Free Wills: is the saving worth the risk?

Last verified: September 2026 | England and Wales 

There is no such thing as a free lunch, as the saying goes. A free Will may genuinely cost you nothing to obtain. But if it leaves an important family need unprotected, the saving can be a poor bargain.

Our advice is to choose the depth of advice and protection your family needs before choosing the price. A basic document can leave out the very arrangement you thought it would secure. You may discover the gap while there is time to put it right. Your family may discover it only after your death.

Some free services can meet genuinely straightforward needs. Our concern comes from reviewing and replacing free Wills where the consultation or resulting document fell short of what the client wanted to achieve.

Fern Wills & LPAs provides a paid service built around that fuller conversation. Contact Fern to discuss a new Will, or a Will MOT if you already have one.

The risk behind the offer

The most important question is not whether you will receive a Will. It is whether that Will will do the job you expect.

• A limited consultation can miss family circumstances that change the advice.
• Trust planning or other protection may fall outside the free service.
• An optional donation can still feel like an obligation.
• Extra work can turn a free starting point into a substantial bill.

A signed document can create confidence without providing the protection behind that confidence. That is the risk worth avoiding.

Who is paying for your free Will?

Someone funds the work. A charity may pay for a defined service in the hope of future gifts. An employer, union or membership organisation may include it as a benefit. A commercial provider may use a free offer to introduce its services.

Those arrangements explain why the initial document may be free. They do not establish that every part of your estate planning is included. The scheme’s scope, exclusions and funding matter more than the word on the advertisement.

Charity-funded offers can expressly cover only simple Wills, with more complex work charged separately. Before committing, find out what the offer covers and what happens if the consultation reveals needs outside it.

What a short questionnaire can miss

Chris Watts, Fern’s owner, explains: “When replacing free Wills, I have spent around 90 minutes taking instructions and discussing the implications. Some of those clients told me that their earlier questions had been completed within about 15 minutes.”

Those are experiences from Chris’s own work, not industry averages. The concern is what was explored in the time available. A longer appointment earns its value when it identifies an issue that a quick set of answers would miss.

A full fact-find is a conversation about your circumstances and the outcome you want. It should explore who depends on you, how you own your assets and what could happen after the first intended beneficiary dies.

For example: would an outright inheritance suit a beneficiary who struggles to manage money? Are there children from an earlier relationship? Should someone be able to live in your home while its value is preserved for someone else? Who takes over if your first choice of executor cannot act?

If the adviser never asks, you may never know there was a decision to make. “I only need a simple Will” should be a conclusion reached after that discussion, not the starting assumption.

A valid Will can still miss the point

Consider this illustration, rather than a report of a particular client or provider.

A married couple each have children from an earlier relationship. They want the survivor to remain secure in the home, while preserving each parent’s share for their own children later. They accept basic mirror Wills leaving everything outright to each other, then to the children.

The documents may be legally valid, but that arrangement does not secure both objectives. After the first death, the survivor owns the inherited assets outright. Their circumstances and wishes can change, and they can normally change their own Will. The first parent’s children do not have a protected inheritance merely because both Wills originally named them.

A suitable Property Life Interest Trust can address that particular gap. It allows the survivor to use the deceased’s share of the home under the Will’s terms, while trustees hold that share for the eventual beneficiaries. Trustees are the people responsible for managing the trust assets and following its terms.

The ownership must support the plan. A home held as beneficial joint tenants passes automatically to the survivor outside the Will. Holding defined shares as tenants in common allows each owner’s share to pass under their Will. The Will and the ownership arrangements need to work together.

This is why omitting trust advice can mean omitting the protection the client actually wanted. A document that simply names the right people is not enough.

A trust also brings trustee responsibilities, administration and possible professional costs after death. Its terms and tax treatment need to suit the family. Married and civil partners have different Inheritance Tax treatment from unmarried partners. The executors and trustees must bring the trust into operation after death; the signed Will alone does not complete that work. Our guide to Will trust costs and responsibilities explains the wider considerations.

When free becomes paid

Once the fuller picture emerges, you may be offered additional drafting, trust planning or a wider package. That work may be worthwhile. The difficulty is discovering the real scope and cost only after the free offer has drawn you into the process.

