A letter of wishes is an informal document that sits alongside your will. It is not legally binding, but it carries weight. It tells the people you trust why you made the decisions in your will, what you hope happens to particular belongings, how you would like to be remembered, and what you want said to the people you love.
In the UK, most solicitors will hold a sealed letter of wishes with your will. This guide is a template you can adapt, and a short note on how a modern service like Y.O.D.O. complements it.
Section 1: Funeral and end-of-life preferences
- Burial or cremation, and any specific location. - Religious or non-religious ceremony, and any readings, music, or speakers you would want. - Flowers, donations, or neither. - Anything you do not want, in plain words.
Section 2: Guidance to your executors
- The reasons behind specific decisions in your will, particularly anything that might surprise a family member. - Items of low monetary value but high personal value, and who should receive them. - Charities you would like remembered, even if not named in the will itself.
Section 3: Notes to specific people
- Short personal messages to children, partners, parents, and close friends. - Anything you have always meant to say and never quite said.
Section 4: Digital life
- A pointer to where your passwords are held (a password manager, a safe, a trusted person). - Accounts and subscriptions that should be closed. - Social media: memorialise, delete, or hand to a named person.
Section 5: Practical handover
- Who knows your bank, your insurance, your employer. - Anyone who should be contacted personally before any public announcement.
Where Y.O.D.O. fits alongside the paper letter
A traditional letter of wishes does one thing very well: it sits with your solicitor in a sealed envelope, waiting. It is a single document, written once, often years before it is opened.
Y.O.D.O. is the modern digital equivalent. It carries the same intent, but in formats a paper letter cannot:
- Text, voice, or video per Recipient, edited any time, deleted any time. - One-to-one delivery. Each Recipient sees only what was addressed to them, never the whole document. - Active delivery, not passive waiting. Scheduled check-ins create a quiet signal of life. If that signal goes missing, Y.O.D.O. reaches out to your Delegates and prompts them to act, rather than waiting for someone to remember the account exists.
Many of our users keep a short paper letter of wishes with their solicitor for funeral and executor guidance, and use Y.O.D.O. for the personal detail that would not fit there.
What Y.O.D.O. is not
Y.O.D.O. messages are private communications, not legal documents. Your will remains the legal instrument for assets, and a paper letter of wishes remains the right home for executor guidance.
Where to start
If you have not written either, start with the paper letter. It takes thirty minutes and your solicitor can hold it. Then, when you are ready for the personal handover, join our waiting list and we will be in touch when Y.O.D.O. opens.