Wills & Probate
Wills and probate in Chesterfield
Anderson Partnership Solicitors provides assistance in making wills and probate. We are based in Chesterfield and offer services in the surrounding areas.
Guidance and advice on making wills and probate
It is essential to prepare your will, whatever your age. This is the only way to make sure that only the people you choose will benefit from your estate. At Anderson Partners Solicitors, we offer guidance and advice on making a will. We are happy to arrange home or hospital visits to the elderly or infirm to prepare the will. We also offer a probate service wherein we remove the burden of dealing with the estate from the deceased's family and friends.
Contact
Shelagh Hayes oversees all our Wills, Probate, Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) and Trust work.
Shelagh is a Chartered Legal Executive with over 20 years experience in these matters.
What Our Client's have said...
"Once again, please pass on mine and my mum’s thanks for the excellent way you, Shelagh and the rest of your team dealt with the sale of mum’s property. It was a pleasure dealing with you all!"
"Professional and Friendly."
"Direct, honest and efficient. Thank you."
Notwithstanding any obligation, we believe in being open and transparent about our fees and services;
Will Drafting
We offer a straight-forward approach and our focus is on ensuring you have the right information and guidance. A single, straight-forward Will costs just £150 (inc. VAT) or £252 (incl. VAT) for mirroring wills.
Amendments to Wills (produced and held by Anderson Partnership) are charged at £84 (incl. VAT).
It takes a few days from receiving your instructions to draw up a draft Will to send to you for your approval. If you are happy with the draft copy of your Will you just need to arrange an appointment to sign your Will, otherwise if any amendments need making to your Wills it typically takes around seven days for amendments to be made, unless they are particularly complex.
We will:
• Arrange an initial meeting to take your instructions
• Advise you about your inheritance tax position and ways in which it can be mitigated
• Prepare and send a draft will to you
• Arrange any amendments if necessary
• Arrange a further meeting for you to sign the will
• Supervise the signature of your will
• Store the Will securely at our offices
We will not provide
detailed tax advice. If you think that this may be necessary please speak to let us know.
Please note that the fees for our service can vary depending on a number of factors including:
• If you are creating trusts in your Will
• If you have assets or property overseas
• If you need information about tax planning and pensions
• If you need information about mortgages and life insurance
• If you want to make provisions for children from previous relationships/marriages
• If you want to make provision for disabled children or adults
Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA)
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a document in which you give legal authority to people you trust so they can handle your affairs if you lose capacity to make decisions for yourself.
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney. A Property Decisions power covers decisions about your money and property, such as paying your bills or selling your home. A Health Decisions power covers decisions about your daily care routine, treatment, and other aspects of your personal life such as where you are going to live.
Typically it takes between 4 and 6 weeks to complete the Lasting Power of Attorney and a further 3 months to register, depending on the workload of the Office of the Public Guardian or any third parties involved.
Our fees are fixed thus:
£420 (incl. VAT) for creating ONE Lasting Power of Attorney
£720 (incl. VAT) for creating TWO Lasting Power of Attorney
£1020 (incl. VAT) for creating FOUR Lasting Power of Attorney
VAT, where applicable, is rated at 20%.
All LPAs are subject to a court fee of £82 (currently) each but exemption/remission can be obtained subject to proof of income.
We will:
• Arrange to take your instructions
• Draft your LPA and send it to you for your approval
• Help you to appoint a person to make decisions on your behalf and explain their duties
• Provide confirmation that you have the appropriate capacity to make the LPA and advise on the
documentation signing
• Register the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian
• Advise regarding the disclosure of your Will to your attorneys and the release of your Lasting Power of Attorney
from our safe custody, including providing a letter of authority if appropriate
• Register the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian
• Arrange storage of your LPA
Please note that we will not act if
there are capacity issues and additional costs may be incurred if there is a need to pursue attorneys for documentation/re-sending documents or if incorrectly signed
or witnessed
The fees for our service can vary depending on a number of factors including:
• Timescales
• Availability of attorneys to sign documents
• Urgency surrounding completion of the Lasting Powers of Attorney
Grants of Probate
Simply to a obtain Grant of Probate typically costs £600 (inc. VAT) plus disbursements (typically £157
for court and oath swearing fees).
To obtain a Grant of Probate and to administer a small estate is typically costs £1800 (inc. VAT) plus disbursements (typically £157 for court and oath swearing fees).
Work to obtain a Grant of Probate is charged at an hourly rate of £333.60 (inc. VAT) per hour. The amount of time and work involved (and therefore, the cost) is subject to time spent, for example, dealing with bank accounts, shares, bonds, premium bonds.
We will:
• Explain the process involved and obtain details about the estate
• Draft a statement of truth in support of application for the Grant
• Prepare HMRC forms and make the application to the Probate Registry
• Obtain a Grant of Probate
Matters that can increase your costs include;
• Contentious matters/Disputes arising from the will
• Organising valuations of assets in estate
• Time dealing with any property related matters e.g. insurance, utilities, council tax
• Advertising of statutory notices
• Any conveyancing which may be required to deal with property in the estate (see below)
• Inheritance tax, income tax or capital gains tax issues
• Collecting in assets and distributing them to beneficiaries
• Preparation of estate accounts
• Any estate expenses such as probate court fees
• Advice in the connection with the variation of the estate
After you have provided the relevant information it usually takes one to two months from the date of instruction to be ready to apply for a Grant of Representation. However, finalising an estate can typically take as much as eight months.
Any conveyancing work arising from the administration of an estate is charged in addition to the
above. Details of these charges can be found on the Home Buying & Selling section of our website.
Our services include:
Wills
Our People
When making a will, we cover the following complex matters:
- Mitigating inheritance tax
- Setting up instructions to provide for young children
Probate
Our probate service includes:
- Preparing oaths for swearing, grants of probate or letters of administration
- Liaising with the Inland Revenue on inheritance tax, capital gains tax and income tax advising on possible trusts
- General advice on the will
- Advising on possible deeds which may affect the will and the amount of inheritance tax payable
Power of attorney
We can also offer advice on preparing a power of attorney and applying to the court of protection.
You can depend on Anderson Partnership Solicitors for making wills, and assistance with probate. We are located in Chesterfield and offer services in the surrounding areas. Contact us today.
For making wills, and assistance with probate in Chesterfield, call:
01246 220 737
© 2024. The content on this website is owned by us and our licensors. Do not copy any content (including images) without our consent.