Does a Will Need to Be on Special Paper?

The idea that a will needs special paper likely comes from the general sense that wills are serious legal documents, combined with historical images of parchment deeds and wax seals from centuries past. Modern English and Welsh wills bear no resemblance to that picture, and have not needed to for a very long time.

It may also stem from confusion with other documents that genuinely do have formal production or registration requirements, such as certain property deeds. A will is different: it is a private document that only needs to satisfy the requirements of the Wills Act 1837 to take legal effect.

Section 9 requires that a will be in writing, signed by the testator (or someone else in their presence and at their direction), with intention that the signature give effect to the document as a will, and that the signature be made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses present together, who then each sign in the testator's presence.

Nothing in that list refers to paper type, printing method, colour of ink, or physical formality of any kind. A will typed on a laptop and printed on standard copier paper, or even a will handwritten on a plain notepad page (provided the wording and formalities are right), can be equally valid.

While the law is silent on paper quality, there are sensible practical reasons to use reasonably good ordinary paper. A will may need to be stored for many years, sometimes decades, before it is used, so paper that will not yellow, tear or fade excessively over time is worth choosing over something flimsy.

Standard white printer paper, kept in a dry, dark place such as a solicitor's storage facility, a bank, or a fire-resistant document box at home, will generally remain perfectly legible for the length of time needed.

There is no fixed rule about how a multi-page will must be bound together, but it is good practice to keep pages securely fastened, whether by staple, treasury tag or similar, so that pages cannot be accidentally separated, lost, or (however unlikely) substituted. Some practitioners recommend the testator and witnesses initial each page as an additional safeguard, though this is not a strict legal requirement under section 9.

What probate registries and courts do care about, if a will's validity is ever questioned, is whether the document as a whole was complete and unaltered at the point of signing, and whether it was properly executed. Tidy, securely fastened pages support that, but they are a practical safeguard rather than a legal requirement.

Services like My Posh Will produce a completed will document for you to print and sign at home, exactly as described above: on ordinary paper, using a normal home or office printer. There is no additional step of sending anything off for special printing or certification, because none is legally required.

The steps that genuinely matter come after printing: reading the document carefully, then signing and witnessing it correctly in the presence of two independent witnesses who meet at the same time. That is where your attention and care should go, not the paper stock.