The main risks of a will template in the UK are that it can be signed or witnessed incorrectly, use wording that voids a gift, leave gaps that trigger intestacy, or be lost so the estate is treated as if no will existed. A template can be fine for a very simple estate, but the errors it invites are often only discovered after death, when they can no longer be fixed.
A will template is a fill-in-the-blanks form, usually a free PDF or an online questionnaire. The document is rarely the problem. The problem is that a template cannot check whether you have signed it correctly, whether your wording says what you think it says, or whether your estate is simple enough for a form to cover. This guide sets out where DIY wills go wrong in England and Wales. Figures are current as at August 2026 and subject to change.
Are will templates legally valid in England and Wales?
A will template can produce a legally valid will, but only if the finished document meets the formalities of the Wills Act 1837. Validity depends on how the will is signed and witnessed and on the wording, not on whether a solicitor drafted it. A homemade will that follows the rules is as valid as a professionally drafted one.
The catch is that a template built for another legal system, such as a United States form or a Scottish one, may not satisfy the rules for England and Wales, where signing formalities differ. Always check that a template is written for England and Wales before relying on it.
What are the main risks of using a will template?
The main risks fall into eight recurring failures, from execution errors to gaps that leave part of an estate undirected. Each is common with DIY wills and most cannot be corrected once the person has died. They are listed below in the order they tend to cause trouble.
- Wrong jurisdiction. A template drafted for the United States or Scotland may not meet the rules for England and Wales, so the will can be challenged or fail.
- Signing and witnessing errors. The Wills Act 1837 requires the will to be signed in the presence of two witnesses who are both present at the same time and who each sign. Getting the order or the presence wrong can invalidate the whole document (Wills Act 1837, s.9).
- A witness who is also a beneficiary. If a beneficiary, or their spouse or civil partner, acts as a witness, the gift to that person is void even though the will itself stands (Wills Act 1837, s.15). Templates rarely warn you about this.
- Unclear wording and no residue clause. Vague gifts or a missing clause dealing with the residue (whatever is left after named gifts) can cause part of the estate to pass under intestacy, and can lead to disputes.
- Missing provisions. A basic form may leave out guardians for young children, backup beneficiaries, alternate executors, or any mention of digital assets.
- A lost or unstored original. If the signed original cannot be found after death, the law may presume it was destroyed and revoked, which can throw the estate back onto the intestacy rules.
- No inheritance tax planning. A template records who gets what, but does nothing to use allowances or reliefs, so a larger estate may pay more tax than it needs to.
- Never updated, or revoked by marriage. A will can drift out of date, and under current law marriage or civil partnership automatically revokes an existing will unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage (Wills Act 1837, s.18).
How do signing and witnessing mistakes invalidate a will?
Most DIY wills that fail do so at signing, not drafting. Under section 9 of the Wills Act 1837, a will must be in writing and signed by the person making it, in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time, and each witness must then sign in that person's presence. A template cannot supervise any of this. Common errors include witnesses signing separately rather than together, a witness not seeing the person sign, or unsigned pages, any of which can cast doubt on the whole document.
The witness trap in section 15 is separate and often missed. If someone who benefits under the will, or that person's husband, wife or civil partner, signs as a witness, the will can still be valid but the gift to that beneficiary is void. People frequently ask a family member who is inheriting to witness the will, which is exactly the mistake that quietly cancels their inheritance.
When is a will template safe, and when is it risky?
A template is most defensible for a small, simple estate with an obvious set of beneficiaries and nothing that complicates ownership or tax. It becomes risky as soon as there is a blended family, a business, property abroad, a taxable estate, or anyone who might contest. The table below is a practical guide, not a hard rule.
| Your situation | A template may be adequate | Professional advice usually better |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Single or married with one shared set of children | Second marriage, stepchildren, estranged relatives, someone financially dependent on you |
| Assets | One home and typical savings, held in the UK | A business or farm, a rental portfolio, or property overseas |
| Estate value | Comfortably below the tax thresholds | Above, or close to, the nil-rate band of £325,000 (frozen until 5 April 2031) |
| Wishes | Everything to one or two people outright | Trusts, conditional gifts, or planning around care fees |
| Risk of dispute | Beneficiaries agree and none is left out | You are excluding someone who might expect to inherit |
Nil-rate band figure: gov.uk, Inheritance Tax, frozen until 5 April 2031 (Budget 2025), as at August 2026, subject to change.
For a larger estate, the residence nil-rate band can add up to £175,000 when a home passes to children or grandchildren, lifting the tax-free amount to as much as £500,000 for one person or £1,000,000 for a couple. A template does none of this planning. Our guides to inheritance tax and how to write a will explain how the allowances fit together.
How will the 2025 reforms change DIY wills?
The law is changing. On 16 May 2025 the Law Commission published its final report, Modernising Wills Law, with a draft Bill intended to replace the Wills Act 1837. If enacted, the reforms would recognise electronic wills, end the rule that marriage automatically revokes a will, and lower the age for making a will from 18 to 16 (Law Commission, Wills project, accessed August 2026).
None of this is law yet. As at August 2026 the Wills Act 1837 still governs, so the signing, witnessing and marriage-revocation rules described above continue to apply to any will you make now. The reforms matter because online and template providers may market electronic or app-based wills before the law that would validate them is in force. Until Parliament acts, a will still needs wet-ink signatures and two witnesses to be safe.