Wills and Trusts

Why make a will

The most important reason for making a Will is that you control what happens to your estate! This may be useful if you wish to protect a handicapped child or prevent relatives from having access to 'easy' money. If you do not make a Will the law decides who will receive your estate and it may not be just your immediate family!

If you are on your second marriage and you have children by your first marriage you may wish to protect part of your estate so that they will definitely inherit. If you do not make a Will your side of the family could get nothing!

Inheritance Tax advantages can be made using a Will.

You can appoint guardians for your children should you tragically die while they are minors. We are able to help you with and draft all types of Wills.

We will ensure that you understand exactly what it is that you need and that your Will covers this.

Please contact our Kathy Green at Chichester or Matthew Field at Selsey

Inheritance Tax Savings

A married couple can utilise as much of the tax free sum available as possible by making certain provisions in their Wills. Also, gifts to charities, which are tax free, can be discussed and perhaps used.

There are other means of tax savings that we can help you with that you may wish to use during your lifetime as well.

How IHT works

Please contact our Kathy Green at Chichester or Matthew Field at Selsey

Winding up Estates

We can make this job simple and cost efficient for you as we are expert at dealing with the various agencies necessary to wind up an estate. Including the Probate Court and the Capital Taxes Office. We will handle any estate no matter how small or large to make this tragic time less stressful for you.

Please contact our Kathy Green at Chichester or Matthew Field at Selsey

Disputed Wills - Claims against Estates

We can advise you regarding any aspect of an estate where you feel there is a problem for instance:-

• My parent has died and has excluded me from his Will, I think that my sister may have had something to do with this, can I challenge the Will?
• I cannot find my father's Will and my brother is living in his house rent free and I have nothing. What can I do?
• My mother has left everything to her home help and I am sure that she was not well when she made the Will, is the Will valid?

Please contact our Kathy Green at Chichester or Matthew Field at Selsey

One of my children is a black sheep!

We can advise you regarding protecting your children from themselves. For instance if you have a child who you know will go through any inheritance either through gambling, alcoholism or for some other reason, you can create trusts in your Will. There are several different ones that can be used, i.e. you can arrange it so that they are only entitled to the income from the trust, or they would only be entitled to funds from the trust if the trustees felt it necessary.

This is an under-utilised element of Will making and we will be pleased to discuss various options with you.

You may wish to simply cut one of your relatives or children from you Will and we will advise on the best way to go about this to try and prevent future claims.

Please contact our Kathy Green at Chichester or Matthew Field at Selsey