What Online Will Writing Actually Is
"Online will writing" covers a spectrum. At the bottom end are free template generators where you fill in blanks and receive a document the service never reviews. At the top end are services like Clear Legacy where you complete a guided questionnaire and the answers are turned into a professionally drafted will, checked against England & Wales legal requirements before it reaches you.
The legal document is identical across every tier — a will is a will, regardless of whether it was typed by a solicitor or generated from a questionnaire. What varies is the quality of the drafting, the compliance checks, and whether anyone with expertise ever looks at your answers.
How Clear Legacy's Online Will Works — 6 Steps
Start the questionnaire
No account creation. Answer a few opening questions to confirm your situation fits a standard England & Wales will. Takes about 2 minutes.
Tell us about you and your family
Name, address, marital status, any children or dependants. All data is encrypted in transit and stored on UK servers.
Choose your beneficiaries and executors
Who inherits what, in what order, and what happens if a beneficiary dies before you do. You can name specific gifts (a piece of jewellery, a sum of money, a property) or split the estate by percentage.
Review and pay the fixed fee
See a plain-English summary before you pay. £69 for a single will. Card payment secured by Stripe. No subscription, no upsells.
Your will is drafted and compliance-checked
A professionally drafted document is produced from your answers and reviewed for validity under the Wills Act 1837. You receive the PDF within 24 hours.
Print, sign and store
Print the will, sign it in front of two independent adult witnesses (who must not be beneficiaries or spouses of beneficiaries) who then sign themselves. Store the original somewhere safe and tell your executors where it is.
Benefits of Writing Your Will Online
- No office visits. You never have to take a day off work or sit in a solicitor's waiting room.
- Take your time. Save your progress, walk away, come back to it. The questionnaire doesn't rush you like a 45-minute solicitor meeting does.
- See it in plain English before you commit. Every answer produces a preview of how it'll read in the final document.
- Mobile-friendly. The whole questionnaire works on a phone — useful if you want to make decisions with a partner present.
- No surprise fees. The £69 fee is the whole price of a single will. Updates, storage and executor appointments aren't hidden extras.
Is an Online Will Legally Valid in the UK?
Yes — provided it is drafted correctly, signed by you, and signed by two independent adult witnesses in your presence. Those are the requirements of the Wills Act 1837 and they apply identically to a will written online and one written in a solicitor's office. The document becomes legally valid the moment those three things happen; it does not need to be registered, stamped, certified or lodged anywhere.
Two practical points often missed:
- The will must be in writing. "In writing" means printed or handwritten on paper. A signed PDF on a screen does not meet the requirement. You must print the document and sign the physical copy.
- Witnesses cannot be beneficiaries. If a witness is a beneficiary (or the spouse of a beneficiary), their gift is void — though the rest of the will stands. Use two independent witnesses: a neighbour, a colleague, or any adult who isn't inheriting.
Security and Privacy
Your will is one of the most sensitive documents you will ever produce. Clear Legacy handles your data according to UK GDPR:
- All data encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest.
- Storage on UK servers.
- No third-party data brokers, no advertising pixels attached to your personal details.
- You can request deletion of your stored data at any time.
- Payment handled by Stripe — we never see or store your card details.
Online Will vs Traditional Solicitor
| Online (Clear Legacy) | High-Street Solicitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to complete | 15 minutes + 24-hour turnaround | 2 meetings over 2–6 weeks |
| Cost (single will) | £69 | £400–£900 |
| Where it happens | Anywhere with internet | Solicitor's office |
| Mobile-friendly | Yes | No |
| Storage included | Yes, no annual fee | Often £10–£30 per year |
| Updates and amendments | Small fixed fee | £75–£400 |
| Complex estate support | Flagged during questionnaire | Included in hourly rate |
When Online Will Writing Isn't Right for You
Online is the right answer for a standard estate. For the following, speak to a solicitor:
- Business assets — limited company shares, partnerships, sole trader assets requiring succession planning.
- Overseas property, non-UK domicile, or multi-jurisdiction estate.
- Complex blended families (second marriages with stepchildren from earlier relationships) where you need life interest trusts.
- Estates likely to exceed the inheritance tax threshold where active planning could meaningfully reduce the liability.
- Concerns about capacity challenges (for example, recent dementia diagnoses) where contemporaneous medical evidence should be gathered.
For everyone else — the majority — a fixed-fee online will is the same legal document at a fraction of the price.