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July 11, 2026
Most people spend years carefully building what they have, growing a savings balance, paying down debt, buying a first asset, and maybe starting a family. Very few spend even one afternoon deciding what happens to any of it if they are not around to manage it themselves.
That gap matters more than it seems. According to the Trust & Will 2026 Estate Planning Report, a national survey of 5,000 US adults, 56% of American adults have none of the five core estate planning documents: no will, no trust, no medical power of attorney, no financial power of attorney, and no HIPAA authorization. Will ownership specifically has fallen from 31% in 2025 to 26% in 2026. In the UK, research from the Money and Pensions Service found that 56% of UK adults have no will at all. In Nigeria, a 2022 survey by the Nigerian Bar Association found that roughly 70% of Nigerians die intestate, without a valid will, and inheritance disputes now account for nearly 30% of all civil cases in Nigerian courts.
When there is no will, the state, not you, decides who inherits, how quickly, and under what conditions. Bank accounts can stay frozen for months. Family members can end up disputing assets in court instead of grieving. Minor children can end up in a guardianship arrangement no one actually chose.
Writing a will is not a morbid task reserved for the elderly or the wealthy. It is a practical, one-time-effort way to make sure the people who depend on you are protected on your terms, not on a default legal formula's terms. This guide walks through exactly what a will needs to contain, how to make it legally valid, what happens without one, and what it actually costs to get this done.
I don't remember exactly how it started, but growing up, my siblings and I were taught to save the money visitors gave us rather than spend it right away. We used it later, for books, shoes, or something during the holidays. It wasn't really a lesson, just a habit. Looking back, it taught me that money holds up best when you resist the urge to spend it the moment it arrives.
A will is a legal document stating who inherits your property, money, and possessions and who you want to raise your children if they are minors. It does not need to be complicated to be valid or worth having.
A properly built will rests on four roles:
You, the testator, must be of sound mind and acting voluntarily when the will is made.
Your executors are the people who administer your estate after you die, tracking accounts, settling debts and final taxes, and distributing assets exactly as the will instructs. Name at least one backup executor in case your first choice cannot serve.
Your beneficiaries are the specific people who inherit, whether through named individual gifts or a share of everything left over.
Your guardians, if you have minor children, are the people you formally nominate to raise them. Leave this blank, and a family court decides instead, which can trigger real conflict among relatives who all believe they know best.
What a will does not automatically control is just as important. Jointly owned property and joint bank accounts typically pass directly to the surviving co-owner, regardless of what the will says, because the ownership structure itself transfers on death. Retirement accounts, pensions, and life insurance payouts go to whoever is named on that account's own beneficiary designation form, a separate document that overrides the will entirely. Updating a will after a divorce or remarriage but forgetting to update these designations is one of the most common and expensive mistakes in estate planning, anywhere in the world.
Keep your distribution instructions in two clear layers. Specific legacies are direct assignments of particular items or fixed amounts, for example, leaving a specific piece of equipment to one person and a fixed sum to a school or charity. The residuary estate covers everything left over once specific gifts, debts, and final costs are settled, and this is usually expressed as clean percentages among your core beneficiaries, such as a defined split between a spouse and children. Vague or overlapping instructions in either layer are one of the most common sources of family disputes after a death.
A will with beautifully clear instructions is still worthless if it fails the legal formalities required to execute it, and a probate court will reject it outright. Across the US, UK, and Nigeria, the core requirements are broadly consistent:
The will must generally be a physical, written document. You must sign it yourself while of sound mind and acting voluntarily. Most jurisdictions require at least two independent adult witnesses present at the same time you sign, who then sign the document themselves.
One rule trips up more DIY will-writers than any other: in most jurisdictions, a witness cannot also be a beneficiary named in the will nor the spouse of a beneficiary. If a beneficiary does witness the will, the will itself usually remains valid, but that person's own inheritance under it can be voided by law. This rule is standard in the UK and Nigeria and applies in most, though not quite all, US states, so it is worth confirming locally rather than assuming. Choose witnesses who have no stake in the outcome.
Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate, and when it happens, a fixed set of default rules decides who inherits, not your actual wishes.
In the United States, each state has its own intestacy laws, but they generally follow a set hierarchy: spouse and children first, then parents, then siblings. Unmarried partners typically have no automatic right to inherit under intestacy law in most states, regardless of how long the relationship lasted.
In the United Kingdom, intestacy follows a similarly fixed formula. A surviving spouse does not automatically inherit everything if there are children; the estate is split according to a set statutory formula that can leave a spouse with less than expected.
In Nigeria, intestate succession is genuinely more layered, governed by a mix of statutory, customary, and, in parts of the north, Islamic law, depending on the deceased's marriage type and background. Under the Administration of Estates Law, which applies primarily to those married under the Marriage Act, a surviving spouse and children are generally prioritized. Under customary law, still governing succession for many families, inheritance in some ethnic groups follows patriarchal succession, where sons, especially the eldest, inherit the bulk of the estate while widows and daughters may receive little or nothing, though this has been successfully challenged in Nigerian courts in recent years. Under Sharia law, applicable across much of the north, shares are fixed by an explicit formula; a surviving wife typically receives one-eighth of the estate if there are children, and sons generally receive twice the share of daughters.
