Wills & Estate Planning Solicitors in Manchester & Cheshire

Making a will starts with thinking about what you own and who you’d like to benefit. We talk it through with you, draft the will to reflect your wishes, and make sure it’s signed and witnessed correctly so it’s legally valid.

If you don’t have a will, your estate passes under the intestacy rules, which means you don’t get a say in who inherits, and family members are more likely to fall out over it. With a will, you decide who receives what, and you can add conditions – for example, that a child inherits at 21 or 25. You can also appoint executors and trustees and give them powers to help your family, such as advancing money for university fees or a first-home deposit. Dying without a will causes particular complications for unmarried partners, people who’ve married more than once, parents of young children who need a guardian appointed, and business owners. It’s worth putting a will on the same essentials list as your life insurance.

An executor is the person you appoint to carry out the instructions in your will – dealing with your estate, settling any debts and tax, and passing on what’s left to your beneficiaries. You can choose someone you trust, a professional, or both.

A will sets out who inherits after you die. A trust is a way of holding assets for chosen beneficiaries, and it can be created within your will to add flexibility and privacy – your trustees decide how and when beneficiaries receive money, guided by your letter of wishes. Many estate plans use both together.

Mirror wills are two near-identical wills, usually made by a couple, leaving everything to each other and then to the same beneficiaries. They’re a popular choice for married couples and partners with shared wishes.

Yes. Marriage automatically revokes any existing will, which means your estate would pass under the intestacy rules instead. Make a new will when you marry, or have your current will written so it’s made in contemplation of your planned marriage.

Once your final order of divorce or dissolution comes through, any provision in your will for your former spouse or civil partner stops having effect. That may not be what you’d want, and it’s often a good moment to review the rest of your will too. See also divorce.

It depends on how you own it. If you’re joint tenants, your share passes automatically to the surviving co-owner. If you’re tenants in common, your share passes under your will (or the intestacy rules if you don’t have one). It’s worth checking, along with assets people often forget, like life insurance and pensions, which may pass by nomination rather than through your estate.

Yes. You can help a child or grandchild during your lifetime – with a house deposit, clearing student debt, or support after a divorce – through a loan, a lifetime gift, or an advance from a trust. It can be inheritance tax-efficient, and the gift can be accounted for in the eventual estate so the rest of the family isn’t left short. We’ll work with your other advisers to balance family needs, tax, and protecting gifted money from a child’s own divorce.

You can, though we wouldn’t recommend it. Wills are tricky legal documents, and getting one wrong can be costly for your family and open the door to a challenge against your estate.

A will can be challenged, which is why expert advice matters – we help make your will as robust as possible and advise on how to head off potential inheritance disputes. Challenging a will through the courts is expensive, so it’s worth getting it right and reviewing it after major life events.

We publish our fees online and offer fixed-fee wills, so you’ll know the cost before you commit, with no hidden extras.

Yes – by phone or video, or in person at our Manchester or Cheshire offices, whichever suits you.