A valid will requires two independent witnesses present simultaneously. Under the Wills Act 1837, you must sign in the presence of two witnesses who are both there at the same time, and who then each sign in your presence.
A witness — or that witness's spouse or civil partner — must not be a beneficiary: anyone who witnesses the will loses anything left to them under it.
This template is a guide only — a starting point, not legal advice, and does not replace a solicitor. Consider professional advice for any property in trust, business interests, overseas assets, complex family arrangements, or anyone likely to dispute the will.
A will is the document that decides who inherits, who administers, and who is protected. England and Wales law does not require a solicitor to draft a will — it requires correct execution: a signature, two independent witnesses, and the right structure.
This template lays out a simple will in the order the law expects, with each required clause explained and a blank to complete. Use it to understand the shape of a valid will and to draft a first version — then, before you sign, weigh whether your circumstances are simple enough to complete this yourself.
For many people they are. For trusts, business interests, overseas assets, second families, or complex arrangements, they are not.
The six required elements of a valid simple will.
The seven clauses of a simple will, in the order the law expects, in the words the template uses. Blanks are shown as rules with the field named in brackets. The PDF and the Word file carry the same clauses with room to write.
This is the last will and testament of ______ [full legal name], born ______ [date of birth], of ______ [address], made by me on the ______ day of ______ ______. I declare this to be my last will, and that I am of sound mind and make it freely.
Names you so there is no doubt whose will it is. Write your full legal name exactly as it appears on formal documents.
I revoke all earlier wills and codicils made by me.
Cancels every earlier will and codicil, so two documents can never be argued against each other. The sentence stands as written.
I appoint as the executor(s) and trustee(s) of my will: ______ [full name] of ______ [address], and ______ [full name] of ______ [address]. If a named executor is unable or unwilling to act, I appoint ______ of ______ to act in that executor's place.
Executors carry out the will: apply for probate, gather the estate, pay the debts, distribute what is left. Up to four may act together. Always name a substitute.
If on my death any of my children are under 18 and have no other surviving parent with parental responsibility, I appoint ______ [full name] of ______ [address] as their guardian(s).
Leave the clause out entirely if it does not apply. Ask the person first: guardianship is a serious thing to be asked to accept.
I give the following specific gifts, free of tax, to the people and organisations named. Each gift fails if the person dies before me, unless I say otherwise: ______ [item or sum of money] to ______ [full name].
Describe each item so only one thing can be meant, and name the person fully. For a charity, give its full registered name and registered charity number.
I give all the rest of my estate, after payment of my debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, and any tax due, to ______ [full name(s)], ______ [share each], if they survive me by ______ days. If more than one person is named to share my residuary estate and any of them does not survive me by the period stated above, but leaves children of their own who do survive me by that period, those children shall take equally between them the share their parent would have taken. If that person leaves no such children, their share shall pass to the other residuary beneficiaries who survive me by that period, in proportion to the shares they would otherwise have taken. If none of the residuary beneficiaries or descendants entitled under the paragraph above survives me by that period, I give my residuary estate to: ______ [FINAL SUBSTITUTE BENEFICIARY — FULL NAME(S) AND HOW SHARED].
The most important clause. The residue is everything not given away above, which for most people is most of what they leave. A will that forgets it lets the remainder pass under intestacy. A 28-day or 30-day survivorship period is common.
Signed by the above-named ______ as their last will, in our joint presence, and then by us in theirs. We were both present at the same time when the testator signed.
Followed by your signature and the date, then each witness's signature, printed name, address and occupation. This is where most home-made wills fail.
The Whitmore specimen joins the clauses into a finished will, so you can see the shape before you draft your own. Everything in it is invented. It is a model of form, not a will to copy: your names, circumstances and wishes will differ.
Twenty-nine provisions decide whether a will on this template stands, and what it can and cannot do. Each is paraphrased here in plain words and linked to the provision itself; the source is the authority, not this page.
