How much does a will cost in the UK? Solicitors, will writers and online services compared
What a will costs with a solicitor, a will writer or an online service, and the extra fees worth checking before you agree to anything.
How much does a will cost in the UK?
A simple will usually costs somewhere between a few hundred pounds with a solicitor and rather less with a will-writing service, although the figure for your own will depends on how much there is to sort out. MoneyHelper's guide to how to write a will and how much it costs sets out three routes: a DIY template at up to £30, a will-writing service at often around £50 to £350 for a basic will, and a solicitor, where it says to expect at least £200 and much more for complex cases. MoneyHelper does not say which year its figures relate to, and its pages do not all give the same figures, so they are best read as a guide rather than a price list.
What people actually pay tends to sit within those ranges. In a May 2025 Which? survey of 2,132 people, of whom 437 had made a will in the previous three years, the average spend was £287, with those who used a solicitor paying £328 on average and those who used a will-writing firm paying £234. One in ten said they had paid nothing, and our guide to free wills in the UK covers the charity schemes and workplace benefits that make that possible.
How much does a solicitor charge for a will?
MoneyHelper's guide to using a solicitor to write your will gives £180 to £420 for a straightforward will, rising to £420 to £900 for a more complex will at a high street firm and to over £1,800 at a larger firm. The price varies with where the firm is and how complicated your will is, so MoneyHelper suggests asking for a fixed fee rather than an estimate, because a fixed fee locks in the price whereas an estimate can change.
The SRA's price transparency rules, which have applied since 6 December 2018, require firms that advertise services such as uncontested probate and residential conveyancing to publish their prices, but will writing is not on that list, so you will often have to ask for a quote. What you get for the higher price is regulation, since solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and must hold professional indemnity insurance, and MoneyHelper adds that most solicitors store the original will at no extra charge.
How much does a will writing service or online will cost?
A will writing service is usually cheaper than a solicitor, and MoneyHelper puts a basic will from one at often around £50 to £350. MoneyHelper treats online services as part of the same group, since a will-writing service can usually be used online, by phone or face to face, and some face-to-face will writers visit you at home. The Which? survey above found an average of £234 for a will-writing firm, or £245 where the service included a review.
Online wills cover a wide range of services, so it helps to know what you are buying. The Competition and Markets Authority's guide to buying will writing services suggests checking whether the business is drafting the will for you, passing it to someone else to draft, or giving you a template to complete through an online form. At the bottom of the range, MoneyHelper says DIY will packs from stationers and online usually cost up to £30, and our guide to writing your own will explains when that is reasonable and where it tends to go wrong.
Is a will writer regulated in the same way as a solicitor?
No. Section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007 lists six reserved legal activities that only authorised or exempt people may carry out, and Schedule 2 to the Act expressly leaves wills out of the reserved instrument activities, whilst the CMA's guide notes that in the UK anyone can write a will. MoneyHelper puts it simply, saying will-writing is not regulated in England and Wales, and the SRA's 2023 research on the unreserved market notes that some unregulated providers may not offer adequate insurance or routes to redress.
The practical difference shows up when something goes wrong. With a regulated firm, the CMA explains, you can take certain complaints to the Legal Ombudsman in England and Wales if the firm does not resolve them, and you may have access to compensation through the firm's insurance or a regulator's compensation scheme. The Legal Ombudsman's FAQs say it can only look at complaints about regulated legal service providers, that the provider is normally given eight weeks to deal with your complaint first, and that under the time limits in force since 1 April 2023 you then need to bring it within six months of the provider's final response and within one year of the problem, or of when you found out about it.
Many will writers who are not solicitors belong to a self-regulatory body instead. The Society of Will Writers, which says in its code of practice that it is not an approved regulator under the Legal Services Act, requires members to hold professional indemnity cover of at least £2 million and to give clients the total price with a full breakdown of charges. If a complaint to a member is not resolved, the Society can offer conciliation, although its complaints page says it has no power to award compensation. The Institute of Professional Willwriters' code of practice has been approved under the Chartered Trading Standards Institute's Approved Code Scheme since 2014 and requires members to hold professional indemnity insurance, whilst the Institute runs its own complaints and dispute resolution scheme, which it says is free to consumers. MoneyHelper suggests choosing a will writer who belongs to one of these two bodies and holds at least £2 million of professional indemnity cover.
In Scotland, Citizens Advice Scotland says template and online will-writing services are not regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, and the CMA lists the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission for complaints about Scottish solicitors and the Law Society of Northern Ireland for those in Northern Ireland.
What pushes the cost of a will up?
The price rises with the amount of advice and drafting your situation needs. MoneyHelper says that where a will involves tax planning, overseas property or trusts, costs can run to several hundred pounds or more, and it suggests a solicitor rather than a cheaper route in situations such as these:
children from a previous relationship, or a blended family
being divorced, separated or living with a partner you are not married to
running a business or owning property abroad
wanting trusts, or having assets above the inheritance tax threshold
beneficiaries who are vulnerable or who receive means-tested benefits
sharing property with someone who is not your spouse or civil partner
A trust usually takes a will out of the basic price band, because it needs careful drafting and its tax consequences have to be thought through. Our guide to wills with trusts explains what property protection trusts and other will trusts do. The charity schemes draw the line in a similar place, since Will Aid's description of a basic will excludes detailed inheritance tax advice and assets outside the UK.
What extra costs come with a will?
