Practical guidance, written in plain English.
Four short reads on the decisions estate planning actually involves — no jargon, no obligation. General information only; for anything specific to you, a private consultation is the right next step.
What happens if you don't have a Will
- ✓Without a Will, your estate is shared out under fixed intestacy rules, not your own wishes.
- ✓Unmarried partners have no automatic right to inherit, however long the relationship.
- ✓A Will replaces that default outcome with a decision you actually made.
Most people assume that if something happened to them, their money and possessions would simply go to the people they'd want — a partner, their children, a close friend who's been there through everything. In England and Wales, that isn't automatically true. If you die without a valid Will, your estate is distributed according to the rules of intestacy: a fixed legal order that decides who inherits, regardless of what you actually intended.
Under those rules, married partners and civil partners are provided for first, followed by children. But unmarried partners — however long the relationship, however shared the home — have no automatic right to inherit at all. Step-children are usually excluded unless they were formally adopted. Close friends, or family members outside that fixed order, receive nothing unless a court is persuaded otherwise, which is rarely straightforward.
None of this reflects a deliberate choice. It's simply what happens by default when no Will exists — a set of rules written for the general population, applied to a family they were never designed around. Writing a Will is the way you replace that default with your own decision.
Lasting Power of Attorney, explained simply
- ✓An LPA lets someone you trust make decisions for you if you're ever unable to.
- ✓Without one, not even a spouse or adult child can automatically manage your affairs.
- ✓It can only be set up while you have the mental capacity to make one.
A Lasting Power of Attorney, or LPA, is a legal document that lets you choose someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you're ever unable to make them yourself — whether that's temporary, following an accident or illness, or longer term. There are two kinds: one covers property and financial affairs, the other covers health and care decisions. Most people who put one in place choose to set up both.
Without an LPA, nobody — not even a spouse or adult child — automatically has the legal right to manage your affairs if you lose capacity to do so yourself. Instead, a family member has to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your deputy, a process that can take months, involves ongoing court supervision, and comes with far less flexibility than a document you could have arranged in advance.
An LPA has to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used, and you can only make one while you have the mental capacity to understand what you're agreeing to — which is exactly why it's something to arrange early, while it still feels unnecessary, rather than in a moment when it suddenly isn't.
Trusts aren't just for the wealthy
- ✓A trust simply means assets held by one person for the benefit of another.
- ✓It can protect the family home, provide for a grandchild, or support someone who can't manage money alone.
- ✓You don't need a large estate for a trust to be useful.
The word "trust" tends to conjure a particular image — large estates, complicated tax arrangements, something reserved for families with far more than most of us will ever have. In practice, a trust is simply a legal arrangement where assets are held by one person, or a small group of people, for the benefit of someone else. That's a tool with a use for far more ordinary situations than the word suggests.
A trust can protect a share of the family home for children from an earlier relationship, so a new partner can continue living there without the children's inheritance being put at risk. It can hold money for a grandchild until they're old enough to manage it sensibly. It can provide for a family member who isn't able to manage their own finances, without handing control over entirely. None of these situations require a large estate — they require a family circumstance that a straightforward Will alone doesn't quite cover.
Used well, a trust isn't about complexity for its own sake. It's about making sure the people you're providing for actually receive that provision in the way you intended — no more, and no less.
Inheritance Tax, explained without the jargon
- ✓Every estate has a tax-free allowance (the nil-rate band), currently £325,000.
- ✓A further residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 can apply when a home passes to children or grandchildren.
- ✓Gifts made in the 7 years before death, and reliefs like charitable giving, can also affect what's owed.
Inheritance Tax is charged on the value of an estate above certain thresholds when someone dies. Every estate has a tax-free allowance, the nil-rate band, currently set at £325,000. Where a home is left to children or grandchildren, a further residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 can apply on top of it, taking the combined allowance to as much as £500,000 for an individual. Anything above the available threshold is generally taxed at 40%, though married couples and civil partners can usually pass any unused allowance to one another, effectively doubling what a surviving partner's estate can shelter later on.
The thresholds aren't the only factor. Gifts made in the seven years before death can be pulled back into the estate for tax purposes, on a sliding scale that reduces the tax owed the longer ago the gift was made — a rule that catches out more families than you'd expect, simply because it isn't well known. There are also reliefs worth understanding: leaving 10% or more of a net estate to charity can bring the rate on the rest down from 40% to 36%, and qualifying business or agricultural assets may attract relief of their own.
None of this is a reason to panic, and it isn't inevitable either. It's simply a set of rules that reward early, informed decisions — which is really what Inheritance Tax planning is: working out which of these allowances and reliefs apply to your estate, and using them properly, while there's still time to.
These guides are provided for general information only and are not intended as legal or financial advice. Every family's circumstances are different, and the right approach for you will depend on details a general guide can't account for. If you'd like advice specific to your situation, we'd be glad to help.
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