We believe in fair. clear and not misleading pricing of all of our products and services. We offer a fixed price and will deliver on the price promised for the products agreed. We do not believe in packaging up products to confuse our customers or make them feel under pressure to proceed. We conduct two meetings, and will always offer you plenty of time to consider your options. You will not be charged a penny until you have seen the draft documents and you are 100% satisfied (although for lifetime trusts you may have to pay a fee before documents are prepared).

Richard Jones, your Estate Planner & Director

Our prices and further information

Simple Wills and Mirror Will

Research indicates that one in two (50%) UK adults do not have a Will. Perhaps surprisingly, a third of over 55’s say they do not have a Will. These figures are lower again if you take into account how many of these Wills are still up-to-date and valid.

If you have an existing WIll that needs updating, you could add onto the Will, this is called a Codicil. However, it is usually best practice and more cost effective to re-write your existing Will.

To make sure your Will is signed correctly, we always offer to be present during the execution of your Will. We offer this service at no additional cost.

Once we have written your Will, and you subscribe to our Document Storage and Review Service, we will store your Will and can update it whenever your personal or family circumstances change, at no additional costs.

For a Simple Will, with no trust written within, the cost is £150.

For a couple wanting Mirror Wills, with no trusts written within, the cost is £200.

Ref: https://www.canadalife.co.uk/news/half-of-uk-adults-don-t-have-a-will

Lasting Power of Attorney

If you have not arranged a Lasting Power of Attorney we would strongly recommend that you do so. This is a forward-planning tool to help protect you if you ever lost mental capacity. There are two types of Lasting Powers of Attorney, one is to protect your property and financial affairs and the other is to protect your health and welfare needs if you ever lost mental capacity.

The time to create a Lasting Power of Attorney is when you are well and have not lost capacity, and as no one knows what the future holds, no matter how old you are, it is wise to put these important documents in place sooner rather than later.

With a Lasting Power of Attorney, you nominate someone you trust, called an Attorney, to speak up for you if you ever lost mental capacity.

Most people are under the misconception that their spouse will automatically be able to look after their financial affairs or care needs if they lost capacity, however, this is not the case.

If you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney in place, and you ultimately lose capacity, your loved ones may have to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your Deputy. But this process is long-winded, stressful and extremely expensive. Many people engage a solicitor to do this for them, and the solicitors’ fee can roll into the thousands.

We offer a very competitive fixed fee of £150* per Lasting Power of Attorney. Therefore, to write both your Health & Welfare and Property & Financial Lasting Power of Attorney the cost would be £300*. The current timescales to register your Lasting Power of Attorney with the Office of Public Guardian is 20 weeks. As well as writing your Lasting Powers of Attorney, at no additional cost, we will offer to track your forms and update you accordingly.

*This does not include the government fee to register your Lasting Power of Attorney with the Office of Public Guardian, which is £82 per Lasting Power of Attorney, however, the OPG reduces this fee depending on your income and/or if you receive certain benefits. We will apply for the reduced fee on your behalf if this is applicable.

Will Trusts and Property Protection Will Trust

Will trusts are simply trusts set up on death as directed through your Will. Will trusts are our most popular trust, they allow you to protect your assets so they can be passed on in fact to the people you loved the most. Will trusts are particularly useful in the modern world we live especially when you want to protect your step children, foster children or any other person you class as your child. They can also be used to protect co-habiting couples who are not married or in a civil partnership.

Here are just some of the ways a trust written within your Will can help secure your future wishes;

  • If you are a couple, and one of you remarries after the other has passed away, it can help in shielding your assets, as well as your share of the property, from being inherited by anyone you would rather not benefit from your estate.

  • If your children inherited outright, and they then divorce, the assets your child has inherited could be assessed as part of a divorce settlement. By directing your assets into Trust upon your death would unlikely form part of your children’s estate if ever assessed by a divorce solicitor.

  • Using trusts can also help protect your children’s inheritance if they found themselves in financial difficulties and creditors made a claim on their estate.

  • If you have a blended family that consists of step-children, foster children, in fact anyone you love, you can provide fairly for whoever you mention as the trust beneficiaries.

  • If you have a child who is disabled, you can make sure they have all the support they need in managing their inheritance, and you can ensure that any means-tested benefits they may receive is not affected. Likewise, if you have a child who is vulnerable or has any addiction issues, a trust can also be of benefit.

  • If you are a couple, and the surviving spouse enters long term care, a Will trust can help shield a share of the value of your property from being assessed by the local authority for care costs. However, please note, this should not be the primary purpose of directing assets into trust.

Our usual price for Will trusts range from £400* to £600* per Will Trust and our usual cost to write a Will and include a Property Protection Trust within the Will is £400*, or for a couple the price is £600*.

*The actual price for your specific Will Trust will be made clear to you during your initial consultation as prices may vary depending on the complexities of the trust deed wording, this information won’t become available until a discussion about your wishes.

Lifetime or Living Trusts

Trusts have a variety of functions in family estate planning and have been used for hundreds of years as a method of passing wealth down through the generations in a structured way, whilst also protecting the estate from many other threats to family wealth.

Trusts can also play a major role in reducing an inheritance tax liability. The inheritance tax threshold has not increased since 2009, meaning more and more estates will end up paying inheritance tax when individuals pass away. Lifetime gifts can be channelled into trusts to generate tax savings (after a 7-year period) whilst also allowing the donor to retain some control over the assets in question. Used in the correct way, trusts can play an important role in helping to reduce your inheritance tax bill.

As lifetime trusts can vary in complexity, please ask for a personal quotation.

As we incur costs in setting up a lifetime trust, we will request payment before commencing work. This will, of course, be a fixed fee and made clear at the outset.

Trusts are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.