Our services: wills, tax planning, probate and trusts
Making a will is one of the most important personal and financial actions we take in our lives. Your will is your single most important tool for providing for your dependents when you are no longer around and ensuring that your assets are distributed as you would wish, yet surveys consistently show that between 50 and 60 per cent of British people fail to put a will in place.
Where there is no will – or a badly drafted one – your loved ones may face the stressful, expensive and time-consuming process of resolving financial issues or disputes, at an already difficult time. For example, if you die without making a will, the laws of intestacy mean that a cohabiting partner with whom you have lived for many years will inherit nothing from your estate.
If you have young children, making a will is also important to establish arrangements for their care if you are no longer around and an expertly drafted will is crucial to minimising your tax liability on your death.
In making your will, our legal advisors in Gloucester and Cirencester will explore the options available to you and prepare a clear, professionally drafted document that will allow your estate to be distributed as you with, without the potential for dispute. In drafting you will, we can also advise on trusts and other ways to minimise potential inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
If you wish, we can also act as your executors, dealing with obtaining grants of probate or letters of administration and the administration of estates to ensure that liabilities, including inheritance tax, are established and met and bequests distributed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
When you make your will it is also sensible to put in place a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). This allows you to appoint a trusted person – a friend, relative or professional advisor, such as a solicitor – to manage financial and other matters on your behalf when you are no longer able to do so for yourself through mental incapacity. An LPA also allows you to appoint someone to make decisions on health and welfare matters, for example whether to have medical treatment.
Making an LPA avoids the need for complicated legal proceedings to unfreeze the assets of someone who has become incapable of handling their own affairs in old age – or at any age – but has made no provision in case that happens. By seeking your solicitor's advice on drawing up your will and LPA, you will have real peace of mind that your affairs in the future will be handled in accordance with you wishes.
Where there is no LPA, you may need to apply to the Court of Protection, for example so that it can decide on someone's capacity to make a particular decision or for the court to make a decision about someone's property. We can advise and represent you in proceedings in the Court of Protection.
Making a will
- Advising
- Drafting and amending
Probate
- Administering the estate
- Post-death variations
Inheritance tax planning
- Advice on inheritance tax mitigation
- Lifetime gifts
- Post-death variations
- Setting up and restructuring trusts
Retirement planning
- Courts of Protection
- Funding of care
- Moving into sheltered accommodation
- Lasting Powers of Attorney
If you would like more information about our services please contact:
- Stephanie Dawson at our Gloucester office on 01452 508800
- Valerie Hancock at our Cirencester office on 01285 654875
- Mythili Bonham at our Cirencester office on 01285 654875.
Please click on the links below to download our company brochures:
- Do I need to make a Will?
- What do I need to do when someone dies?
- Who will look after my affairs if I am unable to?