The complete guide to wills, Lasting Power of Attorney, Inheritance Tax, pension nominations, trusts, digital assets, blended families, and a full estate planning checklist.
This guide is part of ProbateHelp's Wills & Planning guide cluster.
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Estate planning brings together decisions about help during your lifetime and inheritance after death. It usually involves a will, appropriate powers of attorney, pension nominations and a tax review. These arrangements can reduce avoidable uncertainty, tax or delay, but cannot guarantee an outcome.
No — you can make a will yourself using a template or an online service. However, a solicitor is strongly recommended if your estate is complex, you have a business, you want to set up trusts, or your family circumstances are complicated (e.g., blended families, estranged relatives).
Assets passing under intestacy follow the rules for the relevant UK jurisdiction. In England and Wales, where a spouse or civil partner and descendants survive, the spouse or civil partner receives personal chattels, the first £322,000 of the remaining net estate and half any balance; descendants share the other half under the statutory rules. An unmarried partner has no automatic intestacy share, although joint ownership, nominations or a family-provision claim may matter.
Professional fees depend on the work: ask for a written quote covering drafting, advice, VAT, storage and later changes. In England and Wales the OPG registration fee is £92 per LPA, or £184 for both types, before any reduction or exemption. Solicitor fees are separate.
The standard nil-rate band is £325,000. A residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 may apply where a qualifying home or share passes to direct descendants. A qualifying surviving spouse or civil partner's estate can potentially reach up to £1 million where the relevant unused percentages transfer. The qualifying home value, £2 million taper, gifts, exemptions and reliefs can change the result.
A will directs your estate after death. An England and Wales LPA appoints someone to help during your lifetime and ends at death. A registered property and financial affairs LPA can be used with your permission while you have capacity; a health and welfare LPA can be used only when you cannot make the relevant decision. Scotland and Northern Ireland use different arrangements.
While you have the necessary testamentary capacity, you can update your will by making a new will, which normally revokes the old one, or by adding a codicil — a formal amendment signed and witnessed in the same way as a will. In England and Wales, marriage or civil partnership usually revokes an earlier will unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage or civil partnership. Divorce or dissolution does not revoke the whole will, but normally affects gifts and appointments to the former spouse or civil partner unless the will shows a contrary intention. Get jurisdiction-specific advice after a relationship change.
Mirror wills are two separate wills made by a couple that reflect each other — typically leaving everything to the other partner first, and then to children or other beneficiaries if the other partner has already died. They are separate documents: ordinary mirror wills do not bind either person to keep those terms. Either can change their own will while they have the necessary capacity. A legally binding mutual-wills arrangement is different and needs specialist advice.
Generally no. Transfers between spouses and civil partners are exempt from Inheritance Tax under the spouse/civil-partner exemption, which is generally unlimited, although a restriction can apply where the deceased was long-term UK resident and the surviving spouse or civil partner was not. When the surviving spouse dies, their estate (which now includes the inherited assets) may be subject to IHT, and the unused nil-rate band from the first death can be transferred to the survivor's estate.
A nil-rate band discretionary trust (NRBDT) is a trust written into a will that holds assets up to the nil-rate band (£325,000) for the benefit of a wide class of beneficiaries, rather than passing them directly to the surviving spouse. It was widely used before 2007 to preserve both spouses' nil-rate bands. Since the transferable nil-rate band was introduced in 2007, NRBDTs are less commonly needed for IHT purposes, but they are still used in some circumstances.
Under current rules, most defined contribution pension pots do not form part of your probate estate and usually sit outside Inheritance Tax. They normally pass under the pension scheme rules, guided by your expression of wishes form. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits will be brought within the value of the estate for IHT purposes, so nominations still matter but tax planning needs a fresh review.
Beneficiaries can redirect an inheritance, but special IHT or CGT read-back treatment requires a qualifying written variation within two years of death and the appropriate statement of intent. Agreement is needed from those whose entitlement is reduced; minors or people lacking capacity need specialist advice. Read-back is conditional, does not rewrite the will generally and does not apply for Income Tax. See the separate variation guide before acting.
Not necessarily — a will does not need to name specific properties to be valid. However, if your will leaves 'my house at [address]' to a specific person and you have since moved, you should update it. More importantly, if your financial circumstances have changed significantly, a review is always worthwhile.