What is a Joint Will?

A Joint Will is a single doc­u­ment that’s ex­ecuted by more than one person. In con­trast with Single Wills, Joint Wills are rare and in­volve having two people’s wishes in one will. They’re usu­ally cre­ated by a mar­ried couple or those in a com­mit­ted long term re­la­tion­ship who want to handle their estate plan­ning to­geth­er.

Joint Wills are be­com­ing more and more rare be­cause couples are seek­ing the great­er flex­ib­il­ity of having their own in­di­vidu­al will.

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What is a Joint Will?

A Joint Will is when two in­di­vidu­als, typ­ic­ally spouses, decide to write a Will to­geth­er that speaks for both of them. This way, they set out their wishes for their assets in one doc­u­ment, en­sur­ing they're both on the same page.

A Joint Will out­lines the shared wishes of the couple re­gard­ing the dis­tri­bu­tion of their assets after both of their deaths. It may out­line how the couple's assets will be dis­trib­uted, ap­point ex­ecut­ors, and spe­cify any other in­struc­tions they wish to in­clude.

Both parties will need to sign the same copy of their Joint Will in the pres­ence of two wit­nesses, and these wit­nesses cannot be be­ne­fi­ciar­ies under the Will.

Joint Will: After One Part­ner Passes

When one part­ner dies, the Joint Will's de­cisions are locked in, and the sur­viv­or can't make changes. This guar­an­tees that the wishes of the person who has passed are re­spec­ted and car­ried out to the letter. Up until the first part­ner dies, the couple are wel­come to change and amend their Joint Will as they see fit.

Joint Will: Both Part­ners Have Passed

Once both parties have passed away, the assets are shared out as agreed in their Joint Will. Since changes aren't al­lowed after the first death, the will en­sures their mutual de­cisions are fol­lowed, sim­pli­fy­ing the pro­cess for every­one in­volved.

Weigh­ing Up Joint Wills: Pros and Cons

Be­ne­fits of Joint Wills

Opting for a Joint Will means you and your part­ner decide to­geth­er on the fate of your assets, all at once. It’s com­fort­ing to know you're aligned in your de­cisions, with no sur­prises down the line.

Plus, Joint Wills can be cost-ef­fect­ive, stream­lin­ing two people’s wishes into a single doc­u­ment.

Read more about cur­rent prices on our art­icle How Much Does it Cost to Make a Will?

Dis­ad­vant­ages of Joint Wills (and Why They’re Less Common)

Joint Wills have become less pop­u­lar re­cently due to sev­er­al reas­ons:

• In­flex­ib­il­ity: Joint Wills are fixed once one part­ner dies, making it im­possible for the sur­viv­or to adjust the Will for new life changes.
• Com­plic­a­tions for the Sur­viv­or: The sur­viv­ing part­ner may face re­stric­tions and chal­lenges trying to manage or sell shared assets after their part­ner has passed due to the Will's rigid terms.
• Legal Head­aches: Joint Wills, since they’re un­change­able after one person’s death, can become out­dated. If one part­ner died dec­ades ago, the Will may not match the last part­ner­'s final wishes by the time they also pass away. This can lead to dis­putes over the true in­ten­tions of the last sur­viv­ing part­ner.
• Risk of Un­equal Say: Without each person get­ting sep­ar­ate legal advice, Joint Wills could un­fairly favour one part­ner or result from pres­sur­ing one part­ner into agree­ing to terms not in their best in­terests.

Joint, Mutual and Mirror Wills: A Com­par­is­on

Be­cause of the issues with Joint Wills, many couples are now opting for dif­fer­ent kinds of Wills, in­clud­ing in­di­vidu­al wills known as ‘’Single Wills’’, which are the most pop­u­lar choice today. Oc­ca­sion­ally, some couples opt for other kinds of wills in­clud­ing Mutual or Mirror Wills.

Joint Wills

As we have covered in this art­icle, Joint Wills, now rare in the UK, are single doc­u­ments shared by part­ners re­flect­ing joint wishes for their assets. However, Joint Wills’ in­ab­il­ity to be amended after one part­ner­'s death has led to their de­cline in pop­ular­ity in recent years.

Mutual Wills

Mutual Wills are made by part­ners at the same time, to­geth­er with a con­tract to which they are both parties. In the con­tract the part­ners agree to be leg­ally bound not to change their re­spect­ive Wills without each oth­er­'s con­sent.

A key fea­ture of Mutual Wills is that they are not meant to be altered once one part­ner has died, so this option is not always the best choice. You can often better achieve a better out­come through cre­at­ing a trust or other family ar­range­ment.

Mirror Wills

Mirror Wills are also fairly un­usu­al. Their pur­pose is to rep­res­ent the shared wishes of a couple, as they are used when two Wills have identic­al terms. They are two sep­ar­ate Wills that re­flect each oth­er­'s con­tent, al­low­ing part­ners to echo each other’s wishes.

But these kinds of Wills have an issue, which you need to con­sider care­fully before opting for this kind of Will. In short, when one person dies, the sur­viv­or’s Mirror Will be­comes ir­re­voc­able i.e you can’t, in effect, change it.

Single Will

A Single Will is the most pop­u­lar kind of will nowadays and it can be writ­ten by anyone, wheth­er you are mar­ried or not. This is simply a doc­u­ment out­lining what you want to happen to your estate when you pass.

This kind of Will is ideal for in­stances where part­ners have dif­fer­ent wishes and it is par­tic­u­larly ap­pro­pri­ate if you’re mar­ried but have chil­dren from a pre­vi­ous re­la­tion­ship, as the Single Will allows you to divide your estate between your part­ner and your chil­dren.

Over­all, this is the most flex­ible and straight­for­ward kind of will that is avail­able in the UK.

Com­par­is­on of Dif­fer­ent Types of Wills

Did you know that Aatos offers a Single Will? Simply answer some simple ques­tions online and select the terms for your Will. We then take care of the rest.

When you create your Will in Aatos, you don't have to worry about print­ing, stor­ing or up­dat­ing it. Your Will is always ac­cess­ible and up to date.

Aatos is the most cost-ef­fect­ive way (just £99) of writ­ing your Will and keep­ing it up to date.

Aatos Cus­tom­er Re­views (4.4 /5 in total)

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Read more on our art­icle Simple Will in 10 minutes.

Making an In­formed De­cision

Choos­ing the right type of Will – be it Joint, Mutual, Mirror or a Single Will, en­sures your wishes and those of your part­ner are hon­oured ef­fect­ively.

Seek­ing expert advice is key to nav­ig­at­ing your op­tions and set­ting up a Will that fits your life per­fectly, avoid­ing po­ten­tial com­plic­a­tions and en­sur­ing a smooth pro­cess for your loved ones after you’re gone.