Do I Need a Solicitor to Write My Will?

The short answer

For many people – particularly those with a straightforward estate, clear wishes, and no unusual complications – a properly designed online will service can produce a legally valid, carefully structured will that fully meets their needs.

For others – those with complex family situations, significant tax exposure, overseas assets, a business interest, or a previous marriage – professional involvement is important, and potentially very valuable.

The key is knowing which category you fall into. This guide helps you decide honestly.

What a solicitor actually does when drafting a will

It is worth understanding what a solicitor brings to will-drafting, because it helps you assess what you may be giving up by going online.

A good will-drafting solicitor:

Identifies issues you didn’t know existed. Clients often come in thinking they have a simple estate and leave having discovered a domicile question, a business relief issue, or a potential family provision claim they hadn’t considered.
Provides legal advice, not just legal documentation. A solicitor can advise you on the IHT consequences of different approaches, the implications of various trust structures, or the interaction between your will and your pension nominations. An online form cannot.
Drafts with precision. Probate disputes often arise from ambiguous wording. A trained drafter knows how to express intentions without ambiguity.
Holds a regulated duty of care. A solicitor can be sued for negligence. They carry professional indemnity insurance. Their conduct is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Accountability matters.
Stores the original safely and can provide copies to executors without charge when needed.

When an online will is entirely appropriate

An online will produced through a quality platform is likely to be entirely suitable if:

You are unmarried, married, or in a civil partnership with no previous marriages or children from previous relationships
Your estate is mainly UK-based — a home, savings, pension, and personal possessions
You want to leave everything to your spouse/partner and then equally to your children, or to a simple combination of people
There are no significant business interests, trust structures, or partnership complications
Your estate is likely to be below the IHT threshold (or only modestly above it with straightforward planning)
You understand your own wishes clearly and simply need a legally valid document to reflect them
You are willing to take responsibility for ensuring the document is executed (signed and witnessed) correctly

For this group — which represents the majority of adults — the barrier to having a valid will should be cost and convenience, not professional complexity. A quality online service removes that barrier.

When you should involve a professional

Please take professional advice before (or alongside) writing your online will if any of the following apply:

Family complexity:

You have children from a previous relationship
You are separated but not yet divorced
You are cohabiting (not married or in a civil partnership)
You have a dependent adult child, a disabled beneficiary, or a child with addiction issues
You want to disinherit someone who might make a family provision claim

Tax and financial complexity:

Your estate (including your share of jointly owned property) is likely to exceed £500,000
You are a business owner with interests that may qualify for Business Property Relief
You have overseas assets or are uncertain about your domicile
You have significant pension funds or life insurance not written in trust
You have made substantial gifts in the past seven years

Legal complexity:

You have previously been married and divorced, and there are existing financial orders
You have foreign property or connections that raise domicile questions
You want to create a trust — particularly anything beyond a basic children’s protective trust
Your estate includes agricultural land

Note

Even if you use an online will service for the document itself, a one-off consultation with a qualified adviser can be enormously valuable. As a Chartered Certified Accountant, ICAEW probate practitioner, and FCA-authorised Independent Financial Adviser, we offer consultations that combine tax planning, estate structuring, and probate expertise — a combination rarely available in a single meeting with a high-street solicitor.

The risks of DIY wills

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Home-made wills — written without any professional guidance — are one of the primary sources of probate disputes and intestacy. Common problems include:

Execution errors: The will is not signed or witnessed correctly — two witnesses must be present simultaneously, and neither can be a beneficiary (or their spouse). Many home-made wills fail on this point.

Ambiguous wording: ‘I leave my house to my children’ — which house? All your children? Equally? What if one dies before you? What age must they reach? Each unanswered question is a potential dispute.

Failure to address the residuary estate: A will that lists specific gifts but says nothing about the rest of the estate leaves a partial intestacy — the residue passes under the intestacy rules regardless of your intentions.

