Estate planning

More than a will

Most people think estate planning means writing a will, and a will is part of it. But a will only governs what passes through your estate. Pensions, jointly held property and anything in trust follow their own rules, and they frequently point somewhere different from the will.

That mismatch is the single most common problem we find. A will leaving everything equally to three children, alongside a pension nomination signed fifteen years ago naming only one of them, is not an equal division. Nobody discovers this until it matters.

What we look at

• Whether your will, nominations and ownership actually agree with one another and with what you intend.
• Pension expression of wishes forms, which are easy to update, often decades out of date, and considerably more consequential from April 2027.
• How property is held, since joint tenancy and tenancy in common behave very differently on death.
• Trusts, what they achieve, what they cost to run, and the circumstances in which they are worth the complexity.
• Lasting powers of attorney, which matter long before death and are far harder to arrange once someone has lost capacity.
• Liquidity. If a tax bill falls due before assets can be sold, your executors have a problem. That is solvable in advance.

Working with your solicitor

Drafting wills and trust deeds is legal work and we do not do it. What we do is make sure the financial side lines up with the legal side, and flag the gaps before they become your family's problem. Where you have a solicitor we would rather work with them. Where you do not, we can tell you what you need one for.

This work overlaps heavily with inheritance tax and with long-term care, since care costs and estate preservation pull against each other.