There are plenty of ways to write a will in the UK - solicitors, will-writing companies, charity schemes, supermarket templates, and a growing handful of online builders. They each work for someone, and we don't pretend ours is the only good option. What we can do is explain plainly what Trusted Hands is built for, who it suits, and where it sits in the market. If you finish reading and decide a different route is right for you, that's a fine outcome too.
What Trusted Hands actually is
Trusted Hands is a guided online will builder for people in England and Wales. You answer plain-English questions, the Smart Will Engine drafts your will in real time, and you only pay when you're ready to download a finished document. We don't bill by the hour, we don't pad the process with appointments you don't need, and we don't lock you into anything.
It's designed to make a properly drafted will accessible to the majority of UK adults - the people who currently put it off because they think it'll cost hundreds and take half a day off work.
Who it's a good fit for
The honest answer: most UK households. The Smart Will Engine handles the things that come up in a typical estate well - a home (jointly or solely owned), savings and pensions, specific gifts, naming executors, naming guardians for children, charitable bequests, and a residual estate divided across beneficiaries.
If your situation is more involved - a trading business, a beneficiary with a disability who needs a discretionary trust, foreign property, a family rift you're trying to manage carefully - the builder will flag it and offer to put you in touch with an Advisor. For complex estates, we recommend you seek assistance from a Trusted Hands Advisor or your own legal advice.
If you want to see whether your situation falls into the straightforward bucket, how to write a will in the UK walks through what a typical UK will covers.
What we focus on
Plain English
The single biggest reason people put off writing a will is that legal language feels unapproachable. We've worked hard to keep the questions and the resulting document in plain English while still meeting the requirements of the Wills Act 1837. The will reads like a document, not a contract written for other lawyers.
Adapting to you
The Smart Will Engine changes the questions based on your answers. If you tell it you don't have children, you won't see guardian questions. If you tell it you own your home as joint tenants, the property section adjusts to reflect that joint tenancy passes by survivorship and isn't dealt with by the will. This makes the process faster and reduces the risk of leaving a section half-finished.
(If you'd like to test the engine before deciding, start your will online - the early sections are free to explore.)
Honesty about complexity
Not every estate belongs in an online builder, and the worst thing a service can do is pretend otherwise. The complexity flagging system watches for the patterns that genuinely need a longer conversation - second marriages, business interests, vulnerable beneficiaries, foreign assets - and tells you when it spots one. You're not blocked from continuing, but you're given a clear option to switch to assisted mode or seek your own advice. We'd rather lose a sale than ship you a will that doesn't fit your situation.
Fixed price
You see the price before you start. There's no hourly billing, no per-page padding, and no surprise fees. If your situation needs more help, you'll see the assisted-mode price separately and you can choose. People sometimes ask whether a fixed-price model can really handle their estate properly - the answer is that the vast majority of UK estates are well within scope, and for the small number that aren't, the flagging system surfaces it before you pay.
You can compare the numbers against the wider market in our will cost UK 2026 guide.
What we don't do
We don't pretend to be a solicitor's firm. We don't draft trusts beyond the standard residuary trust. We don't handle contentious estate work or applications for probate (you can read about that process in our probate timeline UK guide). We don't sell your data, and we don't bundle insurance, funeral plans, or other products into the will fee.
We also don't push you to buy. The free portion of the builder is genuinely free; you can finish a draft, look at it, and walk away if you decide it's not for you. People do, sometimes, and we'd rather they have a clear comparison than a half-finished document they paid for.
The features that actually matter
It's easy to list features. Here are the four people use most after they've finished writing:
- Witness guide - the step where most invalid wills fail. Our guide walks you through it in plain English so the signing meets section 9 of the Wills Act 1837.
- Digital vault - stores a digital copy of the signed will plus the location of the original, so executors aren't searching drawers.
- Annual updates subscription - keep your will editable as life changes (marriage, children, house move, beneficiary changes). Optional.
- Assisted mode - a Trusted Hands Advisor walks you through the builder by phone or video if you'd rather not do it alone.
These aren't sales add-ons; they're the parts of will-writing that traditionally happen in scattered places (a solicitor's filing cabinet, an envelope in a drawer, a phone call you keep meaning to make). Putting them in one account means the will is actually findable and updatable when the time comes.
> Want to see how it feels? Trusted Hands is free to start - you only pay when you download a finished will. Start free →
How we compare to the alternatives
Versus a high-street solicitor
A solicitor will write a will face-to-face, usually for between £200 and £500 for a standard will, and considerably more for trust-based drafting. They're the right choice when the estate is genuinely complex, when you want a long-term relationship with an advisor, or when you simply prefer the office-and-appointment route. We'd say so plainly in those cases.
What an online builder offers in exchange is speed, lower cost, and continuous editability. A solicitor's will sits in a filing cabinet; ours sits in your account, ready to update.
Versus a DIY template kit
DIY kits cost a few pounds and are widely available in stationers. The risk is they're easy to invalidate - missing executors, ambiguous gifts, wrong witness signatures, beneficiaries who can't be located. Our guide on will mistakes UK goes through the most common ones. A guided builder doesn't make those mistakes because the engine catches them before you finish.
Versus other online builders
Most online builders are template-driven: you fill in the blanks of a fixed document. Trusted Hands is adaptive - the questions change based on your answers, the complexity flagging surfaces issues before they become problems, and the digital vault and updates subscription mean the will lives with you afterwards rather than being a one-off transaction.
A note on regulation and standards
Will-writing in England and Wales isn't regulated to the same level as solicitors' work, which means you should choose carefully. Trusted Hands operates under data-protection law (UK GDPR), holds your data on UK-based servers, and applies professional standards to the drafting itself. We won't pretend to be a solicitor, but we won't cut corners on the document either.
For the situations where regulated legal advice is genuinely needed, we route you out: for complex estates, we recommend you seek assistance from a Trusted Hands Advisor or your own legal advice.
> Ready to start your will? Trusted Hands turns these decisions into a 15-30 minute guided builder. Start free → — only pay when you download.
Frequently asked questions
Are Trusted Hands wills legal in England and Wales?
Yes - provided you sign and witness the will in line with section 9 of the Wills Act 1837. The witness guide in your account walks you through that step. Wills written through Trusted Hands aren't valid in Scotland or Northern Ireland because succession law in those jurisdictions is different.
What if I'm not sure my estate is "simple enough"?
Start the builder. The Smart Will Engine works it out as you go and flags anything genuinely complex. The early sections are free, so there's no commitment in finding out.
Do I have to use the annual updates subscription?
No. It's optional. Some people prefer to write a will once and rewrite it from scratch in a few years; others prefer the subscription. Either is fine.
What happens if I want to switch to a solicitor halfway?
Take your draft with you. The plain-English text is easy to share, and a solicitor can use it as a starting point. There's no lock-in.
How long has Trusted Hands been operating?
We're a UK-based estate planning service built around the Smart Will Engine. The team blends legal-document drafting with software design, with the explicit aim of making a properly drafted will accessible to people who currently put it off.
Ready to write your will?
Trusted Hands is a guided, plain-English will builder. You answer simple questions, see your draft as you go, and only pay when you're ready to download.
- Free to start - no card details to begin
- Smart Will Engine - only asks what's relevant to your situation
- Fixed price - no hourly bills, no surprises
- Annual updates option - keep your will editable as life changes