Do I Need a Will If I'm Young and Healthy?

The honest answer is yes

The age at which you write your first will does not correlate with the age at which you might need it. Unexpected deaths happen to people in their twenties and thirties as often as at any other age — accidents, illness, nothing you could have predicted.

The argument that you do not need a will because you are young is really the argument that nothing bad will happen to you. That is not a legal strategy.

What happens without a will

Without a will, your estate is distributed under the rules of intestacy: a fixed statutory formula that has nothing to do with what you would have wanted.

If you are unmarried with no children, your estate goes to your parents. Not your partner. Not your best friend. Not a sibling you are close to. Your parents — even if you are estranged from them, even if your partner of five years lives with you and depends on your income.

If your parents are both dead and you have no children, it goes to siblings. Then to more distant relatives. At some point it goes to the Crown.

Even a small estate matters

You do not need to own a house to benefit from a will. Savings, a car, personal property, digital assets, a pension (depending on the provider), a bank account — all of these form part of your estate. If you want any of it to go to specific people, you need a will.

You can also use a will to name a guardian for any children you have, appoint an executor you trust, and set out your funeral wishes. None of those things are possible without one.

The argument for doing it now

A will costs £79 and takes twenty minutes. It does not expire or need annual renewal. Once it is done, it is done — until your circumstances change significantly, at which point you update it.

The alternative is leaving it to chance. Most people who do not have a will intend to make one eventually. A significant number do not get around to it.