Gifts that lapse: A beneficiary who predeceases the testator means the gift fails — unless the will has a substitution clause. Most home-made wills do not.

Revocation by marriage: Many people do not know that marriage automatically revokes an existing will in England and Wales. A will written before a second marriage may be completely invalid.

Watch Out

The cost of probate disputes arising from a defective will routinely exceeds thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of pounds. The financial and emotional cost to families is significant. A properly structured will is not an expense — it is an investment.

What makes a good online will service different

Not all online will services are equal. The key differentiators between a quality service and a basic form-filling exercise are:

Guided question flow: A quality platform asks questions that surface issues — it does not simply accept input without challenge. Arken, the software behind this service, is the same platform used by professional solicitors and legal practices across the UK.
Professional-grade drafting: The underlying documents are drafted to the standard of professionally prepared wills, not simplified templates.
Flagging of complexity: A good service identifies when your answers suggest complexity that may benefit from professional review — and tells you, rather than simply proceeding regardless.
Legally valid output: The resulting will is a properly structured legal document, not a template with blanks filled in.
Execution guidance: Clear instructions on how to sign and witness correctly — the step most home-made wills get wrong.

Why this service is different

Most online will services are run by technology companies or marketing organisations that resell the work of distant solicitors. This service is different in two important ways.

First, the technology: we use Arken, the same professional will-drafting software used by solicitors and will-writing practitioners across the UK. Your will is not a simplified template — it is a professionally structured legal document.

Second, the expertise behind it: this service is offered by a practitioner with over 50 years of experience in UK and international tax, regulated by the ICAEW for probate activities, and directly authorised by the FCA as an Independent Financial Adviser. When your online will flags something that needs professional review, you are not referred to a call centre — you are speaking with one of the most qualified advisers available.

This means you get the convenience and affordability of an online service with access to the depth of expertise that complex situations sometimes require.

What about will-writing companies (non-solicitors)?

Will-writing is not a reserved legal activity in England and Wales — meaning anyone can call themselves a will writer without any legal qualification, regulation, or insurance requirement.

Some will-writing companies are excellent. Many are not. The key questions to ask any will-writing service:

Are they regulated by a professional body (ICAEW, SRA, CILEX) or a recognised trade body (STEP, the Society of Will Writers)?
Do they carry professional indemnity insurance?
Who is legally responsible if the will is defective?
Where are original documents stored?

Unregulated will writers have been the subject of numerous Trading Standards investigations and have caused significant financial harm to vulnerable clients. Regulation matters.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, provided it is properly executed — signed by you in the presence of two independent witnesses who are both present at the same time and who both sign in your presence. The method of preparation (online, solicitor, or handwritten) does not affect validity — execution does.

Solicitor fees vary widely — from approximately £150–£300 for a simple single will to £500–£1,500 or more for complex wills with trust provisions or significant tax planning. Mirror wills (a matching pair for a couple) are typically charged at a combined rate.

Yes. You can update your will at any time while you have mental capacity. Minor changes can be made by a codicil (a formal amendment document), though for significant changes it is usually cleaner to make a new will entirely. Your online will can be updated through this service.

Your will should be stored in a fireproof location — ideally with your solicitor or a professional will storage service, in the Probate Registry, or in a fireproof safe at home. Tell your executors where it is. Do not store it in a bank safety deposit box — executors may struggle to access it without a grant of probate, creating a circular problem.

Yes — each person must have their own separate will. A will is a personal legal document. ‘Mirror wills’ are the conventional solution — two separate wills with matching provisions, each leaving everything to the other and then to the same beneficiaries if the other has died.

A solicitor is a regulated legal professional governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, required to hold indemnity insurance, and subject to a complaints process. A will writer has no equivalent regulatory requirement — anyone can use that title. The quality varies enormously. Using an ICAEW-regulated probate practitioner, as with this service, provides regulation and accountability equivalent to solicitor oversight.

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