Wills & Trusts Solicitors in Milton Keynes & Northampton

Making a Will with EMW in Milton Keynes, Northampton and Watford

A will is the only way to decide who inherits what you own, who looks after your children and who is responsible for sorting everything out. Without one, the intestacy rules decide instead, and they take no account of what you would have wanted. An unmarried partner inherits nothing under those rules, however long you have been together.

Our wills solicitors act for clients across Milton Keynes, Northampton and Watford, and the firm also has an office in London. The team includes members of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and the Law Society Private Client Section. Most wills are straightforward, and we can usually deal with one in a first meeting and a follow-up to sign. Where an estate is more involved, we will tell you what that means for the work and the cost before you commit to anything.

What a Will Lets You Decide

A will covers more than who gets what. In a single document you can:

Name who inherits your property, savings, possessions and anything else you own
Appoint guardians for children under 18, which is the only way to say who should raise them
Choose your executors, the people responsible for carrying out your wishes
Leave specific gifts, whether that is a sum of money, a particular item or a gift to charity
Set up a trust to hold something for someone rather than passing it to them outright
Record your funeral wishes

For a will to be valid it has to be in writing, signed by you in the presence of two witnesses, and signed by both of them in turn. Neither witness, nor their husband or wife, can inherit anything under it. Most of the wills that cause problems later were either homemade or signed without anyone checking those rules.

TALK TO US

If You Die Without a Will

The intestacy rules set a fixed order of who inherits, and it is rarely the order people expect. A husband, wife or civil partner does not automatically receive everything. Unmarried partners and stepchildren receive nothing at all. Anyone who believes they should have been provided for is left with a court claim as their only option, which is slow, expensive and divisive at the worst possible time.

Where there is no will, someone still has to deal with the estate. Our probate and estate administration team handles that work.

Family meeting with lawyer for legal advice on family matters

Protecting Your Home and Your Family

Leaving everything to one person outright is simple, and for many families it is the right answer. It is not always. A will can hold assets in trust instead, which is worth considering if you have children from an earlier relationship and want to provide for a current partner without disinheriting them, if a beneficiary is young, vulnerable or receiving means-tested support, or if you want to make sure a share of your home eventually reaches your children.

We will talk through whether a trust is genuinely warranted in your case. Often it is not, and we will say so.

Wills and Inheritance Tax

How a will is drafted affects what the estate pays. Gifts between husbands and wives or civil partners are generally exempt, an unused allowance can usually be transferred to the survivor, there is an additional allowance where a home passes to children or grandchildren, and leaving a proportion of the estate to charity reduces the rate charged on the rest.

None of that happens automatically. It depends on how the will is written. We look at the whole estate before drafting, rather than afterwards.

Keeping Your Will Up to Date

A will is not a document you write once. Marriage revokes an existing will entirely unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage, which catches people out more than any other rule. Divorce does not revoke a will, but your former husband or wife is treated as having died before you, which can leave gifts falling in unexpected places.

It is worth reviewing your will every few years in any case, and whenever something significant changes: a new child or grandchild, a move, a business sold, a beneficiary who dies, or a change in what you own.

How Our Wills Solicitors Can Help

We take you through what you own, who you want to benefit and what you are worried about, then draft a will that reflects it. You will have a draft to read in your own time and a chance to change it before anything is signed. We deal with signing and witnessing properly, so the will cannot be challenged later on a technicality.

Where a trust is the right answer, we draft it into the will and explain plainly what your trustees will be required to do. Most people leave a trust in place without ever telling the people who will have to run it what is expected of them, which is the commonest reason trusts go wrong.

If you own a business, your will has to work alongside your shareholders’ agreement or partnership agreement. Where the two conflict, the agreement usually wins, and the will does not achieve what you intended. We look at both together. Where the business itself needs a succession plan, our business succession team advises on the corporate side.

If you already have a will, whether we drafted it or not, we can review it and tell you whether it still does what you want. Often a short codicil is enough. Sometimes a new will is cleaner. We will tell you which, and what each would cost.

Once your will is signed, we can store it for you and register it with the National Will Register, so it can be found when it is needed. We hold meetings in person or by video call, and we can visit you at home if travelling is difficult. Our Milton Keynes, Northampton and Watford offices have accessible ground-floor meeting rooms and parking.

We will give you a tailored quote at the start of the work, and we can usually offer a fixed fee. Either way, our fees are clear from the outset, so you know what the work will cost before you commit to anything.

Appointing guardians in your will is the only way to say who should raise your children if they are under 18. We deal with this as part of drafting your will.