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DIY will vs solicitor

The question is rarely whether to make a will — leaving an estate to be distributed under the intestacy rules is almost always a worse outcome than even an imperfect will — but how. There are five realistic routes, ranging from £10 to £1,500+, and the right choice depends on the complexity of the estate and the family. The most expensive option is not always the best, but the cheapest is rarely a fair fight against the risk of an invalid or contested will. [source: gov-uk/make-will-2026-05-02.html]

This guide compares the five options on cost, suitability, regulatory protection, and the most common ways each one can go wrong. It complements Making a will (which covers the legal formalities and what to put in the will).

If you can only do one thing today: list the things in the estate that aren't simple — a business interest, property abroad, a blended family, an unmarried partner, an estate likely to attract inheritance tax. If any of these apply, a solicitor is almost certainly worth the money. If none do, an online service or a charity-scheme will is usually adequate.

The five options at a glance

Option Indicative cost Speed Complexity it can handle Regulatory protection
DIY kit £10–£30 Hours Very simple only None
Online service £90–£300 Days Simple to moderate Limited
Will-writing company (in person) £150–£400 Days Simple to moderate Variable (none unless via IPW or SWW)
Solicitor £150–£600+ Days–weeks All situations Full SRA regulation + indemnity
Free / charity scheme £0 (donation suggested) Weeks Simple only Full SRA (delivered by participating solicitors)
[source: gov-uk/make-will-2026-05-02.html]

Option 1 — DIY kit

Indicative cost: £10–£30 for a will kit. A printed template from a high-street stationer or an online PDF, completed by hand and signed in front of two witnesses. Defensible only for very simple estates: no children, no business, one home, a small number of accounts, a clear single beneficiary.

Common failure modes:

  • Witness who is also a beneficiary. The most frequent error. The Wills Act 1837 voids any gift to a witness or a witness's spouse; the rest of the will stands, so the testator dies thinking they have provided for someone who in fact gets nothing.
  • Vague language. "My personal effects to be divided fairly between my children" gives the executor nothing to act on; specific items go missing or fall into dispute.
  • Failure to revoke the previous will. If a draft from years ago survives, the absence of a revocation clause leaves room for argument about which document controls.
  • Witness formalities. Both witnesses must be present at the same time as the signing; signing in different rooms or on different days invalidates the will.

A DIY kit done carefully and read against the Making a will checklist is legally indistinguishable from a solicitor's will. The risk is that errors are usually only discovered after the testator has died, when nothing can be fixed.

Option 2 — Online will service

Indicative cost: £90–£300 for a single will. Providers such as Farewill and Co-op Legal Services offer a guided questionnaire, professional review of the answers, and witnessing support (postal kit or facilitated video, depending on provider). Suitable for simple to moderate situations: a home, a few accounts, children, perhaps a small charitable gift. Most providers charge a small annual fee (often £10/year) for unlimited updates after the first year — see the will entity for the validity rules every provider must satisfy.

What the online service does well: structures the questions sensibly; catches the witness-as-beneficiary trap; produces a clean, properly drafted will in under an hour; handles storage and update reminders.

What it does less well: business or trust structures, blended-family complexity, property abroad, inheritance-tax planning. Most providers will refer the testator to a solicitor where the questionnaire reveals complexity beyond their range; some will not, and the resulting will may leave the difficult issues unaddressed.

Option 3 — Will-writing company in person

Indicative cost: £150–£400 for a single will. Independent practitioners — usually working from a local office — who are not solicitors and not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Anyone can call themselves a will writer; there is no statutory licensing requirement. Two voluntary professional bodies provide standards and oversight:

  • The Institute of Professional Willwriters (IPW) requires its members to hold professional indemnity insurance of at least £2 million for any will they draft, complete a Disclosure and Barring Service check, and follow an approved Code of Practice.
  • The Society of Will Writers (SWW) operates a comparable membership scheme.

Members of either body offer a meaningful step up from an unregulated will writer; non-members offer no enforceable standards or recourse. Before instructing, ask explicitly which body the writer belongs to, ask to see proof of professional indemnity insurance, and ask what the firm's complaints procedure is.

Strengths: face-to-face advice; often cheaper than a solicitor for a simple will; useful where a local relationship matters.

Weaknesses: variable quality; less regulatory protection than a solicitor; less recourse if something goes wrong; cannot give tax advice in the way a regulated solicitor can. will

Option 4 — Solicitor

Indicative cost: £150–£600+ for a will. A regulated professional with full Solicitors Regulation Authority oversight and compulsory professional indemnity insurance. The cost ranges:

  • Simple single will: £150–£300 at most high-street firms.
  • Mirror wills for a couple (substantively identical, leaving everything to each other then to children): £245–£400, often with a small couple discount.
  • Complex will: £500–£1,500 and up — trusts for minor or vulnerable beneficiaries, business succession, agricultural property, property abroad, cross-jurisdiction issues, deliberate disinheritance, nil-rate band / residence nil-rate band planning. will

A solicitor typically takes a full instruction (often 1–2 hours), drafts the will, arranges witnessing, and stores the original. The cost reflects what the solicitor catches that a template cannot: inheritance-tax exposure, the risk of a contentious-probate or Inheritance Act claim, the interaction with LPAs and pension nominations, and the practical needs of the named executors.