One of the most widespread and costly misconceptions, in Nigeria especially, is that naming someone as your "next of kin" on a bank account gives that person a legal right to your money when you die. It does not. Nigerian courts have ruled directly on this: a next-of-kin designation is legally just an emergency contact, nothing more. It carries no automatic inheritance right.
What actually happens is this: once a bank is notified of an account holder's death, it restricts the account, commonly marked "Place No Debit," pending proper authorization. Access requires either a grant of probate, if a valid will exists, or letters of administration, if it does not. This process typically applies regardless of who was listed as next of kin. The practical effect is that families who assumed a next-of-kin listing was enough to access funds quickly often discover, at the worst possible time, that it was not.
Cost is the reason people most often give for delaying, and it does not hold up well under scrutiny. In the US, a will can be created for free as a handwritten holographic will, though these carry real legal risk since some states do not recognize them. Online estate planning platforms typically charge $50 to $250 for a guided, state-specific will. Attorney-drafted wills for a single person typically run $300 to $700.
In the UK, will-writing solicitors and online will services offer a similar tiered range, and free or reduced-cost will-writing periods run periodically through charity initiatives.
In Nigeria, working with a lawyer to draft a valid will is generally far less expensive than most people assume relative to what follows when there is no will: legal fees for contested Letters of Administration and, in some cases, years of unresolved property disputes among family members. A basic, uncontested will is one of the more affordable pieces of legal work most adults will ever commission.
Inventory what you actually own. List every active account, bank balances, investment apps, pension details, and property documents, kept separate from the will itself since a will becomes part of the public record during probate.
Choose your executors. Confirm with them directly that they are willing to take on the responsibility before naming them.
Draft in plain, unambiguous language. Vague phrasing or overly complex conditions are exactly what triggers family disputes later.
Execute it properly. Sign in the physical presence of the required number of independent, non-beneficiary witnesses, all present at the same time.
Store the original safely. in a secure home safe, with a solicitor or attorney, or lodged at the relevant probate registry, and make sure your executors know exactly where to find it.
Verbal promises about who gets what carry no legal weight whatsoever. If it is not written, signed, and properly witnessed, it does not legally exist, no matter how many family members heard you say it.
A will also needs updating after major life events. In the UK and Nigeria, getting married generally revokes a prior will automatically unless it was explicitly written in contemplation of that marriage. In the US, this varies significantly by state: some states revoke a prior will on marriage, others do not but instead guarantee the new spouse a share regardless of what the will says, so it is worth checking your specific state rather than assuming either way.
Finally, avoid writing passwords, PINs, or cryptocurrency seed phrases directly into the will itself. Because a will enters the public record during probate, doing so exposes that information permanently. A secure password manager with an emergency access feature is a safer way to pass credentials to an executor.
A will is not a document about death. It is a document about the people you would leave behind and whether they spend months in court and conflict or a matter of weeks settling things the way you actually wanted. Whether the relevant framework is US state intestacy law, UK statutory succession, or Nigeria's layered mix of statutory, customary, and Islamic inheritance rules, the underlying lesson is the same: silence does not protect a family. A clear, properly executed document does.
Do I need a lawyer to write a valid will, or can I do it myself?
In most jurisdictions, you can write a legally valid will yourself using an online platform or written document, provided you meet your region's specific signing and witnessing requirements. A lawyer becomes genuinely important with minor children, a blended family, business ownership, or assets across more than one country.
What happens to a joint bank account or jointly owned property if I die?
It typically passes automatically to the surviving co-owner, regardless of what the will says, since the ownership structure itself transfers on death rather than through the will.
Can an unmarried partner inherit if there is no will?
In most US states and under UK intestacy law, an unmarried partner has no automatic legal right to inherit, regardless of relationship length. In Nigeria, the outcome depends heavily on which legal framework applies, but unmarried partners are rarely protected by default rules under any of the three. A will is one of the few ways to actually secure an unmarried partner's inheritance.
Does a will cover life insurance or pension payouts?
Generally, no. These operate through independent beneficiary designation forms filed directly with the provider, which form a separate contract and override whatever the will says. It is worth checking these designations any time your circumstances change.
Does having a will avoid probate entirely?
No. A will does not eliminate probate, the court process of validating a will and overseeing distribution, but it makes that process significantly faster and less contentious than an intestate estate, where a court must first determine who has legal standing before anything can proceed.
If there is one number worth remembering from this article, it is 70%. Seven out of ten Nigerians currently die without a will, and the US and UK figures are not meaningfully better despite very different legal systems. That consistency says something important: the barrier to estate planning is not really about law, culture, or wealth. It is the universal discomfort of planning for your own absence.
A will is not really about you. By definition, you never personally experience the outcome of having one or not. It is a gift, or a burden, left for whoever is still here. Every inheritance dispute, every frozen account, every family rift referenced in this article traces back to the same root cause: someone who loved their family simply never got around to writing it down. None of this requires a large estate or a difficult conversation with mortality to begin. It requires one afternoon and the decision to stop treating it as a problem for later.
This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Inheritance and succession laws vary significantly by country, and within countries like Nigeria and the US, by state, religion, and marriage type. Before drafting a will or making estate planning decisions, consult a licensed attorney or estate planning professional in your specific jurisdiction.
Last Modified: 2026-07-25 07:02:02
Alisha Kim, A dedicated publisher at Presoft Solutions, publishes educational and informative content on finance. The goal is to provide readers with reliable, easy-to-understand, and practical information that helps them discover opportunities and make informed decisions.
