Do You Need Qualifications to Write Wills?
The legal answer is no. The professional answer is that the absence of a requirement is the reason to train, not a reason to skip it.
Project Will · Published 14 September 2026
No. Will writing is not a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007 in England and Wales. There is no statutory qualification requirement, no regulator and no compulsory register.
That is the complete legal answer, and it is why the rest of this page exists.
What is reserved
The Legal Services Act reserves six activities to authorised persons:
- Exercising rights of audience
- Conducting litigation
- Reserved instrument activities (certain property and court documents)
- Probate activities — applying for a grant for a fee
- Notarial activities
- Administration of oaths
Drafting a will is not on the list. Applying for probate for a fee is. This is the boundary will writers most often stray across without realising: writing the will is unrestricted; handling the grant afterwards for payment is not, unless you are authorised.
Why the gap matters#
Someone can decide on a Monday that they write wills and take instructions on a Tuesday, with no training and nothing a client can check. Most practitioners are careful and competent — but a client has no reliable way of telling which ones are, and the work's defining feature is that errors surface only after the one person who could have corrected them has died.
The Competition and Markets Authority has looked at unregulated legal services more than once, and consumer bodies periodically press for will writing to be brought into regulation. It has not happened. Practitioners should assume the question will keep coming back.
What you can hold instead#
| What it is | Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Project Will accreditation | Free training, a written exam, a published standard, a public register | Free |
| Society of Will Writers | Long-established membership body, founded 1994, 1,700+ members | Annual membership |
| Institute of Professional Willwriters | Membership body founded 1991, England, Wales and NI | Annual membership |
| STEP Advanced Certificate in Will Preparation | The most academically demanding option | Course fees, requires STEP membership |
None of these makes you regulated, and describing yourself as "regulated" because you hold one would be misleading. What they do is give a client something to verify.
What you should have regardless#
Professional indemnity insurance. Not legally required, and not optional in any practical sense.
ICO registration. This one is legally required — you process personal data.
Actual competence in trusts and capacity. The two areas where unqualified practice does real damage.
Related#
How to become a will writer · What is a will writer? · Testamentary capacity · Free training
Before you ask.
Do you need a qualification to write wills in the UK?
No. Will writing is not a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007 in England and Wales, so there is no statutory qualification requirement and no regulator. Anyone may lawfully draft wills for payment. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements.
Is it illegal to write wills without being a solicitor?
No. Only reserved legal activities — such as conducting litigation, rights of audience and probate activities — are restricted to authorised persons. Drafting a will is not among them. Applying for a grant of probate for a fee, however, is a reserved activity.
What qualifications can a will writer get?
Voluntary ones. Society of Will Writers and Institute of Professional Willwriters membership, STEP's Advanced Certificate in Will Preparation, and provider-run training such as Project Will's free UKRLP-registered course. None is legally required and none makes you regulated.
See it draft one of your cases.
Book a walkthrough with someone who drafts in Willo every day. They will open your kind of case, not a demo script, and you can stop them and ask anything.
Or call 0333 049 5033 — Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm.