What Not to Put in a Will

What has no legal force in a will?

Funeral wishes, explanations, and personal messages to your family are not legally binding, even when a will states them plainly. Your executors are free to follow them, but no court will compel it.

Funeral and burial preferences are the clearest example: they carry moral weight with your family, not legal weight, and by the time the will is read the funeral has often already happened. The same applies to reasons for your decisions and personal messages. None of it is enforceable, and putting it in the will can make the document longer and more expensive to administer without adding anything binding. A separate letter of wishes, stored with the will, is where these belong, since it guides your family without cluttering the legal document. Later changes have their own place too: amendments go in a properly executed codicil or a new will, never as informal notes added to the signed document.

Which assets should not go in a will?

Anything that passes to someone else automatically on your death should be left out, because your will has no power over it. Naming it in the will creates confusion, not control.

Property you own as joint tenants passes straight to the surviving co-owner by survivorship, whatever your will says, as gov.uk’s wills and inheritance guidance explains. Pension death benefits usually follow the nomination form held by the scheme, not the will. Life insurance policies written in trust pay out directly to the named beneficiary and never enter your estate. Jointly held bank accounts typically pass to the survivor too. Trying to gift any of these in your will does not override the automatic route, and the contradiction can trigger exactly the dispute a will is meant to prevent. There is also no need to list your debts or direct how taxes are paid. Your estate settles debts and any inheritance tax before beneficiaries receive anything, by law, whether or not the will mentions it. Check how each asset is held first, and only deal with what your will can actually control.

Can you leave something you do not fully own?

No. You can only leave what you own outright and solely, so jointly owned or part-owned assets cannot be given away in full through your will. A gift of something you do not own simply fails.

Your share of a property held as tenants in common can be left in your will, but the whole property cannot if someone else owns part of it. Business assets tied up in a partnership or shareholders’ agreement may be governed by that agreement rather than your will. Assets already promised elsewhere, or subject to a loan or charge, carry those obligations with them. Listing something you cannot actually give away creates a failed gift and, often, a frustrated beneficiary, which is why matching each gift to what you genuinely own is part of writing the will properly.

What conditions and instructions will not work?

Conditions that are illegal, impossible, or against public policy are struck out, and the gift usually then takes effect without the condition. The law will not police a wish it considers unreasonable.

A gift conditional on someone marrying a particular person, changing religion, or divorcing a spouse is the classic example of a condition courts will not enforce. Instructions to break up a property in ways that are impossible, or to do something unlawful, fail the same way. Ongoing instructions about how beneficiaries should live their lives have no mechanism to enforce them once you are gone. Where you genuinely need to control how and when someone benefits, for example a young or vulnerable beneficiary, a trust is the tool that actually works, rather than a condition attached to an outright gift.

What is risky to include because a will becomes public?

Passwords, PINs, account numbers, and the location of valuables should never go in a will, because once probate is granted it can be read by anyone. Sensitive detail in a will is sensitive detail on the public record.

A grant of probate makes the will a public document, so anything written in it loses its privacy. Passwords and account credentials belong in a secure document or password manager your executors can access, not in the will itself, as covered for digital assets. The same caution applies to detailed descriptions of where cash or valuables are kept. You can refer to the existence of an asset so your executors know to deal with it, while keeping the access details somewhere private. One last point on the signed document itself: your witnesses sign the attestation clause, but they must never be beneficiaries. If they are, their signatures cost that person their gift. Gov.uk’s guidance on making a will treats the signed will as the formal legal record, not a place for secrets.

Frequently asked questions

What should you never put in a will in the UK?

Never put passwords, PINs, or account access details in a will, because it becomes public at probate. Also leave out funeral wishes (not legally binding), assets that pass outside the will such as jointly owned property and pensions, and anything you do not solely own. These either fail, cause disputes, or expose private information.

What is the biggest mistake people make in a will?

The most common serious mistake is dealing with assets the will cannot control, such as jointly owned property or pension death benefits, which pass automatically to someone else regardless of the will. The result is a will that contradicts what actually happens, causing confusion and sometimes a dispute among the people left behind.

Are funeral wishes in a will legally binding?

No. Funeral and burial wishes in a will are not legally binding on your executors, and wills are often not read until after the funeral. Record them in a letter of wishes or tell your family directly instead, so your preferences are known in time to be acted on rather than discovered too late.

Can I put conditions on gifts in my will?

Some conditions work, but any that are illegal, impossible, or against public policy are struck out, and the gift then usually passes without the condition. Requiring someone to marry a particular person or change religion are classic examples. To genuinely control how someone benefits, a trust is far more reliable.