I ain’t no lawyer…but it’s a common practice (requirement?) to identify specific heirs by their name AND social security number. So how comfortable are you asking your young friends to tell you their soc. sec. number? They will naturally ask why.
If you tell them, it not only ruins the pleasant surprise you intended…it also makes your friendship a bit awkward, as they start to think they should reciprocate, etc.
My situation is similar. I think it’s more important for we widowed types to leave specific instructions if we don’t want our estates to go to intestate succession survivors such as siblings or great-grand-nieces and nephews. We often have friendships that are more meaningful than those relationships. You done good, and you are especially smart to “preview” your plans with your living relatives to get their, uhh, buy-in, so to speak. 
My wife and I leave everything to each other, and if we both die, everything divided up between our siblings evenly. They can deal with getting it to their kids.
First of all, regarding the OP, I don’t have a will at all, because I’m irresponsible, and this reminds me that I do need to get one set up. And when I do, yes, it will be pretty vanilla.
But on the subject of trusts, not really related to wills, but I have a cautionary tale. When my son was younger and not yet of the age of majority, we had a little savings plan for him. At one point I thought it would be instructive for him to see the workings of the stock market, and we put his savings into one of his hot-button interests, a computer game company. I made the terrible mistake, in the interest of him feeling that this was his own money, of registering the account in his name, and since he was underage, it was registered as “Wolfpup in trust for {Wolfpup’s son}”.
Long story short, after some ups and downs, the stock soared and he wanted to sell it. So I put in a sell-limit order at a certain price, and the stock sold, no problem. Then I went though almighty hell trying to actually get the money, because the brokerage would only issue a cheque to “Wolfpup in trust for {Wolfpup’s son}”. I eventually got the cheque deposited into my own account and then transferred it to him, but it took major jumping through hoops! Beware!
That makes me smile. How normal can you be? Very cool!!
And definitely nothing of what I said in this thread applies to the UK. I have no idea how inheritance works over there, except if you’re a Royal, things are pretty cush. 
Fortunately my family has never been like some families where everyone fought over who should have gotten what when someone died. My Mom left everything to be divided evenly among all of us, but my Dad apportioned his estate by some system where we did not all get equal shares. My brother, as executor of Dad’s estate, send all of us a copy of his will and was concerned that there may be some ill will about one of the brothers getting more than the others. Nobody cared; it was Dad’s money and he was free to do what he wanted with it.
Forgive the expression, but I would kill to have a family like yours. Suffice it to say, they’re not. I could tell a lot of horror stories. Having my wishes written in clear, simple language is very important.
This is rather personal, but I’ll say it here anyway. After my mother died (my father had already passed on) she naturally willed her assets evenly between me and my brother. My brother, though, was much wealthier and financially secure than I was. I’ll never forget the day we went to the bank and sat in the bank manager’s office with all the paperwork, and my brother signed away all his inheritance to me.
All the more impressive because although he was comfortably off, like many such people he was also notoriously cheap. If he could save a dollar, he would. This was an act of kindness the like of which I had never seen before.
My husband’s and my will’s are straightforward and clean, with everything left to one another as primary beneficiaries followed by our children and their (future) children if any, etc. My husband has an older son we never see who is the primary beneficiary on one of his IRA accounts, done and done.
I have a cautionary tale from another POV. I have a cousin who is about to inherit substantial assets from his immediate family’s estates. I’m trying to get my cousin to write his own will because if something happens before he does, every penny of the estate assets will be lost to court and legal fees while we, his remaining family, fight to prevent intestate succession. He KNOWS he does not want that to happen, WE all know it, his lawyer knows it, etc., but for whatever reason my cousin is emotionally blocked from being able to set down any instructions in a will.
@wolfpup That is a wonderful and beautiful act. It literally made my heart swell a couple of sizes. If he is still around to hear it, tell him this internet stranger says Well Done, brother.
Coincidentally, I have an appointment with an estate attorney in a couple weeks to see about finally deciding on a will.
That’s the most wonderful thing. Thanks for sharing the story!
I’m in a similar situation with my parents. My siblings, who have both been irresponsible pills for their whole lives, finally alienated my parents to the point that I am the only beneficiary to their estate, held in trust till they die. (More on this in a moment.)
I have already decided to go against my parents’ wishes and distribute any inheritance equally between my siblings and me. I figure it will cost less than fighting them off in court, because they will surely sue.
However, when my time comes, they will not receive anything from me.
Re my parents’ trust: They made a rather sudden choice to move to a new state in their twilight years. One of the first things I asked once they got settled in their new digs was, “Did you update your trust?” Naturally, they hadn’t.
What a mess that would have been. 
A simple thing that can be done is to write a will in his own handwriting, which is called a Holographic Will. Check if his state allows holographic wills. If so, then he can write a simple will until he can get one written up by a lawyer. He’ll have to follow some basic requirements, but it’s pretty simple. And he may not even need to have it notarized or witnessed. If he’s reluctant to go to a lawyer, he may find it easier just to create a holographic will now and then go to the lawyer later at his convenience.
Believe me, we’ve walked him through every possible option. I was able to get him on a conference call with his lawyer who sent my cousin a simple, two-page questionnaire to get his thoughts organized. It’s like SIX QUESTIONS. Now I’m after him to get on the phone with me to dictate his answers so I can type them up and email them back to the lawyer to draft the will from that. All I can do is keep trying.
People can be weird about making out their wills. It’s like they feel as if they’ve given the Universe permission to kill them off. It’s irrational, but surprisingly common.
Good luck.
Ours is pretty simple. There are conditions based on who goes first. If I go first, everything goes to my husband, and after he dies to one of his relatives in Japan. If he goes first, everything comes to me, and when I die it’s split up into a few charities here in the US (my husband’s relatives are okay, but they don’t really need my money). Of course, the survivor’s will and/or the trust could be changed after the first one goes, but that’s the way it sits now.
Our biggest issue was finding an executor/trustee, we don’t really have anyone close to us that we trust and that we want to burden with all that. So we ended up hiring a professional fiduciary, and that seems to work out fairly well. We had a few meetings, she knows what we want, and she won’t be on the clock again until something changes or one of us dies.
One thing to consider is that the executor will need to track down these people at a later date. Try to make it as easy as possible. On a separate piece of paper, include all forms of contact for them, such as addresses, phone numbers, emails, social media accounts, jobs, etc. This will help the executor track them down if they have moved, changed phones, etc. Don’t list the contact info in the will. You’d have to go to the lawyer to update the will whenever that info changed.
I helped someone probate a will that had two executors listed. One of the executors had passed away and no one knew who the other executor was. While going through some papers we found reference to this unknown person and figured out it was a college friend of the decedent. He had also passed away. If we hadn’t been able to figure it out, it would have complicated probating the will since we wouldn’t know how to contact that other person named to be executor.
Don’t we all leave our estates entirely to the Dope?
It may be common somewhere, but I’ve never seen that. And I’ve seen a lot of wills.
Inheritance tax in the UK cuts in for estates worth over £325,000 but doesn’t apply to estates passed to spouses or charities.
Since the average price of a UK house is pushing £300k it’s easy to guess that there are probably a lot of people, especially in the South, whose estates will be liable.
That said, I don’t have a will. My estate is still well under the threshold and the intestacy rules will be fine.