The honest answer is a range: from about £20 for a paper template to £1,000 or more for a solicitor-drafted will with trusts. The interesting question is what changes between those numbers, because the price bands buy very different amounts of protection.
The price bands, plainly
- Will template or DIY kit: £10 to £30. You draft everything; nobody checks anything. Valid if executed perfectly, and perfection is the catch.
- Basic online will builder: £30 to £100. Software assembles the document from your answers. Better than paper, but in most services no qualified person ever reads the result.
- Online will with solicitor review: £90 to £180. Guided questions plus a named solicitor checking the finished will. Willful sits here: £119 for a single will, £99 per partner for mirror wills.
- High-street solicitor, simple will: £150 to £350 for one person, £250 to £500 for a couple, varying widely by region.
- Solicitor-drafted will with trusts, business or overseas assets: £500 to £1,000 and up. Sometimes necessary; often quoted when it is not.
What pushes the price up
Complexity is the honest driver. A life interest trust to protect a home, business succession clauses, assets in more than one country, or provision for a vulnerable beneficiary all justify more work and a higher fee. Willful prices this transparently: straightforward wills at £119, and a £249 tier for estates that need trusts, business or international clauses, still reviewed by a solicitor, still a fraction of traditional fees.
The costs that hide in "free" and "cheap"
- Free charity wills. Schemes like Free Wills Month cover the drafting fee and hope for a legacy in return. A perfectly good route if you were leaving a gift anyway; just know the expectation exists.
- Banks and will-writers as executor. Some low-cost wills name the firm as your executor, charging the estate 1 to 4 per cent on death. On a £400,000 estate that is £4,000 to £16,000, extracted from your family long after the cheap will was signed.
- Storage fees. Some firms store your will for £25 to £75 a year, forever. Over thirty years the storage quietly costs more than the will did.
- Update fees. If every change means a fresh drafting fee, the cheap will gets expensive the moment life moves. A codicil with Willful costs £49, solicitor review included.
What the price never includes: the cost of getting it wrong
A failed or badly drafted will does not send you a bill; it sends your family one. Partial intestacy, disputes between beneficiaries, or a will that cannot be found at all can cost thousands in legal fees and months of delay, at the worst possible time. When you compare prices, compare what happens after a mistake as well as before one. A reviewed will exists precisely so the mistake is caught while you are alive to fix it.
A fair way to decide
Match the tool to the estate. If your affairs are simple and your budget is £20, a carefully executed template beats no will at all. If your estate includes property, children, a business or a blended family, the sensible floor is a will a qualified person has actually read. Willful’s guided questions are free to try; you see how the process works before paying anything, and every will is reviewed by an SRA-regulated solicitor whose name appears on the document.