Civil Partnership Revokes a Will Too

Entering a civil partnership cancels your existing will. It is one of the least known rules in English law, and the answer to the question "does entering a civil partnership cancel my will" is a flat yes, in exactly the same way that marriage does. Registering a civil partnership and getting married are treated identically for this purpose. The moment you register the partnership, the will you made before it is revoked and treated as though it never existed.

This surprises almost everyone, because nothing about registering a partnership feels like it should tear up a legal document you paid for. But the rule does not care how carefully your will was drafted or how recently. Unless the will was specifically made in expectation of that partnership, the whole thing falls: every gift, the appointment of your executors, and — the part that matters most if you have children — the appointment of the guardian.

The practical result is that a couple who form a civil partnership to protect each other can accidentally leave themselves in a worse position than before, dying without a valid will and letting the intestacy rules decide who gets what and who is left with no appointed guardian at all. The fix is straightforward once you know the rule exists, which is the whole reason this page does.

Where the rule actually comes from

The rule that marriage revokes a will is very old, set out in section 18 of the Wills Act 1837. When civil partnerships were created, Parliament deliberately mirrored it: the Civil Partnership Act 2004 inserted a new section 18B into the same Act, so that forming a civil partnership revokes a will on the same terms as marriage. This was not an accident or an oversight. It was a decision to treat the two relationships identically for succession, and it means civil partners inherit the same trap that married couples have lived with for nearly two centuries.

The logic behind the original rule was that entering a marriage is such a fundamental change to your family that the law assumes you would want to start your will afresh, with your new spouse in mind. Whether or not that assumption fits your life, it is the default, and it operates automatically. Nobody warns you at the register office, and the revocation happens whether you intended it or not.

The rule has long been criticised, precisely because so few people know about it and because it can be exploited — a person who marries or forms a partnership with someone vulnerable can, in effect, wipe out an earlier will that left everything elsewhere. Concern about that kind of predatory arrangement has kept the rule under review for years. But criticism is not repeal, and until the law actually changes you should plan on the basis that it applies exactly as described here.

What "revoked" actually costs you

It is worth being concrete about what falls away, because "your will is revoked" sounds abstract until you see the consequences land.

If your revoked will was the only one you had, you die intestate — as though you never made a will. The intestacy rules then decide who inherits, in a fixed order that may not match what you wanted. A civil partner is well placed under those rules, but they do not necessarily take everything, particularly where there are children, and the order of inheritance is rigid rather than tailored to your family. Stepchildren, an unmarried partner from before, godchildren and charities you meant to remember are recognised nowhere in it, because intestacy sees only spouses, civil partners and blood relatives. If you want to see how unforgiving the statutory scheme can be, the Scottish version is set out in our guide to dying without a will in Scotland and how prior rights work, and the English scheme follows the same principle of law choosing for you.

Three things in particular disappear with the will, and each causes its own problem:

• Your executors. The people you chose to administer your estate are no longer appointed, so someone has to apply to become administrator under the intestacy rules instead.
• Your gifts. Specific legacies to friends, godchildren, stepchildren or charities simply vanish, because intestacy recognises none of them.
• Your guardian appointment. If you named a guardian for your children in the revoked will, that appointment is gone. A parent who believes their children are covered may, in law, have appointed nobody.

That last point is the quiet danger. It is why we treat the guardian question and the will as a single subject rather than two, and why a revoked will can turn an ordinary bereavement into the frightening interim covered in our piece on who decides who raises your children if no valid appointment survives.

The clause that keeps your will alive

There is a way to stop the revocation happening, and it costs nothing beyond getting the wording right. The Wills Act allows a will to be made "in expectation" of a particular civil partnership. If your will states that you expect to form a civil partnership with a named person and that you intend the will to remain valid afterwards, it survives the registration instead of being revoked by it.

The requirements are specific. The expectation must relate to a civil partnership with a particular person, not to the general idea of settling down one day, and the will must make clear that it is not to be revoked when that partnership is formed. A vague reference to a partner is not enough. This is exactly the same mechanism that lets a couple marrying use a will made beforehand, which we cover in how a will made in contemplation of marriage stays valid.

