A decade after embarking on work to modernise a very old law governing wills, the Law Commission finally unveiled a radical blueprint that would sanction electronic wills.

The commission said its recommendations would ensure the law was fit for purpose for the modern age; but not everything is being updated.

The draft bill still refers to a ‘testator’ (someone who makes a will). The Law Society’s private client conference this week heard that some solicitors wanted ‘testator’ to be replaced with a gender-neutral term (the term for a woman, of course, is ‘testatrix’).

One suggestion put to the commission was ‘willer’. The government has a few months to respond and, of course, any legislation has to go through parliament. So if you can think of something better than ‘testator’ or ‘willer’, there’s still time.

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