Wills, Trust and Probate

As the late Edward Nichols, one of our founders would say, the one thing in life that is certain, (apart from taxes) is death! So it is important to use a will to plan for what will happen to your property after your death, or who will look after any children if your family are young.

If you do not make a Will,your property and other assets may not pass to whom you would wish.  The future wellbeing of your family may depend on you having prepared an effective and legally valid Will.  Using our specialist knowledge of property, trust and tax law we can help you cater for a number of different possibilities and prepare your Will so as to give you peace of mind.

If you die without a Will, it is possible that your surviving spouse will not be entitled to the whole of your estate, especially if you are survived by children.  This is of special importance at present, after a period of rising house prices where the mortgage is paid off by a life policy on the first death.

When you make a Will you decide who will deal with the administration of your affairs, as well as stating who will benefit under your Will.  In the days of second marriages and family mobility generally, having your say through a Will can be of great importance.

A Will can also be an effective tax planning tool for couples.  Although no inheritance tax is payable on assets passing between spouses on the first death, this can result in a substantial inheritance tax liability on the second death.

We can offer specialist advice in this field and help you to plan ahead (including lifetime tax planning) to minimise the amount of tax payable on your estate before it passes to your beneficiaries.

Will Review

If you made a Will many years ago, if there have been changes in your own personal, family or financial circumstances it may no longer reflect your current wishes.  Furthermore, changes in the inheritance tax provisions may also mean you ought to review your Will.  We offer a discussion of up to half an hour free of charge to help you identify whether or not any change would be beneficial to you, and if so we will tell you what our charges would be to make a new Will for you.

Guardians

These are the people named in your will to look after your underage children, (usually other members of the family,) but you will want to make sure that whilst your children inherit your property, the Guardians are helped with the increased costs of looking after them until they are grown up.

Personal Representatives

This a term we use to describe the people named in a Will to act as Executor, or the Administrators of someone who did not make a Will (usually next of kin).  Personal Representatives have important legal responsibilities.  Sometimes there are difficult legal issues involved, or disputes between the beneficiaries.This is quite apart from the fact that after the loss of someone close to you, dealing with these matters may prove personally distressing.  With this mind we can, if you wish, relieve you of the burden of getting Probate and help you ensure that the wishes of the deceased are followed.  

Trustees

Where you have younger children, it is necessary to appoint Trustees to look after your property until such time as the children are able to inherit, typically when they come of age. The Trustees should be named in the will, and whilst there are statutory duties for them, you may well wish to lay down your own criteria.

We are also able to advise both Personal Representatives and beneficiaries on post death tax planning.

Your contacts on any of these topics are Gloria Ryden in the Clifton office, Linda Ahern in Kingswood