Protect your family with an online will

Yes. As long as your wishes are simple, there’s no need to hire a solicitor to draw up your will. It’s perfectly legal to create your own will without the help of a legal professional. And we believe our service is the best way to create an online will in the UK.

Our online will maker will create a valid and binding will, so long as you meet the usual requirements for any UK will (online or otherwise):

• You’re aged 18+. Only adults can make a valid will.
• You make the online will voluntarily. A will you’re forced to make doesn’t count.
• You are ‘of sound mind’ when you make it. You need to be mentally capable of understanding and agreeing to the wishes stated in the will.
• The will is written. Or printed off, in this case. Oral wills (where you just speak to someone about what you want to happen) aren’t considered valid in the UK.
• The will is signed in front of two witnesses. These witnesses need to be 18 or over, and can’t be people who will benefit from the will in any way.
• The will is signed by those two witnesses. To prove they were there, essentially.

Our online will service generates a simple (also known as ‘basic’) will. This states what you would like to happen to your estate when you die, names an executor(s), and nominates guardians for your pets and children in the event of your death.

A complex will is recommended for very large and/or complicated estates, where you might want to set up trusts, lay out wishes that are complicated or contentious, or take certain steps to reduce inheritance tax. If you think you need a complex will, you can call us on 0800 054 9793 to get a quote.

When you die without a will (also known as dying ‘intestate’), your estate goes to your ‘next of kin’ - this is the person legally considered to be your closest family member. This is usually your husband or wife, or (if you are unmarried) your children.

If you have no family members to inherit, the Crown will keep everything. If you make an online will with Beyond, you can ensure your partner is protected even if you’re not married and that specific items, pets and amounts are given to the right people.

Our online will writing service lets you pass on your:

• Money
• Property or land
• Specific belongings
• Stocks and shares

It’s worth remembering that certain fees, debts and taxes may need to be paid before beneficiaries can inherit, so any exact monetary gifts may differ in the end.

Our couple’s will is actually two separate wills, one for the original will writer and one for their partner. It’s not a joint or mirror will: both of you will be able to make a personalised will that reflects your separate wishes, only matching each other where you agree.

Our couple’s will costs just £135, which is £45 less than making two individual wills, and hundreds less than a solicitor usually charges.

Once you’ve completed your own will, you can choose to purchase a couple’s will. We’ll then email your partner and guide them through writing their will.

Your partner won’t be able to see your online will, but we will intelligently prefill some details (things like children and beneficiary contact information) based on what you entered to save them time.

Once your partner has completed their will and checked everything, they can download their will without having to make a payment.

Once you’ve finished writing your will online, you need to print it off, sign it with two witnesses, then store it. You have a few options for this:

• At home. This is free, but it’s important to keep your will somewhere secure and memorable. You don’t want to accidentally throw it away.
• With us. If you choose our £10 a year subscription, we’ll store a physical copy of your will, and update it for you if any changes to the law make the wording outdated. We’ll also register your will with Certainty, the National Will Register, so your family can find your will easily when the time comes.
• With the Probate Service. If you’re in England or Wales, you can store your will with the government’s Probate Service for £20.
• With a legal professional. You can also keep your will with a solicitor or will writing service, usually for a fee. You should always ask the professional who writes your will to register it on Certainty.

Remember: It’s very important not to store your will in a bank safety deposit box. The bank might not be able to release the contents of the safety deposit box without a grant of probate, and a will is required to apply for a grant of probate.

A hundred feet beneath the soil, in a fully managed, professionally converted WW2 bunker. We’re not kidding. It’s floodproof, fireproof, and proof against all kinds of other risks: the perfect place for sensitive documents.

Simply send your will by recorded delivery to Beyond Wills, 3 Loughborough Street, London, SE11 5RB. We’ll confirm receipt and store your will in our secure facility.

The government recommends that you update your will every five years at least. It’s also important to change your will whenever there’s a significant change in your life, such as when:

• A new child is born.
• You get married, engaged, or divorced.
• You buy, inherit, or move into a new house.
• One of the people mentioned in your original will dies, or becomes less suitable (such as the executor dying, or guardians moving away or splitting up).
• You have something new that you’d like to pass on.
• You change your mind about who should inherit what (it happens).

Our optional £10 a year subscription service lets you log in and update your will using your saved details any time. Think of it as having an online will kit at your fingertips for whenever life turns a corner.

When it comes to your personal data, we can only see your name and your email address, which we use to contact you when your will’s ready to be downloaded.

Some other general stats (namely the number of people who’ve made and downloaded a will, and the total amount left by all our users to specific charities) are tracked, but the data is anonymised - stripped of any identifying information. This means we don’t know who the people involved are: it’s just a way to understand how we’re doing.

The executor of your will is responsible for making sure that your wishes are carried out and that your estate is settled properly after you die. The executor of your online will can be anyone aged 18 or over. They don’t have to be a solicitor, and they can be a beneficiary as well as an executor. You can also have multiple executors. People often choose their partner and/or their children. The important thing is to choose someone you trust. This role can, however, be a significant amount of work and stress for a loved one, so we offer a fixed-fee hassle-free executor service, which you can choose during the will-writing process.

When you choose a guardian for your children in your online will, you’re choosing who will look after them if both you and their other parent die before they turn 18.

A guardian for a pet is a similar thing, but with pets (who can’t come of age, and don’t have other ‘parents’ - at least, officially speaking), you are choosing a guardian for as long as your pet survives.

Guardians can also be executors and beneficiaries.

Your beneficiaries are the people you choose to inherit some part of your estate when creating your will. Anyone - apart from the two witnesses who sign your will - can be a beneficiary.

• A legally binding will. Our will language is approved by STEP-qualified solicitors. Our smart interactive tool takes your answers and uses them to craft a personalised will that, once signed and witnessed, will be legally binding.
• Every will checked. Our in-house legal experts double check every will. If we spot anything amiss in your will, we’ll let you know within 7 days.
• Registered with the National Will Register. We register your will with the National Will Register. This service, which usually costs £30, offers a way for your family to find your will easily after your death, even if you don’t tell them where it is now.
• Live support. Stuck mid-way through your will? We’re here to answer all your questions. Just call or message our team for a helping hand.

• Update your will whenever you like. Just moved house, or welcomed a new addition to the family? With our optional £10 a year will storage subscription, you can save the details of your will online and log in and update it any time. You can cancel any time from your account.
• Safe storage, forever. We’ll keep a physical copy of your will safe so that you don’t have to worry about losing or damaging it as the years go by.
• Updates to the law. We keep a sharp eye on any legislation that might affect wills. If you’re a subscriber, we’ll get in touch to let you know if any new law will have an impact on your will, and what to do about it.