Wills Articles

Learn how to ensure your Will includes transgender and non-binary family members in the UK. Fern Wills & LPAs explains the law, best practice, and real-life examples.

Blended families include couples who have children from previous relationships. As joyful and fulfilling as they can be, they also come with unique estate planning challenges — especially when it comes to ensuring everyone is treated fairly.

Discover how to exclude someone from your will while protecting your wishes. This article explains real-life cases, success stories, and the Inheritance Act 1975, with practical tips to avoid disputes and ensure your estate passes as intended.

A third of marriages in England and Wales involve someone who’s been married before—often with children from previous relationships. Blended families bring complex financial dynamics, so how do you provide for your new spouse while ensuring all your children inherit fairly? Here's how to balance love, legacy, and lifelong commitments.

Choosing music for a goodbye is a personal reflection of our identities, whether it's Sinatra, Beyoncé, or "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." A Lloyds Bank study shows 80% of adults have selected their final songs, but only 59% have written a will, prioritizing funeral playlists over financial planning.

A codicil is a legal document used to make amendments to an existing will without the need to draft a completely new will. Codicils can be used to add, alter, or revoke specific provisions in a will, and there is no statutory limit to the number of codicils a testator may execute. However, using codicils requires careful consideration due to the risks and complexities involved.

Let's delve into the intriguing stories of celebrities who, despite their immense wealth, either passed away without a will or left behind ambiguous and contentious legal documents. Their legacies often sparked disputes and raised questions about how their fortunes would be handled after their deaths.

Most people accumulate a great deal of ‘stuff’ throughout their lives. Some items are valuable in real monetary terms, while others hold sentimental value. Much of this personal property falls under the definition of ‘personal chattels’.

Wills are special in that it is the original document that must be produced for probate (apart from in some extenuating circumstances discussed later).

Inheritance tax can cost loved ones £100,000s when you die, with it generating £7 billion for HM Revenue & Customs in one recent tax year alone. But in reality the vast majority of people (around 96%) don't have to pay a penny, while the few who do can legally avoid huge swathes of it. This guide runs through five inheritance tax need-to-knows.

2024 has been a pivotal year in the landscape of wills and estate planning. We can reflect on the changes made throughout the year and there have been a number of key developments. This article delves into these developments and their implications.

A survivorship clause is exactly what it sounds like: a clause in a will that makes a gift to a beneficiary conditional upon them surviving the testator by a set period. While these clauses are commonly used in modern wills, it’s clear that many people don’t appreciate the adverse effects they can have on an estate.