Do I need a UK will if I live abroad?

Usually yes, if you still own anything in the UK. A home, a bank account, an ISA, shares, a rental flat: any of these can still be dealt with under English law when you die, wherever you happen to live. Moving abroad doesn't quietly hand the job to your new country. So the honest answer for most British expats is that a UK will still earns its place. The real question is whether you need a separate UK will or one carefully coordinated will that also covers your assets elsewhere.

Here is what's actually at stake, and where people get caught out.

What happens to your UK assets if you don't have a will

Die without a valid will and the intestacy rules of England and Wales decide who gets your UK assets. They don't ask what would have been fair, and they don't bend to your circumstances.

The rules are stricter than most people assume. If you leave a spouse or civil partner and no children, your spouse takes everything. But if you leave a spouse and children, your spouse does not take the whole estate. They receive your personal belongings, a fixed sum (the statutory legacy, currently £322,000), and half of what's left. The other half is split between your children. That surprises people who assumed everything would simply pass to their husband or wife.

Two traps catch expats in particular. An unmarried partner inherits nothing under intestacy, however long you've been together. There is no automatic right, and they can't even apply as of right to deal with your estate. And stepchildren you never formally adopted are not your children for these rules. If you want either of them provided for, only a will does that.

How your UK property passes depends on how you own it. A home held as joint tenants usually passes automatically to the surviving co-owner, outside the will. A share held as tenants in common falls into your estate and follows your will or the intestacy rules. UK banks set their own thresholds for when they need probate before releasing a sole account. Pensions are the big exception: most modern pensions are paid at the discretion of the scheme, guided by your nomination form, not by your will. That is exactly why keeping that nomination up to date is a separate job from making a will.

Why a UK will still matters when you live abroad

Four reasons, in plain terms.

Control. England and Wales still gives you broad freedom to decide who gets what. A will lets you protect a spouse, name a child from a first marriage, look after an unmarried partner, or leave something to charity. Without one, none of those choices is yours.

The right executors. With a will, the people you name apply for probate. Without one, the law decides who has to step in, and the closest relative isn't always the person you'd actually trust to deal with UK banks, HMRC and probate forms from another country.

Guardians for young children. A parent can name a guardian in their will to take responsibility if the worst happens. It doesn't settle every cross-border custody question, but it's the clearest starting point you can give your family.

Tax and speed. The nil-rate band is £325,000, with a further residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 where the conditions are met, and unused allowances can pass to a surviving spouse. A will can't invent reliefs the law doesn't offer, but it can direct your assets in a way that helps preserve them. It also tends to make administration faster: sorting out an estate without a will takes longer, and the probate application fee in England and Wales is £526 for estates over £5,000, with grants usually issued within about 12 weeks.

Residence, domicile and the 2025 tax change

A lot of expats assume that once they've left the UK, UK inheritance tax is no longer their problem. That's often wrong, and the rules changed recently.

From 6 April 2025, whether your foreign assets fall within UK inheritance tax turns on long-term residence rather than the old domicile test. You're treated as a long-term UK resident if you've been UK resident for at least 10 of the last 20 tax years. If you are, your worldwide assets can be within UK inheritance tax, and there's a tail: you can stay in scope for up to 10 years after leaving the UK, depending on how long you lived there.

Two things to take from that. Even if you've been gone for years, your non-UK assets may still be exposed for a while. And separately, anything physically in the UK, a house in particular, stays within UK inheritance tax regardless of where you live. So "I'm non-resident, the UK rules don't touch me" simply isn't safe to assume.

One forward note: from 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds will be counted as part of your estate for inheritance tax. If your plan leans on a UK pension as a way to pass wealth on, that's worth revisiting with your nominations and your will together.

One will, or two?

There is no rule that every expat needs two wills, and no rule that one will always wins. It depends on what you own and where.

If your estate is essentially UK-only, a single UK will is usually the obvious answer. If your assets are spread across countries but legally straightforward, one carefully drafted worldwide will can work. But if you own property abroad, or you live in a country with forced heirship or a notary-led system, separate local wills are often safer, because foreign land and local formalities frequently need handling under local law.

The point that matters: if you do end up with more than one will, they have to be written to work together, not signed one after another in isolation.

The revocation trap

This is the mistake that does real damage, so it's worth slowing down on.

Most wills contain a line revoking all earlier wills. It's standard. The problem comes when an expat already has a UK will, then signs a local will abroad to deal with a foreign property, and that local will carries the same standard revocation wording. It can wipe out the UK will by accident, leaving part of the estate to pass under intestacy after all.

This isn't theoretical. The English courts have had to untangle exactly this, where a later will signed abroad was found to have cancelled an earlier one. The fix is straightforward when it's planned: each will should say clearly which assets and which country it covers, and should only revoke what it's meant to. The danger is the "quick local will" picked up after a move, signed without anyone checking how it interacts with the UK one.

A UK will also needs to be signed properly to be valid: in writing, signed in front of two witnesses who are present at the same time. A witness should not be a beneficiary, or the spouse or civil partner of one, because a gift to them would fail. A will signed abroad can still be valid in England, but a foreign will often makes the UK probate process more cumbersome, so it isn't a shortcut.

A few real situations

Daniel lives in Dubai, married with one child, and still owns a buy-to-let in Manchester, a current account and an ISA. He clearly benefits from a UK will: without one, intestacy decides, his wife wouldn't automatically receive everything because there's a child, and the family would still need English probate for the flat and accounts.

Helen retired to Spain and no longer owns UK property, but keeps modest UK savings. She may not need a standalone UK-only will. If her UK assets are small and her Spanish planning is being done properly, one coordinated will might be enough. But the revocation wording has to be controlled, and if she left the UK recently after a long stint there, the residence tail may still keep her in UK inheritance tax for a few years.

Martin moved to Canada years ago with no UK property or accounts, but a large UK pension and adult children in England. He may not need a separate UK will at all. The pension usually passes under the scheme's rules and his nomination. What he does need is that nomination reviewed and his tax planning revisited ahead of the 2027 pension change.

Where this leaves you

Living abroad doesn't remove the need for UK will planning. If you still have UK assets, a UK family situation to provide for, or any ongoing UK inheritance tax exposure, a UK will, or at least a proper UK review alongside your local arrangements, usually still matters. The only genuine question is whether that's a separate English will or part of a joined-up plan across countries.

A properly drafted UK will, coordinated with anything you hold abroad, is what keeps your wishes intact and spares your family the worst of the admin. That is what Expat Legacy is built to do: a clear, valid UK will for British expats, without the jargon.

Sources

• HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual IHTM12122, statutory legacy (gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax (gov.uk)
• Applying for probate: after you've applied (gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident (gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax: unused pension funds and death benefits (gov.uk)
• Wills Act 1837, section 9 (legislation.gov.uk)

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. What's right for you depends on where you live and what you own, so it's worth getting advice tailored to your situation before you act.