About you

• Your name
• Your address
• Your date of birth
• Your marital status
• The name of your spouse or civil partner (or partner if they are to be included in the Will)
• The names of your children (if you have any)

A list of your property and accounts

Your Will needs to contain information on all the property, possessions and assets you own. These may include:

• Your home
• Any other properties you own
• Motor vehicles
• Personal possessions such as jewellery, antiques, electronic devices and furniture
• Your bank and building society accounts 
• National Savings accounts such as Premium Bonds
• Any life assurance, endowment policies or pension funds that include a lump sum payment on your death
• Investments such as stocks and shares or investment trusts
• Pets

When you write your Will, we will ask you to tell us which type of asset you are listing (such as a bank account), and the basic details, for example ‘Bank Account with Barclays’, or ‘Tag Heuer 1886 Calibre Monaco Watch’.

You should also list any items that hold sentimental value to you and that you would like to pass on to someone, even if they do not hold much monetary value. 

Creating an inventory of all the accounts and possessions you own in this way ensures they are easy to find when the time comes for them to be passed on. 

Your intentions on how you wish to divide up your estate

The next stage in the process is to decide how you would like to share out your estate. ‘Estate’ is simply the legal term for everything you own; the property, possessions and assets that make up what you want to leave in your Will.

You will need to make it clear what you would like to happen to your estate when you die. To do that you need to say:

• Who you would like to benefit from your Will (in legal terms these people are known as your ‘beneficiaries’)
• Whether you would like to make individual gifts to your beneficiaries, or divide your whole estate into shares
• What you would like to happen to any parts of your estate not specifically gifted to anyone (this is known as your ‘residual estate’)
• If any of your first choice beneficiaries (known as your ‘primary beneficiaries’) were to die before you, who their shares should go to instead. Those beneficiaries are known as ‘secondary beneficiaries’.

You may decide to leave some of your estate to a charity, in which case you must include the charity’s full name, address and registered charity number.

The details of any specific gifts you wish to give

If you have chosen to leave particular items of your possessions to someone, you will be asked to give details, including: 

• What the gift is (for example, your watch)
• Who the gift is for (their full name and contact details)

You do not have to leave items in this way, but it can be a nice way to show you were thinking about someone in particular, and can give you peace of mind that items which were valuable to you in some way, will be passed to someone who will appreciate them. 

You can read more about what you can, and cannot, leave as gifts under UK law, here. 

The names of legal guardians for your children

If you have children aged under 18, you should consider using your Will to name legal guardians for them. By naming legal guardians for any minor children you have, you can ensure they will be cared for by a person, or people, of your choosing in the event that you and their other natural parent should die. You need to think very carefully about who you choose for this role as they would have responsibility for all the important decisions in your children’s lives until they reach the age of 18. 

If you fail to appoint guardians in your Will and your children are orphaned before they reach 18, the courts will appoint guardians for them. But remember, they won’t necessarily be the people you would have chosen to take care of your children. 

When naming guardians, you must include their full names, their dates of birth, and their contact details including their home address, their telephone number, and their email address. You can read more about appointing legal guardians here.

The names of your executors

An ‘executor’ is someone you name in your Will to ensure that your wishes are carried out as per your instructions. They are responsible for settling all your accounts when you have died, ensuring that your beneficiaries receive their inheritance, and for carrying out any other instructions you leave behind. It is advisable to name more than one executor in your Will, just in case one should die before you or otherwise be unable to carry out the role. You should always talk to the people you intend to name as executors at the time of writing your Will, to ensure they understand the role and that they are happy to take on such a position of responsibility.

You can read more about who you can legally appoint as executors here. 

Details of your funeral instructions (if you have specific wishes)

This one is not essential, but some people use their Will to detail how they would like their funeral to be conducted. If you have specific wishes for you funeral, you may wish to include:

• What kind of ceremony you would like
• Any particular readings or songs you would like included
• How you would like people to dress
• Details of any pre-paid funeral plan you have arranged

You can read more about making funeral plans here.