Two limits are worth knowing. The clause only protects the specific partnership you named: if that relationship ends and you form a civil partnership with someone else later, the protection does not carry over. And it protects the will you have; it does not update it. If your circumstances have changed since you wrote it, the sensible course is usually a fresh will made around the time of the partnership rather than relying on an old one surviving.

Converting a civil partnership into a marriage

Many couples who registered a civil partnership before same-sex marriage was available have since converted it into a marriage, and they reasonably worry that the conversion might have quietly revoked their wills. The generally accepted position is reassuring: conversion is treated as the same relationship continuing from the date the civil partnership was originally registered, rather than as a brand-new marriage. On that basis, a will made during the partnership is not revoked when it converts.

Because the legislation in this area is newer and less tested than the core rule, it is a point on which cautious solicitors like to see the wording of a will rather than assume. If you converted and your will predates the conversion, it is very likely still valid, but a conversion is a natural moment to check that the will still reflects your family, your assets and your choice of guardian. Confirming it costs little; discovering a problem after death costs a great deal.

It is also worth separating what a change of relationship status does to a will from what it does to other arrangements. A pension nomination, for instance, does not follow the same rules as a will at all, which is a common source of confusion — the contrast is drawn out in why divorce rewrites your will but leaves your pension nomination untouched.

What to do about it

The rule is easy to defeat once you know it is there. If you are forming a civil partnership, make a new will around the same time, or make sure the existing one is expressly written in expectation of that partnership. If you have already registered one and never revisited your will, assume the old will is gone and make a new one now, rather than hoping the old one somehow survived. It is one of the cheapest pieces of protection you can put in place, and one of the easiest to overlook because nothing about the day itself flags it.

While you are doing that, it is the right moment to look at whether there is money behind the plan, not just paperwork. A will decides who receives what; it does not create the money in the first place. For a couple with children or a mortgage, a life insurance policy is often what turns a will's good intentions into an outcome the family can actually live on. Writing that cover into a trust can also keep the payout outside your estate and get it to the right people faster. If that is a gap for you, you can get life insurance quotes through an FCA-authorised broker and size it against your own commitments. The wider set of decisions around children, guardians and money is gathered in our guide to wills, guardianship and children.

One reassurance worth holding onto: this rule cuts only one way. Forming a partnership revokes a will, but ending a relationship does not, which trips people up in the opposite direction — as we explain in why divorce does not cancel your will, it only removes your ex.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

This is one of those areas where treating England and Wales law as UK-wide would be a real mistake.

In Scotland, the position is the opposite. Forming a civil partnership does not revoke your existing will, because Scots succession law never adopted the marriage-revokes-a-will rule. A Scottish will made before a partnership generally stands, though other events — such as the birth of a child not provided for — can affect it, and a partner has their own protections under Scottish succession law regardless of the will. If you live in Scotland, the takeaway is different but no less important: do not assume your will is revoked, and do not assume it still does the right job either.

Northern Ireland follows the same broad approach as England and Wales, with the revocation rule set out in its own legislation, the Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994, alongside the UK-wide provisions of the Civil Partnership Act 2004. So a civil partnership formed in Northern Ireland generally does revoke an earlier will, with a similar expectation exception. You can read the underlying statutes on legislation.gov.uk, and free general guidance on making or updating a will through Citizens Advice or the government-backed MoneyHelper.

Frequently asked questions

Does entering a civil partnership cancel my will?

Yes. In England and Wales, registering a civil partnership revokes an existing will in the same way marriage does, unless the will was made in expectation of that particular partnership. The guardian appointment, the executors and every gift fall away with it, and you are left to be dealt with under the intestacy rules unless you make a new will.

What is a clause made in contemplation of civil partnership?

It is wording stating that you expect to form a civil partnership with a named person and intend the will to survive it. Drafted correctly, the will stays valid afterwards rather than being revoked. It only protects the partnership you named, not a later one with someone else, so it is not a permanent shield against the rule.

What if we convert our civil partnership into a marriage?

Conversion is generally treated as continuing the same relationship from the date the partnership was registered rather than creating a new marriage, so an existing will is not usually disturbed. It is still a sensible moment to check the will still fits your family, your assets and your choice of guardian, because confirming it costs far less than discovering a gap after death.