How you could make your will in a text or an email

THE rules for making wills should be loosened to help ensure the right people benefit when someone dies, Government legal advisers said yesterday.

The dying may even be able to make a valid will by text or email as a last resort when they are in hospital, it was suggested.

And individuals could be able to draw up electronic wills on tablets or laptops, a report said – although it warned that safeguards against fraud, exploitation and the risk of disappearing computer files will have to be in place before it can happen.

In cases where a will was not drawn up to meet the tight conditions set down by the law, judges should have the power to order someone’s last wishes to be followed, the recommendations from the Law Commission said.

Proposals to ease the strict rules that govern will-making were put forward by the Law Commission, which presents recommendations to ministers on law reform.

Under the Wills Act of 1837 that currently determines how assets can be passed on after a death, only wills that are correctly prepared, and signed in the presence of two witnesses, are valid.

If a will does not meet these conditions, it counts for nothing and the estate is distributed as if the dead person had never tried to make a will – with the result that assets may go to those they did not intend to benefit. The report said judges should have a ‘dispensing power’ to decide what the deceased intended.

That would mean a court could rule that last wishes expressed by someone on their deathbed by typing on or speaking into a smartphone constitutes a will.

It would also allow judges to give force to wills that do not meet the full requirements of the law – for example if a witness is not present when the person who is drawing it up signs it. The commission called for a string of reforms to the 180-year-old law, including rules to protect against improper influence on the will-maker and guidelines to allow those with dementia to draw up wills without needing to go to court.

While the reforms should go ahead now, a new Wills Act should give future governments powers to allow electronic wills to be made when safeguards have been agreed, its report said.

In its consultation document, the Commission said: ‘A person who is seriously ill in hospital may have more immediate access to a tablet or smartphone than to a pen and paper.’