There are a very few circumstances in which these provisions can be dispensed with; an example is that a serviceman or servicewoman about to go into actice wartime service can make a will informally. For other ways in which one person can benefit another posthumously without the formality of a will, see below.

According to s.15, a witness cannot (for reasons which should be obvious) be someone who is named as a beneficiary under the will.

If there is no will, or no valid will, then the estate of the deceased is dealt with according to the rules of Intestacy. Whether or not there is a will, the PersonalRepresentative of the deceased -- who becomes, in law, the full legal owner of the estate until it is administered is responsible for settling the debts of the estate and then dividing the estate according to the terms of the will or provisions of intestacy.

A gift made under a will is technically either a bequest, a legacy, or a devise; TestamentoryGift is a term which includes all these.

All wills are placed in the public domain, a fact which has led to the peculiarly English phenomenon of the SecretTrust and HalfSecretTrust. Both these devices use the mechanism of a trust to dispose of the estate outside of a will.

Other methods by which person A can make posthumous gift to person B, without the formality of a will, include the following.

None of these methods of disposing of property amount to a TestamentoryGift, so do not require the formality of a will to validate them.

See also WhoCanMakeAWill?

ProbateLaw

Law glossary index