Free Legal Will Forms

We provide a variety of free legal will forms that may assist you
in drawing up your last will and testament.

The information on this page however, deals specifically with people who are cohabiting but are not legally married or have not registered a civil partnership.

Visit our main page on Wills for many other templates which may be more suitable for your requirements.

This is the important bit!

Perhaps the most compelling reason to have a Last Will and Testament in place applies to unmarried people, because (unlike a spouse or civil partner) they may not have the automatic right to inherit from a life partner.

There are many reasons why people may choose not to marry or register a civil partnership:

• Partners may have been married before and now being in their later years, may have objections from adult children to remarry;
• Partners may be of the same sex and live in a jurisdiction that does not allow a legal marriage;
• Partners may simply choose not to get married or may not have the ability to get married for whatever reason.

However, living together for a period of time does not make for a "common law marriage" (in most jurisdictions) and does not automatically grant the same legal rights as for married couples, such as exemption from inheritance tax.

Note: Please refer to our guidelines on Writing a Will for an overview and where you can also find links to a selection of more free legal forms for last wills.

Free Legal Will Forms for Unmarried People

We have two forms for unmarried people which may work for you:

* Last will for single person without children

* Will form for single person with adult children

Why Should You Have a Will?

• In most states, provinces or countries the law does not recognize the rights of, or make legal provision for a life partner to inherit if someone dies intestate (without a will).
  
  In such a case the intestacy rules will come into effect and in general, any living blood relatives will stand to inherit in a pre-determined order.
• You may still be legally married to another person (separated but not divorced) and are now in a new relationship. If you die intestate, your spouse may have a claim on your estate and you current life partner may inherit nothing.
• If you have minor children, you may want to appoint your life partner as legal guardian (even if there is another biological parent) and you need to stipulate this in your will.

Which Estate Assets Must Be Dealt With in a Will?

Life partners may have a cohabitation agreement in place. However, it may only make provision for division of property upon termination of the relationship and may not provide for bequests upon death.

Note: Where partners jointly own property (and the property deed reflects that), such a property will automatically go to the surviving partner and need not be mentioned in the will as part of the estate assets.

However, a partner may have contributed to mortgage payments, although the deed only lists the other's name.

Without the presence of the will, the non-listed partner may have to institute a claim against the estate to recover such mortgage payments, let alone the appreciated value of the property.

Have a look at the various free legal will forms listed on our Last Will and Testament main page - you may want to use a combination of forms to compile a will that suits you best.

What About Your Online Accounts?

These accounts (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Emails etc.) may not have monetary value, but you would not want to leave them out there in the big internet yonder after you pass away.

Incidentally, the highest incidence of hacking of personal accounts is with deceased accounts.

There's no need to address these accounts in your Will. In fact, if you wish the details to remain private you should not disclose them in a document (Last Will) that becomes public knowledge upon your passing.

Please visit our page on social media wills for more information on how to give instructions to your digital executor and the accompanying free templates

We will be making it very easy to address this! With our App you will be able to securely and confidentailly store login details, appoint an executor and leave instrucitons on how your want your digital accounts to be finalised.

Visit our EndExec App page to register your email address to get advance notice of this upcoming release.

Some Points to Consider for Your Last Will and Testament:

• In your last will and testament you can direct that your partner has the right to stay in your house ("usufruct") for a specified period of time or for the rest of his/her life, even if your children inherit the house;
• You can establish a testamentary trust for your partner to ensure he/she has an income;
• You should set up a testamentary trust for your minor children (who cannot legally own property until they reach adulthood) where the trustees may or may not necessarily be the same person(s) as the guardian(s).

We provide extensive information on how to create a Testamentary Trust in your last will and testament.

Start with this page on Family Wills with Trust Structures and then go through the additional information on Testamentary Trusts and creating a Trust under Will.

Note: We strongly recommend consulting with a professional to assist you with establishing living trusts. Visit Free Living Trust Information first to save you and your attorney time (and therefore money) when you meet to discuss your estate plan.

Our free legal will forms can assist you with streamlining your thoughts before compiling your last will and testament and consulting with an attorney. If you have complex financial affairs, professional advice must be sought to assist with estate planning.

Does this site deserve your thumbs up?