Mirror Wills for married couples or civil partners

A letter of wishes is an informal and non-binding letter addressed to your executors (i.e. the people who carry out the instructions you've left in your will).

You can use it to help or guide them on pretty much anything you like. For example, you can:

• List the significant things you own, including bank accounts, life insurance policies, valuable items, shares etc. and their location.
• Give information to help identify specific items you're giving away in your will (e.g. detailed descriptions or photos).
• Leave special instructions about your burial or cremation.
• Leave instructions about arrangements for your pets.
• In England, Wales or Northern Ireland, explain why you've decided to leave someone out of your will, or leave them less than they might expect (to help defend any legal challenge that these people might make after you've died).

If you've made a will that asks your executors to give away certain personal possessions or digital assets in accordance with a separate note, you can use this letter as that note.

If your will creates a trust, you can also use this letter to leave guidance for the trustees on how you want the trust to be managed. Note: if your will creates more than one trust that you want to leave guidance for, you'll need to create separate letters for each of those trusts. Also, if you want to state wishes about a trust and other matters, you'll need separate letters for your executors and trustees if they're not the same people.

This product creates 2 wills: one for each person in a marriage or registered civil partnership.

The wills are set up so that when the first person in the couple dies, everything is left to the survivor. You use these wills to decide what should happen after both of you have died. Your choices are the same in both wills, meaning they'll apply regardless of who dies first.

Together, you can:

• Divide up the bulk of what you both own (the residuary estate), including the option to each set up a trust
• Make gifts of money or particular items
• Make a gift of all of your personal possessions
• Make back-up choices in case either of you outlive your first-choice recipients
• Require recipients to reach a particular age before inheriting
• Leave money to help look after pets.

You can also choose:

• Executors (the people who'll carry out the wishes in your wills)
• Someone to handle your digital assets (e.g. photos, social media)
• Preferred guardians for your children (if you both die before they become adults).

Don't use these wills if any of the following apply:

• Either or both of you aren't domiciled in the UK (i.e. it's not your permanent home).
• You aren't both domiciled in the same part of the UK.
• Either or both of you have children from previous relationships who've not been treated as children of the family (e.g. they've never lived with both of you).

Note: in Scotland, your children have a right to a share of your estate. When the first one of you dies, any children you have could exercise that right and stop everything from going to your surviving spouse/civil partner. If you’re concerned about this possibility, use individual wills instead.

This document is used to sever a 'joint tenancy' of property and, if the property is registered, to register that change at the Land Registry. This converts a joint tenancy into a tenancy in common. This document creates two copies of a notice of severance and, if the property is registered at the Land Registry, a form SEV and a covering letter to the Land Registry. This document can only be used in in relation to property in England or Wales, of which there are one or two owners and two joint tenants. Land Registry forms are reproduced with the permission of HM Land Registry.