The extras usually sit around the will rather than in it, and the CMA points out that will storage, update subscriptions, estate planning services and professional executor appointments are not needed for a valid will and do not have to be bought from the business that writes it. Those worth checking before you agree to anything are:
Storage: MoneyHelper warns that some companies offering "free" will writing charge ongoing storage fees that can increase over time. You do not have to pay for storage at all, because most solicitors store a will they drafted for free, you can keep it at home, and GOV.UK lists a one-off fee of £24 to deposit a will with HM Courts and Tribunals Service, as our guide to where to keep your will explains. Registration is a separate thing, and Will Aid describes Certainty the National Will Register as recording where a will is held rather than keeping a copy, for a fee that some free schemes waive.
Professional executors: if the business writing your will suggests naming itself as executor, your estate will pay for that later, and under sections 28 and 35 of the Trustee Act 2000 a professional executor can be paid for their work where the will contains a charging clause, with section 29 allowing reasonable pay in some cases even without one. MoneyHelper notes that a percentage-based fee on a large estate can be significant, and the CMA points out that some professional executors may charge a fee for stepping aside. Naming a family member or friend instead leaves them free to decide later whether to pay for professional help.
Subscriptions and add-ons: the CMA says to check whether any subscription for storage or updates renews automatically, and to look out for pre-ticked boxes that sign you up to services you did not ask for. It also points out that it is against the law to advertise a price and then add non-optional fees later in the sales process, and that you have a 14-day cooling-off period if you buy a will online or away from the business's premises.
Changes later: GOV.UK says any change to a will has to be signed and witnessed in the same way as the will itself, so a later update is a new piece of work, and the CMA suggests asking whether there is a fee to take the will out of storage if you need to amend it.
How much do mirror wills cost?
Mirror wills usually cost less than two separate wills, and MoneyHelper says this is the case where your will is almost identical to your partner's. Neither MoneyHelper's guide to using a solicitor nor the Which? survey gives a separate price for them, so the simplest approach is to ask for the couple's price when you get a quote. Our guide to mirror wills explains what they are and when couples use them.
When is it worth paying more, and when is a simple will enough?
A simple will is usually enough if your affairs are straightforward. MoneyHelper's example is a married person leaving everything to their partner, or to their children if the partner dies first, and that is the kind of will the charity schemes and lower-cost routes are designed for. Paying more tends to make sense when a mistake would be expensive to put right, and GOV.UK suggests professional advice if several family members might make a claim on your will, if you want to provide for a dependant who cannot care for themselves, or if you own a business or property overseas.
The cheapest quote is not always the best value, and the CMA suggests comparing at least three will writers whilst thinking about whether each service suits your circumstances. It also warns against terms that cap the firm's liability at the price of the will, because the losses from a badly drafted will can be far larger than the fee.
What to do next
Check whether a free route fits first, especially if you are 55 or over or your employer or union offers a will service.
Write down what you own, where any property is, who you want to benefit and whether you think you need a trust, so that each provider is quoting for the same job.
Ask at least three providers for a fixed, written quote, and ask what is included, whether the price includes VAT and what any storage or update service costs.
Check a solicitor's firm on the SRA's Solicitors Register, or a will writer's membership with the Society of Will Writers or the Institute of Professional Willwriters, and ask about professional indemnity cover.
Decide for yourself who your executors will be rather than accepting a professional executor by default, and our guide to what an executor does explains what you would be asking of them.
Keep a copy of the quote and the terms, and agree where the original will be kept.
Whilst you are gathering the information for your will, it is worth keeping a list of the accounts you hold, because after a death your executors have to find and notify every bank, utility, insurer and subscription, and a clear record makes that far quicker. If the notifications do fall to your family, Legacy Trail's free notification service can contact those private-sector companies for them.
Frequently asked questions
Usually, yes. MoneyHelper puts a basic will from a will-writing service at often around £50 to £350, against £180 to £420 for a straightforward will from a solicitor, but the lower price generally comes with less protection, because will writers do not have to be regulated in the way solicitors are.
No. Will writing is not a reserved legal activity in England and Wales, so you can write your own will or use a will writer, and GOV.UK only suggests professional advice where your will is not straightforward. A solicitor is worth considering if you have a blended family, a business, property abroad or a need for a trust.
MoneyHelper says that wills involving trusts, tax planning or overseas property can cost several hundred pounds or more, and its figures for a complex will at a high street solicitor run from £420 to £900. A fixed, written quote is the only reliable way to know the cost for your own situation.
Usually. MoneyHelper says a mirror will is usually cheaper than two separate wills where a couple's wishes are almost identical, although its guide to using a solicitor does not give a typical price, so ask for the couple's price when you request a quote.
Yes, although the route depends on who they are. The Legal Ombudsman only handles complaints about regulated legal providers, so for an unregulated will writer you would complain to the business first and then, if it is a member, to the Society of Will Writers or the Institute of Professional Willwriters. The Institute says its dispute resolution scheme is free to consumers.
No. You can keep it at home, most solicitors store a will they drafted at no extra charge, and depositing it with HM Courts and Tribunals Service costs a one-off £24 according to GOV.UK. Ongoing storage fees charged by some will-writing businesses are for an optional service that a valid will does not need.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Individual circumstances vary. If you are dealing with an estate, consider taking advice from a solicitor who specialises in probate. For other guidance specific to your circumstances, speak to a funeral director, Citizens Advice, or a regulated financial adviser.