Wills and Later Life Planning
We can help you navigate the legal and personal considerations of finding a new partner later in life. Whether you already have a carefully structured Will, significant assets, grown‑up children, or are considering cohabitation or remarriage, we can help you protect your wealth while planning confidently for the future.
We also work with families who have concerns about an older relative entering into a new relationship, offering sensitive, practical guidance to safeguard assets and manage expectations.
Planning for later-in-life relationships
Although it’s sad to say, new relationships can cause disagreements about who will inherit from you after you die. Remarrying, living together, or having someone care for you can affect who’s entitled to your assets.
Wills and pre- and post-nuptial agreements can help you keep control over what happens.
We can advise you on:
- Making or updating your will
- Marrying or living with a new partner
- Protecting cherished family assets like jewellery, artworks, or your home
- Pre- and post-nuptial agreements to help protect you or your business if a new relationship breaks down.
To discuss your circumstances in confidence, get in touch with our specialist team.
How do I go about writing my Will?
You have a right to decide what happens to your money, property, and possessions after you die.
These things combined form your ‘estate’, and you can decide who’s responsible for dealing with them. This person is called your executor. The people who will inherit them are called your beneficiaries (someone can be both an executor and a beneficiary).
Will planning isn’t just about fairness, but tax efficiency. Your beneficiaries will usually have to pay inheritance tax on anything over £325,000, or £650,000 for married couples and civil partners, after any mortgage or debts are deducted.
You don’t have to make a Will. If you don’t, the law will decide what happens to your estate through ‘rules of intestacy’. These rules can be very rigid, so bear in mind your family might struggle to contest them after you have died.
Find out more about preparing a Will in our Will Guide.
What will a solicitor do to help?
We’ve acted as executors for many of our clients and administered thousands of estates, so we can safely say you are in expert hands. We can help you:
- Set up trusts and make gifts to charity
- Minimise inheritance tax as much as possible
- Appoint legal guardians for any children who are still minors
- Name trusted people as executor(s) to sort out your affairs when you die
- Change an existing will to reflect life changes (marriage, divorce, births of children or grandchildren).
All in all, we’ll work hard to make sure what you leave behind is given to the right people.
How do I change my existing Will?
We advise reviewing your Will every five years. Tax laws can affect your will and its value, as can certain life events, like:
- Getting married
- Getting divorced
- A serious injury or illness
- When new children or grandchildren are born
- When there’s a major change in your finances
- When one of your beneficiaries gets married or dies
- You come into any inheritance yourself (this could change the value of your estate – and the inheritance tax payable).
For small changes, you can add a ‘codicil’ (addition) to your will. For major changes, it’s usually better to write a new will.
Speak to our experts
We have the largest private client team in the UK; our team of experts are here to provide discreet legal advice to support you and your family.
Specialist Legal Advice
Our experts are here to provide discreet legal support for you and your family. Please complete our enquiry form and one of our experts will contact you by the next working day.
Alternatively, you can call us now.
Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm (Excluding Public Holidays).
03301623899
Making an enquiry
We have several ways you can contact us, either by completing our online contact form, by phone, or using our live chat. If you start your journey online, here are the first steps to working together.
Complete our online formWe need a few details to understand your situation and the kind of support you need.
We’ll contact you by phoneOn the call our experts will ask you a few more questions to make sure we connect you with the right legal advice from our team.
We arrange a full appointmentIf we’re able to support you further, the next step is an appointment with one of our specialists so we can discuss everything in more detail.