When the cost is most clearly justified:

  • Owning or part-owning a business.
  • Property in more than one UK jurisdiction (the differences between English and Scottish succession law are large enough that a solicitor in only one is not enough).
  • Property outside the UK (foreign succession law usually requires separate or coordinated planning).
  • Blended family or estranged adult children.
  • An estate likely to attract inheritance tax — the standard nil-rate band is £325,000, with up to £175,000 in additional residence nil-rate band for a qualifying main home passing to direct descendants, and transferable allowances between spouses or civil partners.
  • Trusts (for minor children, vulnerable beneficiaries, or tax planning).

Option 5 — Free or charity-funded schemes

Three routes deliver a will at no out-of-pocket cost, drafted by a fully-qualified solicitor under SRA regulation:

  • Free Wills Month runs every March and October. Participating solicitors waive fees for people aged 55 and over who need a simple will, in exchange for the chance to suggest a charitable bequest (no obligation to leave one). Booking opens shortly before each campaign window and tends to fill quickly.
  • Will Aid runs every November. Participating solicitors waive fees in exchange for a suggested donation to nine partner charities — typically £120 for a single will, £200 for mirror wills.
  • Charity will services run year-round. Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, hospices, and a wide range of other charities partner with solicitor firms to offer free wills to supporters who agree to consider a charitable gift; most do not require one.

The catch in every case is that these schemes are limited to simple wills. Anything that needs trust drafting, business succession, or cross-jurisdiction work is referred out and falls back to the standard solicitor fee.

When professional help is not optional

The DIY-and-online options are sufficient for most ordinary estates. For the following, a solicitor is the safer and usually the only realistic choice:

  • Disinheriting a close family member. Adult children, spouses, civil partners, and certain dependants can challenge a will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. A solicitor can draft a contemporaneous statement explaining the testator's reasons and structure the will to reduce the risk of a successful claim.
  • Business succession. Shareholder agreements, partnership deeds, and the need for the surviving family to receive value (without disrupting the business) interact with the will in ways that templates cannot handle.
  • Trusts. Discretionary trusts, life-interest trusts for a surviving spouse, vulnerable-beneficiary trusts, and bare trusts for minor children all require specialist drafting; mistakes cause tax problems for the trustees and legal problems for the beneficiaries.
  • Inheritance-tax planning. Anything that tries to use lifetime gifts, reliefs (Business Relief, Agricultural Relief), or charitable-gift IHT-rate reductions needs a solicitor with current tax knowledge.
  • Multi-jurisdiction estates. Property or family in Scotland materially changes the will because of legal rights on the moveable estate; property abroad almost always requires a separate will in that jurisdiction or careful coordination.

When DIY or online is genuinely fine

If all of the following are true, the marginal benefit of a solicitor is small:

  • The estate is straightforward — a home, a small number of accounts, no business interests.
  • The family situation is simple — a spouse, children, no estrangement.
  • No property outside the UK.
  • The testator understands the witnessing rules for their jurisdiction (see Making a will).
  • The estate is well below the nil-rate band threshold or the inheritance-tax position is otherwise simple.

Even then, an online service is usually a small step up from a kit for not much more money — the structured questionnaire and the professional review materially reduce the risk of a careless error.

How to find the right solicitor

  • Use the Law Society's Find a Solicitor tool. Search by area and specialism (private client; wills, trusts and probate). Members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) have an additional specialist qualification.
  • Check the firm's day-to-day work. Ask how many wills the firm drafts in a typical month. Fewer than five and the firm is probably not specialist enough for anything beyond a simple will.
  • Insist on a written fixed-fee quote. Get the quote in writing before instructing. Confirm what is included — storage of the original, a review meeting after a year, future amendments at a defined price, and the firm's succession arrangements if it closes.
  • Get more than one quote. Prices vary widely; £150 at one firm and £350 at another for substantively the same work is common. The cheapest is not always the best, but the most expensive is not necessarily the most thorough either.
  • For Scottish connections, instruct a Scottish solicitor. Scottish succession law (legal rights on the moveable estate) is materially different and not part of an English solicitor's training. The intestacy rules guide covers the Scottish position.

What goes wrong when the will goes wrong

A poorly drafted will costs the family real money and real time. The most common failure modes:

  • Contested probate. A challenge on grounds of want of capacity, undue influence, or improper execution can run to tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs and take years to resolve.
  • Invalid gifts. Witness-as-beneficiary problems, ambiguous specific gifts, gifts to people who have predeceased without a substitution clause.
  • Inheritance Act claims. A spouse, civil partner, child, cohabitee of more than 2 years, or other dependant who has been left out (or left less than they would expect) can apply for reasonable financial provision under the 1975 Act.
  • Inheritance tax that could have been reduced. Estates above the nil-rate band without appropriate planning can pay 40% on the excess where careful drafting and lifetime planning would have reduced or eliminated the bill.
  • Executor confusion. Unclear authority, executor-and-beneficiary conflicts of interest, and missing or unrealistic instructions force the executor to take their own legal advice at the estate's expense.

The cost of a properly drafted will is a fraction of the cost of any of these.

What this guide doesn't cover

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Next: Inheritance tax

Last verified: 2 May 2026 against gov.uk/make-will.