Free Wills Month: Nearly half of UK adults put off writing a will, study finds
Global searches for “admin nights” surged by 3,076% in the past year, suggesting people are finally tackling the everyday tasks they’ve been putting off. However, new research from life insurance expert MoneySuperMarket found that UK adults are still delaying important life admin tasks, costing them money in some cases as well as stress.
To understand the scale of this, MoneySuperMarket surveyed 2,000 nationally representative UK adults about the life admin tasks they delay most, the main reasons for putting them off, and the emotional and financial impact unfinished admin can have.
This research forms part of MoneySuperMarket’s Life Admin Day, a new national awareness day on 18th August 2026, designed to help people tackle quick but important life admin tasks that could protect their finances, reduce stress and support their families.
You can view the full report here: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/life-insurance/life-admin/
Writing a will is the life admin task UK adults delay for the longest, with 42% putting it off for 11.4 weeks on average
To understand which tasks create the biggest backlog, MoneySuperMarket built a Life Admin Delay Score, combining the percentage of people who delay each task with the average number of weeks they put it off. Writing a will tops it: more than two in five (42%) UK adults put it off, and those who do, leave it for 11.4 weeks on average. Managing or switching services ranks second, and updating life insurance or a will after a change in circumstances third.
This suggests that many longer-term financial protection tasks are often left unresolved for weeks or months. In fact, nearly half (45%) of UK adults admit having at least one outstanding financial task, which could have significant consequences further do
