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Wills law is about to have its biggest shake-up in nearly 200 years — here’s what’s proposed

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

If you’ve made a will in England or Wales, it was drawn up under rules that date back to 1837 — the year Queen Victoria came to the throne. Those rules have barely changed since, even though the way we live, marry, and manage our lives digitally would be unrecognisable to the Victorians who wrote them.

That’s about to change. In May 2025, the Law Commission — the independent body that reviews and recommends changes to the law — published the findings of a review it had been working on for over a decade. It’s the first full overhaul of wills law since the Wills Act 1837, and it comes with a draft bill that has been laid before Parliament.

Nothing has become law yet. It’s now up to the Government to decide whether, and when, to take the bill forward. But given how significant the proposed changes are, it’s worth understanding what might be coming — even if there’s nothing you need to do about it right now.

What the Law Commission is proposing

The review covers a wide range of technical changes, but four proposals stand out for anyone thinking about later life and estate planning.

Legally valid electronic wills. Under the current law, a will must be a physical, signed, and witnessed paper document. The proposed reform would allow electronic wills to be legally valid for the first time, provided they’re created and stored through a “reliable system” designed to prevent tampering and confirm which version is the genuine, final one. This would bring wills law closer in line with how many of us already manage our finances and other important documents.

Easier challenges where undue influence is suspected. At the moment, anyone who believes a loved one was pressured or manipulated into changing their will has to prove it — a notoriously difficult thing to do, since the alleged influence usually happens behind closed doors. The proposed change would allow a court to infer that undue influence took place where there are reasonable grounds to suspect it, shifting some of that burden and making it easier to challenge wills that may not reflect a person’s true wishes.

Scrapping the rule that marriage cancels an existing will. Few people realise that, right now, getting married or entering a civil partnership automatically revokes any will you already had — unless that will was specifically made in anticipation of the marriage. This rule has increasingly been linked to so-called “predatory marriage,” where a vulnerable or elderly person is deliberately targeted, married, and left without a valid will, sometimes without their family even being aware a wedding took place. The Law Commission has recommended abolishing automatic revocation altogether, to close off this route for financial abuse.

Lowering the minimum age to make a will from 18 to 16. The current minimum age of 18 would drop to 16, bringing wills law into line with other areas where 16- and 17-year-olds are already recognised as capable of making significant decisions.

Alongside these headline changes, the Commission has also proposed a single, modern test for mental capacity to make a will (aligned with the Mental Capacity Act 2005), and a new power for courts to accept a document as someone’s valid will even if it doesn’t tick every formal box, provided it’s clear that reflects their genuine intentions.

What happens next

Because this is a Law Commission report rather than a government bill actively going through Parliament, there’s no set timetable. The Government has to decide whether to accept the recommendations, and Parliamentary time then needs to be found to pass the legislation — a process that, realistically, could take some time yet. Legal and professional bodies, including the Law Society, have been pressing the Government to commit to a timeline, but as things stand, the current rules on wills remain exactly as they are.

What this means for you now

In short: nothing urgent. The Wills Act 1837 is still the law, paper wills that are properly signed and witnessed remain the only valid kind, marriage still revokes an earlier will, and the minimum age to make one is still 18.

That said, this is a good moment to treat reform as a nudge rather than a deadline. If your circumstances have changed — a marriage, a new relationship, a family addition, or simply years since you last looked at your will — it’s always sensible to review it, regardless of what Parliament eventually decides. And if you’d like a clearer picture of how any of these proposed changes might affect your own later life planning once they do progress, we’re always happy to talk it through.

We’ll keep this page updated as the bill makes its way — or doesn’t — through Parliament.

Thinking about your own will or later life plans?

Whether or not this reform ever becomes law, there’s rarely a bad time to make sure your own will reflects your wishes. At Jermyn Taylor, we help people plan clearly and confidently for later life — and we offer a free initial consultation, with no obligation, if you’d like to talk it through.

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