The client with no will: the commonest referral you're missing

Across the UK, a large share of adults have no valid will. The reasons are rarely dramatic. People are busy, they assume they are too young, they believe their estate is too modest to matter, or they simply find the subject uncomfortable and keep pushing it down the list. For you as an introducer, that inertia is precisely the opportunity. You are not being asked to fix anything or to give advice. You only need to notice the gap and know where to hand it on.

The clients most likely to have no will are often the ones who assume the law will sort things out for them. It will, but rarely in the way they imagine. That mismatch between assumption and reality is the heart of the conversation you are learning to open.

When someone dies without a valid will, they die intestate, and a fixed statutory order decides who inherits. It does not follow friendships, promises, or fairness. In England and Wales, an unmarried partner inherits nothing under those rules, no matter how long the relationship. A married spouse may have to share the estate with children rather than receiving everything. Stepchildren who were never legally adopted are not recognised at all.

You do not need to memorise the detail. What matters is that you can say, plainly, that the intestacy rules almost never match what people actually want, and that a vetted specialist can put that right. Naming the risk in one sentence is usually enough to make a client sit up.

Clients tell you more than they realise. Train your ear for the offhand remarks that reveal there is no plan in place:

• "We keep meaning to sort that out."
• "My partner would just get everything, wouldn't they?"
• "I haven't done anything formal since we bought the house."
• "The kids can work it out between themselves."
• "I'm not sure I even need one."

Each of these is a door. None of them requires you to have an answer. They require you only to recognise that a will is missing and that a conversation with a specialist would serve the client well.

Your role stops at recognition and referral. You are not drafting anything, and you are not advising on what the will should say. A natural handover sounds like this: "That's exactly the sort of thing worth getting properly documented. I work with vetted specialists who handle wills and estate planning, and I'd be happy to introduce you."

That single sentence keeps you firmly in your lane. It positions you as someone who spotted a genuine need and pointed the client toward regulated, professional help, rather than someone dispensing advice you are not qualified to give. Most clients are relieved. They have known for years they should act, and you have removed the friction.

Because the no-will client is so common, this is the referral you will make most often once you start listening for it. It costs you nothing but attention, it protects clients from an outcome they never intended, and through the SmartPeer network it generates a share of the resulting fee, with members earning 60-70% of the introduction. The client gets vetted, regulated advice; you get a strengthened relationship and a genuine income stream.

Build the habit deliberately. At the close of a meeting, when the main business is done, a light question such as "Have you ever put a will in place?" opens the door. Half the time the answer will be no. That answer is your cue to introduce, and nothing more. The specialist takes it from there, and you have added real value simply by noticing what most professionals let slip past.

It is worth being clear with yourself about where your responsibility begins and ends, because that clarity is what makes the referral both compliant and comfortable. You are not assessing whether the client needs a particular kind of will, estimating any tax, or commenting on who should inherit. You are recognising an absence and connecting the client to people qualified to fill it.

That boundary protects everyone. The client receives advice from a regulated firm rather than an off-the-cuff opinion, you stay well within the limits of your own expertise, and the specialist works from a clean brief. When you keep the handover this simple, there is nothing to second-guess later. A good test is whether you could describe the whole of your involvement in one sentence: "I noticed you had no will and introduced you to a vetted specialist." If that sentence covers it, you have done the job exactly right, and you can make the introduction with complete confidence.