How Our Solicitor-Checked Wills Work

"When I founded Make a Will in 2008, my goal was simple: every family in England and Wales should be able to get a properly checked will without booking a high-street appointment. To this day, every will our software produces is read and reviewed by a qualified solicitor — me or someone on my team — before you sign it."

— Oliver Asha, Solicitor & TEP, Founder of Make a Will

Most online wills services are pure software. You answer questions, the system produces a document, you sign it. There is no human review. That's the trade-off you accept for the lower price.

That's not how Make a Will works. Every will our software produces is sent immediately to our solicitor team for a substantive review — not just a glance for typos, but a proper read of whether the will does what you intended.

If we spot something that could cause problems later, we get in touch. Before your will is final.

The four steps of every will

1. You complete the questionnaire

You answer a series of plain-English questions about your assets, your family, and your wishes. Our software builds your will using clauses and precedents drafted and maintained by our solicitor team — the same kind of language used in a will drafted in person at a high-street firm.

2. Your will is generated and delivered immediately

The moment you finish the questionnaire, your draft will is emailed to you. You don't have to wait days to see what it looks like.

3. A solicitor reviews your will (within 2 working days)

At the same moment your will is sent to you, a copy is sent to our solicitor team. A qualified solicitor reads it carefully and considers, in particular:

• Whether your gifts are clearly worded and unambiguous
• Whether your executors and substitutes are sensibly chosen and properly empowered
• Whether your guardianship arrangements (if you have minor children) are watertight
• Whether anything in your circumstances suggests you would benefit from more specialist advice — for example, complex business interests, foreign property, inheritance tax planning, or trusts arising from a second marriage with children from a previous relationship

If anything raises a concern, we contact you with our feedback within those two working days.

4. You make any amendments — and we re-check

You have 28 days from completion to consider our feedback, make any amendments, and generate a fresh set of documents. (If you have purchased our Print & Send service, you have 5 days from completion before your documents are printed and posted to you.)

Any updated will goes through the same review. Same team, same checks. There is no additional charge.

What we tell you if we spot a concern

We don't make changes to your will without your say-so. Our role is to flag, advise, and leave the decision with you. The most common things we raise:

• Ambiguous gifts — "I leave my watch to my daughter" when you have two daughters, or "I leave my car to John" when the car you own at the time of your death may not be the same one you owned when you wrote the will.
• Missing substitutes — what should happen if your chosen executor or beneficiary dies before you do?
• Specialist circumstances — if you own a business, hold property abroad, have an estate where inheritance tax planning could be valuable, have vulnerable beneficiaries, or are in a second marriage with children from a previous relationship, we may recommend you take advice from a specialist before signing.

In every case, we explain what we have spotted and why we think it is worth your attention — in plain English, no legal jargon — and you decide what to do next.

Why this matters

A will that is ambiguously worded, or that is missing a key clause, can cost your family thousands of pounds in legal fees, delay probate by months, and cause disputes between people you love. The whole point of a will is to make things easier when you are no longer there to explain what you meant.

A solicitor reviewing your will is the difference between a document and a plan that actually works.

What if I need more than an online will?

For some circumstances — trusts, business interests, property abroad, blended families, vulnerable beneficiaries, inheritance tax planning — a will needs to be drafted around your specifics rather than fitted to a questionnaire. For those cases, our solicitor consultation route uses a much deeper clause library and starts with a one-to-one conversation with a qualified solicitor on our team.

Who reviews your will

Oliver Asha — Solicitor (England & Wales, SRA 372772) and Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) — founded Make a Will in 2008. Oliver leads our solicitor review team. All of our reviewing solicitors are qualified in England and Wales and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Verify Oliver's credentials at the Law Society, the SRA register, and the STEP directory.