Making a Will Before a Holiday: Have You Left It Too Late?

Why a holiday is the most common reason people finally make a Will

Solicitors have known this for years: the week before a foreign trip is when people who have "been meaning to" for a decade finally pick up the phone. Travel insurance, a long flight, the whole family on one plane — something about leaving the country makes the question concrete. Nothing about flying is especially dangerous. But the instinct is sound, because the thing a Will protects against is not the holiday. It is the gap you have been living with the whole time.

The traditional advice — "see a solicitor a couple of months before you travel" — was written for a process that took a couple of months. That is not the process any more.

1. What the law actually requires (and what it doesn't)

Section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 is short. A Will is valid in England and Wales if:

• it is in writing;
• it is signed by you (or by someone else in your presence and at your direction), intending the signature to give effect to the Will;
• your signature is made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time; and
• each witness then signs in your presence.

You must also be 18 or over, of sound mind, and making the Will voluntarily. That is the whole list. There is no waiting period, no registration, no requirement that a solicitor was involved, and no rule that a Will written on Tuesday is weaker than one written over three months. A Will made in a hurry fails for exactly the same reasons a slow one does: a missing witness, a beneficiary acting as a witness, or signatures done separately rather than together. Our guide to what makes a Will legally valid covers each of these in detail.

2. The realistic timeline, hour by hour

So if you fly on Saturday, starting on Thursday evening is comfortable. Starting on Friday morning is still realistic, as long as your witnesses can be with you Friday evening or Saturday morning. The step that most often slips is the last one — people have the PDF and never print it. A Will that exists only as a file on your laptop is not a Will.

3. The three things to decide before you start

You will finish the questionnaire much faster with these settled first.

Who looks after the children

If you and your partner travel together, this is the question that matters most. Without a Will naming a guardian, the family court decides, and no relative has automatic priority. Name a guardian and, ideally, a back-up.

Who inherits if you die together

Most couples leave everything to each other. Your Will should also say what happens if your partner has died first — or at the same time. If you die intestate, a spouse must survive you by 28 days to inherit at all; a Will can set its own terms. Name the substitute beneficiaries (usually the children, and at what age) so the whole estate does not fall through to the intestacy rules. Couples usually do this with Mirror Wills.

Who sorts it all out

Your executor. Pick someone organised who is not travelling with you, and tell them where the Will is before you leave.

4. Honeymoons: your old Will has probably just been cancelled

This catches people out every summer. In England and Wales, getting married or forming a civil partnership revokes any Will you made before, unless that Will was made expressly in contemplation of the marriage. If you married this year and have not made a new Will since, you currently have no Will. The intestacy rules apply — which, for a married person with children, means your new spouse takes the first £322,000 plus half the rest, and the children share the other half, whatever you would actually have wanted.

Divorce works differently: it does not revoke the Will, but your former spouse is treated as having died before you, so gifts to them fall away. Either way, a change of marital status is a reason to make a fresh Will, and a honeymoon is as good a deadline as any.

5. The mistakes that make a last-minute Will fail

• A beneficiary (or their spouse) witnesses it. The Will survives, but that person's gift is void. Use neighbours, colleagues or friends who inherit nothing.
• Witnesses sign separately. Both must watch you sign (or acknowledge your signature) at the same time, then sign themselves while you are there. Not one on Thursday and one on Friday.
• Video witnessing. Allowed only for Wills made between 31 January 2020 and 31 January 2024. Not now. Both witnesses must be physically present.
• Signing the PDF on screen. An electronic signature is not a valid Will in England and Wales. Print it and sign in ink.
• Taking the original with you. If the Will is lost with you, your executor is left proving a copy. Leave the original at home.
• Forgetting to tell anyone. A perfectly valid Will nobody can find is, in practice, no Will.

6. What a Will does that travel insurance doesn't

Travel insurance covers medical bills, cancellation and getting you home. It has nothing to say about who inherits your house, who takes over your bank accounts, who raises your children or who is allowed to deal with the paperwork. Those questions are answered either by your Will or by the intestacy rules — and the intestacy rules make no provision at all for unmarried partners, stepchildren or friends.

7. When a quick online Will is not the right answer

Be honest with yourself here. An online Will is right for straightforward estates: a home, savings, pensions, possessions, and a clear idea of who gets what. It is the wrong tool if you own property abroad, own a business, want to set up a trust to protect a share of the house or provide for a dependant on means-tested benefits, or expect the Will to be contested. Those need a solicitor — our online Will vs solicitor guide sets out the line. If that is you, book one now and still make a simple Will to cover the gap until the full one is done: a simple valid Will is better than none.

What ClearLegacy does specifically

ClearLegacy is an online Will-writing service for England and Wales, with a separate service drafted to Northern Ireland law at ni.clearlegacy.co.uk. Fixed price, £69 for a single Will and £99 for Mirror Wills for a couple, no subscription, no upsell. The first draft arrives straight after payment and the signing-ready PDF usually within 24 hours. Every Will is checked before it's issued. ClearLegacy is a trading name of Kaizen Finance Ltd and carries professional indemnity insurance with Hiscox. It is not a firm of solicitors and does not give legal advice; if your situation is one of those in section 7, use a solicitor.

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