By then, you have spent time explaining your circumstances and may feel reluctant to start again. An upgrade can become the easiest decision rather than a properly compared one.

Before accepting extra work, establish what it achieves, why it is recommended and the complete fee. Distinguish necessary work from optional extras. Compare the whole service with a paid provider before committing, while you still have a clear choice.

If important protection costs extra, the useful comparison is between the complete solutions. The free starting price tells you very little about that.

Charitable giving should be on your terms

There is a difference between having no contractual requirement to donate and feeling that you ought to. A scheme can describe a gift as optional while a client still feels uncomfortable accepting the service without giving something back.

Check the actual terms, but also consider how the process makes you feel. A charitable gift should reflect your wishes and the needs of your family, rather than gratitude, embarrassment or pressure from the person preparing your Will.

Paid Wills can, and often do, include charitable gifts. You do not need to use a free scheme to support a cause you care about.

There can be Inheritance Tax advantages too. Gifts to qualifying charities are generally exempt, and leaving at least 10% of the relevant estate calculation to charity can reduce the tax rate on the qualifying part from 40% to 36%. The threshold uses a defined “baseline amount”, so it is not simply 10% of everything you own.

Any tax benefit should be considered alongside what your chosen gift leaves for your family. The charity, the amount and whether to give at all remain your decisions. Your Will writer should explain the choices and identify where specialist tax advice is needed, then respect your instructions.

The questions do not end with the document

An employee offered a Will through work still needs to establish what the benefit covers. The employer’s involvement does not answer questions about the employee’s children, partner or property. Convenience cannot replace that assessment.

Likewise, a widowed parent with an older Will may need replacement executors or revised property arrangements. Another basic document will not solve those issues unless someone identifies them.

Ask how the original Will will be kept safe and retrieved, and what later changes will cost. If a professional executor is proposed, understand the choice and the future charges to the estate. An executor administers your estate after death; appointing a professional is not a requirement for a valid Will.

A Will also does not authorise someone to make decisions for you during your lifetime. Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) perform that separate role. A complete planning conversation should identify relevant gaps, with any further work explained and agreed separately.

Before accepting a free Will

• Will someone explore my family, assets and wishes in enough depth to identify what I may have missed?
• What advice and drafting are excluded, particularly if a trust or property arrangement is needed?
• What is the total cost of the recommended solution, including any continuing services?
• Am I being asked to make a donation, leave a legacy or appoint a professional executor, and is that genuinely my choice?
• Can the adviser explain how the Will achieves the particular protection I want?

If the answers are vague, or your needs sit outside the offer, our recommendation is to choose a properly scoped paid service. Saving the initial fee is not worth relying on a Will that leaves the main job undone.

Can a free Will be legally valid?

Yes. Payment is not what makes a Will valid. The legal requirements must be met. The concern here is that a valid Will can still fail to achieve the family protection you intended.

Do free Wills include trusts?

Check the particular offer. A simple-Will service may include basic provisions for children but exclude the more involved trust planning your family needs. Ask whether the relevant advice and drafting are included, rather than accepting “trusts included” as a complete answer.

Should I replace a Will just because it was free?

Start with a review of what it actually does. If the original advice was brief or your family arrangements were not fully explored, that is a good reason to have it checked. A Will MOT identifies issues against your current wishes and circumstances, with written findings and next steps. Keep the original safe while the review takes place.

Does paying guarantee a better Will?

No. Look for a thorough consultation, clear explanations, appropriate drafting and a defined service. Those are the things worth paying for. A higher price without them does not solve the problem.

Choose advice that earns its fee

Fern does not offer free Wills. We charge for understanding your circumstances, explaining the choices and preparing a Will that reflects your decisions.

Our Standard Will service includes personal consultations and a draft for review. Where your objectives call for trust planning, our Protection Packages provide the relevant Will-based options. We explain their purpose and implications so you can make an informed choice. Fern does not act as trustee or register or administer trusts; we can introduce appropriate specialists where needed.

You should understand the service and fee before proceeding, with fixed pricing and a written quote. For current fees, please see Services & Fees.

Contact Fern to discuss the outcome you want for your family. If you already have a free Will, tell us what you expected it to protect. That is the right starting point for deciding whether it does the job.

This article is general information only, not individual advice.