritance tax as a couple
- Both wills checked, stored and registered
Will with a trust
from £395 · mirror from £695
- Everything in a single will, plus one trust that suits your family
- Life interest trust: your partner keeps the home for life, then it passes to your children
- Trusts for children until 21 or 25
- Trusts protecting a vulnerable or disabled family member's benefits
- Mirror wills with a trust for couples: from £695 for both of you
- Fee confirmed on your call before any trust work starts
Complex will
from £1,250 · mirror from £2,000
- For business owners, property abroad, more than one trust, larger estates or care-cost concerns
- Longer advice call to plan the structure with you
- Business interests and shares, inheritance tax planning, life interest or property protection trusts
- Letter of wishes for your trustees, explained in plain English
- Fixed fee confirmed on your call before work starts. If your will turns out to be simpler, you pay the lower price.
Need it sooner? Our expedited service gets your drafts to you within 2 working days of your call instead of 5, for 30% added to our fee (government fees stay the same). Choose it in the questions. For example, a single will is £292.50 instead of £225.
Each of you answers your own questions, so we can advise you both properly.
We'll carry over your name, contact details, date of birth and address, so you don't type them twice.