Letter of wishes: what it is, and why it isn't the same as your will (UK)
18 August 2026 · Inherit Vault
A will is a legal instrument, written to be interpreted narrowly and followed to the letter. A letter of wishes is the opposite: informal, flexible, and built to carry everything a will can't.
It has no legal force, and that's the point
A letter of wishes isn't binding on an executor the way a will is, they aren't legally required to follow it. What it does instead is give context and specific guidance for decisions the will leaves open, dividing personal chattels, how a discretionary trust should treat different beneficiaries, or preferences for a funeral, without needing a solicitor to redraft a formal document every time a preference changes.
It can be updated without cost or formality
Because it isn't a legal document, a letter of wishes can be rewritten, added to or replaced at any time, by hand, without witnesses, without a solicitor's fee. That makes it the right place for anything likely to change: who currently has which possession in mind, updated bank and account details, evolving thoughts on how young beneficiaries should be treated as they grow up.
It's especially useful alongside a trust
Where a will sets up a discretionary trust, trustees are often given wide legal power to decide how and when beneficiaries receive money, precisely because circumstances change over years or decades. A letter of wishes tells the trustees what the person who set it up actually intended, guidance they can weigh heavily even though they aren't legally bound by it.
It's also where the practical, unglamorous details belong
Funeral preferences, who should be contacted, what to do with pets, passwords or accounts to check, which possessions matter and to whom, none of it belongs in a will, and all of it is exactly the kind of thing an executor wishes someone had written down.
A will says who inherits. A letter of wishes says what you actually meant by it, and it's usually the shorter, easier document to actually sit down and write.
Leave your family a map, not a mystery.
Inherit Vault is a digital inheritance vault: every account, policy, and instruction your family will need, encrypted so only you can read it, released to your executor when it genuinely matters.
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