A couple of other things to consider when making your will. My wife and I went through it and are now helping my in-laws rewrite theirs - bearing in mind that excluding myself, all the others are in second marriages with children from previous partners.
If any of the beneficiaries of the will precede you, who then gets their share if you don't change the will and you peg it?
Our wills, because of my wife's two girls, included them as my issue and they shared equally in any inheritance along with their half brother, if the girls weren't married when we died, inherited and then died shortly afterwards (god forbid) their estranged father would be their next of kin and inherit the result of our hard graft - which he would pour down his neck or stick in his arm...
We also lodged our will with a will company - that way, in theory, our son couldn't destroy any will upon our demise and we would then be deemed to die intestate and 'my' girls could be excluded as they aren't my issue - although I've been their dad since the eldest was 3 and the other 20 months.
If you have any particular momentoes you wish to pass on to individual, specify and explain why in a seperate letter.
We've lost quite a few relatives over the years - never got a red cent from any of them, because each one that passed on never changed any will they'd written, lodged it properly or it just got ignored - or by the time the 'expenses had all been sorted there was nothing left. My wife and sister-in-law lost half the value of a house because it all went to their step-mother and her daughters as the second wife was next of kin...the will he wrote was never found.
Big National charities as much as you might think do good works - are really parasitic businesses that survive by leeching off generous people. As was written earlier, soon as you've gone the charity want your cash - you don't really think the solicitor was working for nothing?
Check into some of these charities, the cash left AFTER the expenses are covered doesn't leave much to do good works, some are as low as 2 pence out every £1
Personally I feel if you want to do something good for people you love, treat them while you're alive, at least you can enjoy it too and see the pleasure it gives, invest in their future now rather than watch them struggling and looking forward to you dying so they can have your house!
Do your homework before you commit anything to paper..it's an absolute minefield and the last thing that you'll probably be remembered for so it'll pay to get it right - use a good will company or solicitor, ask questions and wait for proper answers, make copies of EVERYTHING and sign to prove authenticity, distribute to relevant beneficiaries in sealed envelopes. The last chance to prove you loved someone or completely despised them!