Will Aid 2026: Get a Will Written, Help a Charity
Solicitors' firms across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are being urged this week to sign up for Will Aid 2026, the annual scheme that runs throughout November and lets participating solicitors write a basic will for free — with clients invited to make a voluntary donation to charity instead of paying the usual fee. Last year's campaign saw solicitors complete 8,375 wills, raising £832,000 in direct donations and an estimated £3.64 million in future charitable legacies. It's one of the simplest, lowest-cost ways to get a proper will in place, and yet more than half of UK adults still don't have one.
If you've been putting off writing a will, or haven't updated yours in years, Will Aid is a good prompt to finally deal with it — but there's more to know than just marking November in the diary.
What Will Aid Actually Covers
Will Aid pairs you with a solicitor who writes a straightforward will at no fixed fee, in return for a donation — the suggested amount is typically around £100 for a single will or £180 for a pair of mirror wills for couples, though you're free to give more or less. It's aimed at simple wills: nominating who inherits your estate, appointing executors, and naming guardians for children if needed. If your affairs are more complicated — a business, overseas assets, a blended family, or a trust you want to set up — your solicitor will tell you if your situation needs more than a basic will covers, and can advise on the right next step rather than force a simple document onto a complex estate.
Why So Many People Still Don't Have a Will
The reasons people give for avoiding this are familiar: it feels morbid, it feels expensive, or it simply never rises to the top of the to-do list. Will Aid tackles two of those three objections directly by making the cost a donation rather than a bill, and by giving the process a fixed, well-publicised window that makes it easier to actually book an appointment rather than keep meaning to. But it's worth being honest about what happens if you don't get around to it: without a valid will, your estate is distributed under the intestacy rules, which follow a fixed legal order regardless of what you'd actually have wanted. Unmarried partners, in particular, have no automatic right to inherit under intestacy, no matter how long you've lived together.
Why November Fills Up Fast
Because Will Aid only runs for one month a year, participating firms tend to book out quickly once the scheme opens. If writing your will has been on your list for a while, it's worth registering interest with a local firm now rather than waiting until November arrives, particularly if you and a partner both want mirror wills done at the same time, or if you'd rather avoid the last-minute rush in the final week of the month.
What This Means If Your Will Is Already Out of Date
Will Aid isn't only for people who've never made a will. If yours was written years ago — before a marriage, divorce, house move, or the birth of a child — it may no longer reflect what you actually want, and in some cases it may not even be legally effective. Marriage automatically revokes an earlier will in England and Wales unless the will was made specifically in contemplation of that marriage. A Will Aid appointment is a reasonable opportunity to get an old will reviewed and rewritten properly, not just to draft one for the first time.
What Should You Do Next?
Whether you need a will for the first time or your existing one needs a proper update, getting it done properly matters more than getting it done cheaply — but this scheme lets you have both. QualitySolicitors' first contact team can match you with a nearby solicitor in our network taking part in Will Aid this November, or help you get a will sorted sooner if you'd rather not wait. Get in touch and we'll point you in the right direction.