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Wills and Estate Planning

The Corona Virus has already changed our lives; yet it will continue to do so in many profound and unexpected ways.

Preparing for the unprecedented is difficult – perhaps even impossible to do perfectly – but preparing your tax affairs and making a Will is actually pretty easy with help from one of our lawyers, even if your situation seems impossible to you.

With over 70s in advised self-isolation, and everyone else encouraged to social-distance, we have devised ways of taking instructions without meeting you, and this has already proved successful with clients so far. The entire process can be carried out online, or for those with less experience with the internet by phone and post.

We take you through the whole process and give you a full personal legal health check in conjunction with advice on Wills.

This includes:

  • Inheritance Tax issues
  • Pension and life insurance advice on existing policies (if you don’t already have these, we may recommend a financial adviser to implement where appropriate)
  • Joint property and investment ownership (these have a bearing on the way Wills are drafted)

With the Will itself we will go through all the usual matters to consider, as well as any particular to your circumstances. This would normally include:

  • Residency and domicile issues
  • Choice of executors
  • Funeral wishes and arrangements (entirely optional)
  • Choice of guardians for minor children
  • Personal possessions
  • Cash legacies to individuals
  • Charitable legacies
  • How you wish to divide your estate and who should benefit
  • Will Trusts if life interests or second partners, step children etc are present
  • Anything more complex that fits your situation

These are important issues and we urge anyone with property or children or moderate wealth to have a Will and take associated advice. It will save your family uncertainty and money in the long term.

It is also important to talk about Inheritance Tax when considering your Will. There are rumours of the Treasury making changes to regime which will adversely affect many peoples’ estates. Our experts can help plan ahead and create a Will that anticipates these changes so you don’t have to be reactive in the future.

Please contact one of our team for further advice. Usually a short conversation on the telephone will be enough to give us a good idea of your circumstances and a fee quote. We can take it from there.