| Provision | What it says | Where it bites in this template | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wills Act 1837, section 9 | A will must be in writing and signed by the testator, or by someone at their direction and in their presence. The signature must be made or acknowledged in front of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and each witness must then sign, or acknowledge their signature, in the testator's presence. | Clause 7 and the signing routine: two witnesses, together, then each signs. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, section 15 | A gift to a person who witnesses the will, or to that witness's husband, wife or civil partner, is void. The will itself stays valid. | Why neither witness may be a beneficiary, or married to one. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, sections 18 and 18B | Marriage, or forming a civil partnership, revokes a will made before it, unless the will was made in expectation of that particular marriage or partnership. | Why a will needs remaking after a wedding: make a new will rather than trying to revive the old one with a codicil. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, sections 18A and 18C | On divorce, annulment or dissolution, the former spouse or civil partner is treated as having died on the day the marriage or partnership ended: gifts to them lapse and their appointment as executor falls away. The rest of the will stands. | Why clause 6 names a substitute beneficiary and clause 3 a substitute executor. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, section 20 | A will is revoked only by a later will or codicil, by a written declaration executed in the same way as a will, or by the testator destroying it, or having it destroyed in their presence, with the intention of revoking it. | Clause 2, and why every earlier original is destroyed once the new will is signed. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, section 33 | A gift to the testator's child or remoter descendant who dies before the testator, leaving descendants of their own, passes to those descendants unless the will shows a contrary intention. | Why clause 6 says what happens if a beneficiary dies first, rather than leaving it to the statute. | read ↗ |
| Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, section 1 | A spouse or civil partner, a former spouse or civil partner who has not remarried, a partner who lived with the deceased for two years, a child, a person treated as a child of the family, and anyone being maintained by the deceased may apply to the court on the ground that the will does not make reasonable financial provision for them. | Why the limits section sends second families and dependants to a solicitor. | read ↗ |
| GOV.UK, Make a will | To be legal, a will must be made by someone 18 or over, made voluntarily, made by a person of sound mind, made in writing, signed in the presence of two witnesses who are over 18, and signed by those two witnesses in the testator's presence. | The checklist the whole template is built to satisfy. | read ↗ |
| Video-witnessed wills | A temporary rule made during the pandemic allowed witnesses to be present by video link for wills made between 31 January 2020 and 31 January 2024. It has ended: witnesses must be physically present. | Why the attestation clause says 'in our joint presence' and means the same room. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, section 7 | No will made by a person under the age of eighteen is valid. | Why Section I says you must be 18 or over. A will signed at 17 is void however well it is drafted. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, section 21 | A change made to a will after it is signed — a crossing-out, an added line, a new name — has no effect unless it is itself signed and witnessed like a will. | Never write on the signed original. A small change needs a codicil, signed with two witnesses; a larger one needs a new will. The codicil template is free. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1837, section 24 | A will is read as if it had been signed immediately before death, so far as the property it refers to is concerned, unless it shows a different intention. | Clause 6 catches everything you own at death, including things bought after signing. A specific gift in clause 5 of an item you no longer own at death simply fails. | read ↗ |
| Wills Act 1968, section 1 | Where a will is duly executed without the beneficiary-witness's signature, and without the signature of any other witness who — or whose spouse or civil partner — also takes under it, that signature is disregarded and the gift stands. | The rule in section 15 bites when a beneficiary is one of the two witnesses the will depends on. Choose two neutral witnesses and the question never arises. | read ↗ |
| Administration of Justice Act 1982, section 21 | Where a will is meaningless or ambiguous on its face, outside evidence may be admitted to show what the testator meant. | Why the shares in clause 6 and the survivorship period must be completed clearly. A blank inside a condition becomes a question for a court, not a wish. | read ↗ |
| Children Act 1989, section 5 | A parent with parental responsibility may appoint a guardian for a child under 18, in writing, dated and signed. The appointment takes effect on death where no surviving parent has parental responsibility (or where the appointer was named in a child arrangements order as the person the child lives with); otherwise it takes effect when the surviving parent dies. | Clause 4. The law fixes when the appointment bites, not the will. A separated parent should take advice before relying on the clause. | read ↗ |
| Adoption and Children Act 2002, section 67 | An adopted person is treated in law as the child of the adopters, and not as the child of any other person. | "My children" in clauses 4 and 6 includes an adopted child, and excludes a child you have given up for adoption. | read ↗ |
| Family Law Reform Act 1987, section 1 | References to a person's children, and to any relationship, are read without regard to whether the parents were married to each other. | "My children" includes a child born outside marriage. A stepchild is not your child in law unless you name them. | read ↗ |
| Law of Property Act 1925, section 184 | Where two people die and it cannot be known which died first, the younger is presumed to have survived the elder. | Why clause 6 asks the beneficiary to survive you by a stated period. Without it, an estate can pass through a beneficiary who died in the same accident. | read ↗ |
| Law of Property Act 1925, section 36(2) | A joint tenancy of land is severed by one joint tenant giving written notice to the other. | A home owned as joint tenants passes to the surviving co-owner outside the will. To leave your share to someone else, sever the joint tenancy first (HM Land Registry form SEV). | read ↗ |
| Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 92 | Where a will requires a beneficiary to survive for a period of up to six months, the gift is treated for inheritance tax as taking effect at the death. | The survivorship period in clause 6 — 28 or 30 days is usual. Do not write a period longer than six months. | read ↗ |
| Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 211 | Inheritance tax on property that passes under the will to the executors is treated as a general expense of the estate, unless the will says otherwise. | What "free of tax" in clause 5 means: any tax on a specific gift is borne by the residue, not by the person receiving the gift. | read ↗ |
| Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 18 | Gifts between spouses and civil partners are exempt from inheritance tax, subject to a cap where the recipient is not domiciled in the UK. | Why leaving everything to a spouse or civil partner usually carries no inheritance tax, and why a spouse living abroad is a see-a-solicitor case. | read ↗ |
| Trustee Act 2000, section 29 | A professional trustee who is not the only trustee may charge reasonable remuneration if every other trustee agrees in writing. A sole professional trustee cannot charge without an express provision. | This template is written for lay executors. If you name a solicitor or accountant, they will need a charging clause — take advice before you do. | read ↗ |
| Trustee Act 1925, section 31 | Trustees holding property for someone under 18 may apply its income for that person's maintenance, education or benefit, and must accumulate the rest until they are 18. | If a share reaches someone under 18 — for example a grandchild taking a deceased parent's share under clause 6 — the executors hold it for them until 18. This template sets no age condition; a solicitor can. | read ↗ |
| Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 41 | Executors may hand over a particular asset in or towards a beneficiary's share, with that beneficiary's consent. | An executor can give a beneficiary the car against their share of the residue, if the beneficiary agrees. An express clause would remove the need for consent; the statutory power needs it. | read ↗ |
| Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 46 | The intestacy rules: the fixed order in which a spouse, children and other relatives inherit when there is no valid will, or the will does not dispose of everything. | Why clause 6 must always be completed. Anything the will does not give passes under these rules, to people you may not have chosen. | read ↗ |
| Charities Act 2011, section 311 | A gift to a charity that has since merged takes effect as a gift to the charity it merged into, where the merger is on the register of charity mergers. | Name a charity by its registered name and number. A registered merger does not defeat the gift; an unregistered change of name or a charity that has closed can. | read ↗ |
| Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, rule 12 | Where a will contains no attestation clause, or the clause is insufficient, the registry may require evidence from a witness that the will was properly signed. | Why clause 7 — the attestation clause — matters as much as the signatures. It records that the section 9 formalities were followed, so the registry need not chase the witnesses. | read ↗ |
| GOV.UK, Store a will with the Probate Service | HM Courts & Tribunals Service will store a will or codicil for a one-off fee of £24, using the PA7ENV envelope label. | Where the signed original goes. Keep it where it can be found, tell your executors, and record its location in the free Original Documents Register. A photocopy cannot obtain probate. | read ↗ |
Sources read on 16 September 2026. The Law Commission's report Modernising Wills Law (May 2025) recommends, among other things, ending the rule that marriage revokes a will and allowing electronic wills. Those are recommendations; none is law yet.
The most common DIY will failure is not about the words — it is about the witnesses.
When a template is not enough — and the cost of getting it wrong.
Twelve A4 pages, 170 KB. The seven clauses in the wording you sign, each with a short note, then the attestation block and the witnessing rules on page 10. Print it and write in the blanks, or type into the Word file. No account, no email.
This template is for England and Wales only. Do not use it for a Scottish or Northern Irish will. The law and signing requirements differ.
Marriage or civil partnership can affect or revoke an existing will. If you expect to marry or form a civil partnership after signing this will, take advice or use a will specifically drafted for that situation before signing.
If there is any doubt about whether the person making the will understands what the will does, the property they own, or the people they might reasonably be expected to provide for, do not rely on a self-completed template without professional advice.
Which household is yours? Read the completed specimen that matches it first — single, no children, a couple with young children, or a widow with adult children — then fill in the blank.
Reviewed at this version by a practising solicitor — regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in their personal capacity — and passed for publication. The review covers the template, its notes and the signing instructions as published, not the will you complete from it: nobody reviews your finished will. Valoren is not itself an SRA-regulated firm.
Have the signing-day set sent to you.
Three documents that go with a will but are not in it. The one-page signing-day sheet to keep beside the will while both witnesses watch, the Letter of Wishes template for what the will should not say, and the codicil template for a small change later — sent as one email, with two short notes over the month that follows: one on what sections 9 and 15 of the Wills Act actually require before you sign, and one on what a will cannot tell the person left holding it, which carries an offer for our paid Kit. Unsubscribe from those at any time. The will template above stays free either way.
What the blank template cannot do — and what the portal adds.
Related templates: free mirror wills template · free codicil template · letter of wishes. Related reading: how much does a will cost · do I need a solicitor for my will · the Valoren Will
Arrive at the appointment prepared
The context that sits beside the will
The companion to a will
The list to work through after a death
The letters for after, not before
List what the estate owns and owes
A small, self-contained change once this is signed
Two matched wills for a couple, on the same pattern
This blank template, filled in and annotated, for three households