Every will-writing conversation I've had starts the same way. People know they should have one, and have a vague sense it's complicated, so it never quite gets scheduled. What gets lost in that delay is that "no will" isn't a blank space the law leaves for your family to sort out sensibly. It's a fixed set of rules, and they rarely match what people would have actually chosen.
If both parents die without a will, guardianship of any children goes through the courts rather than automatically to whoever the family assumes will step in. Until a court appoints someone, children can end up in temporary care while it's sorted, which is exactly the outcome most parents assume could never apply to their own kids.
If you have a spouse or civil partner and children, English intestacy rules give your spouse the first £325,000 of the estate plus half of whatever's left, and split the remaining half among your children. That happens whether you'd have chosen that split or not, and it can leave a surviving spouse with far less flexibility than most couples assume they already have.
If nobody in a fairly wide list of relatives survives you, the estate goes to the Crown. It's rare, but it's simply what happens by default when nobody's been named.
None of this is a scare story. It's just the default, and defaults are rarely a good substitute for an actual decision.
Writing a will forces four decisions, and they're worth understanding properly rather than filling them in on a template without thinking them through.
Guardians. Who looks after your children if you're not there to. If you've moved to the UK from somewhere else and don't have family close by, it's worth naming someone local who can step in immediately, alongside a permanent guardian further away, rather than leaving a gap while everyone works out logistics from a different country.
Executors. Whoever administers the estate: collecting assets, settling debts, and distributing what's left according to the will. Choosing someone based in the UK makes the practical side considerably easier, since most of it involves UK institutions, courts, and paperwork. Name a backup in case your first choice isn't able to act when the time comes.
Trustees. If any part of the will involves a trust, holding money for children until they're older, for example, trustees are the people legally responsible for managing it in line with what you've specified. This is often the same people as your executors, but doesn't have to be.
Reserve beneficiaries. Named alternatives if your first-choice beneficiaries aren't alive to inherit. Without one named, that share risks falling back to the same intestacy rules you were trying to avoid by writing a will in the first place.
Most people only need one of three options, and the difference is mainly about complexity, not how careful you're being.
A basic will covers guardianship, who gets what, and funeral wishes. Fine for most people with straightforward finances and no complicated conditions on how they want things passed on.
A trust-based will adds control over timing and conditions, most commonly used so children inherit gradually rather than getting full access to everything the moment they turn 18. Worth considering if your children are young, or your estate is large enough that a lump sum at 18 isn't what you'd actually choose for them.
Full estate planning layers inheritance tax strategy on top of the basics, which matters more as an estate grows and circumstances change, and tends to be more relevant later in life than when you're first putting a will in place.
Trust rules shift over time, so if a trust genuinely is the right call for your situation, it's worth getting a professional involved rather than relying on a template to get the wording right.
A will only helps if it can actually be found and proven valid when it's needed. Keeping the original at home is fine if it's genuinely secure, though most will-writing services also offer paid storage with a reference copy kept on file. HM Courts and Tribunals Service offers official storage for a small fee too, and can issue the certificate an executor needs to act on your behalf.
Review it every five years as a baseline, or sooner if any of these happen:
A UK will can sometimes cover assets held abroad, but whether it actually works depends on the other country's own inheritance laws, and those vary enormously. For a country with genuinely complex succession rules, a separate, local will for assets held there is usually simpler than trying to make one UK document stretch across two legal systems. It's a case where a short conversation with someone who knows both jurisdictions saves a lot more than it costs.
None of this replaces proper advice, especially anywhere a trust or a second country is involved. What Gild can do is make the practical side easy for whoever's named in your will: one place that already shows every account, pension, and asset you hold, so an executor isn't starting from a blank page and a guess at what you actually owned.
Everything in one place: your banks, pensions, investments, and goals.
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