Help Centre

If you have recently married, divorced, welcomed the arrival of children or grandchildren, or if your financial situation has changed, please contact us. We will go through your circumstances and how they may have changed since the last time we spoke to you, what preparations you may need to make and how we can help you to make changes to any relevant legal documents. In some cases, it will be beneficial for you to have a free review with one of our dedicated and specially trained advisers. We are on hand to support you and go through what needs to be done next; contact us now for more information.

When you first purchased your services, you would have received details of what you are entitled to. Don’t worry if you have mislaid these details or if you would like some more information, contact us and we will go through your services with you.

Whether you paid for your services by recurring, or one-off payments, we are always on hand to discuss the details with you. For recurring payments, please let us know as soon as possible if you change your bank or you would like the payments to come out of another account. For all finance related queries, you can contact us by emailing [email protected] or ringing 01934 422 991.

To find out how to update your Will, click here.

To find out how to sign your Will, click here.

To find out more about storing your Will, click here.

For more information on the National Will Register, click here.

To find out more about retrieving your, or someone else’s Will, click here. Alternatively, you can skip straight to the online Document Retrieval Form. One of our Customer Care Managers will be in touch shortly after receiving the completed form to go through the next step.

To find out more about revoking a Will, click here.

For more information about contesting a Will, click here.

To find out more about who Trustees and Beneficiaries are, click here.

For some examples of why you may need a Will Trust, click here.

There are four common types of Will Trusts. To find out more about each type, click here.

Protecting your property with a Trust can be quite complex. For more information, click here. Alternatively, why not have a free review with one of our trained advisers who will be able to go through your circumstance and discuss whether a Trust is needed or not. If you would like a review, please contact us, and we will book an appointment for you.

When planning a Will, it is essential to understand fully the implications of leaving property in trust and be aware of the inherent disadvantages and risks involved. Click here for more information.

When a person dies, someone has to deal with the affairs of that person. This could be someone who is either named in the Will (as an Executor) or is the Next of Kin if there is no valid Will. They are legally responsible for collecting in all the money, paying any debts and correctly distributing the estate to those who are entitled, i.e. the Beneficiaries. This whole process is called Estate Administration, and part of the process may involve having to apply for ‘Probate’. Probate is the process of obtaining a legal document from the Probate Registry to prove you have authority to deal with an estate. A Grant of Representation (also known as Grant of Probate or Grant of Confirmation) is the official court-sealed document issued by the Probate Registry that includes a copy of the deceased’s Will. It is called a Grant of Letters of Administration if there is no Will, but the document serves the same purpose.

Whether you need Probate depends on the situation of the deceased. For example, you usually need Probate if the person who has died owned property such as a flat or a house. You may not need Probate if:

• The person who died owned only cash (banknotes and coins) and personal possessions such as a car, furniture, and jewellery. If all property is owned jointly; in most cases, this property automatically becomes wholly owned by the other owner
• The deceased person had a joint bank account
• The property and possessions of the deceased, when valued, is quite small
• The person who has died is insolvent, or it is discovered there is not enough money to pay all the debts, taxes and expenses
• The deceased person did not have any high-value bank accounts, certain life insurance policies, premium bonds, pension benefits and did not have any property only in their name

For more information about whether Probate is needed or not, please speak to one of our specialist Bereavement Advisers, who will be able to go through this in more detail.

We are still seeing some delays for Grants of Representation (Grants of Probate/Letters of Administration) to be issued by all Government Registry Offices in England and Wales.

Minor ‘glitches’ with the new system for applications, combined with the staff shortages and a backlog of cases due to COVID-19, have left many families waiting months. The Probate Registries are working hard to get through everyone’s application as soon as possible, but on average, applications are currently taking between 4 to 6 months.

We can help expedite your application as we are a Trust Corporation. Our status means that less information is required by the Courts when we apply for the Grant on your behalf. Not only does this save on Court fees, usually half the cost, but the Grant is also issued within weeks of application rather than months, where applicable. Once the Grant has been obtained, funds are released to cover costs and expenses and allow interim payments to be made to those due to benefit much sooner.

Check back again for more information on the delays or proposed fee increases. In the meantime, if you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Administering an Estate can be an intimidating prospect for any Executor or Administrator, whether you have had previous experience of dealing with an estate or if it’s your first time. We are on hand to support you or your loved ones.

• Along with loved ones, they may have to deal with the practical tasks when someone dies, like securing property or looking after pets
• If there is a Will, they locate the latest copy
• They make sure that the wishes of the person who has died are carried out correctly
• They look after any assets (property and possessions), for example, by making sure a property is insured if left empty
• They are duty-bound by the Court and the Beneficiaries and must act with their best interests in mind
• They are personally liable for making sure the estate is processed correctly and separately from their own affairs
• They need to keep clear records of accounts; money paid in and paid out of the estate
• They need to liaise with many different organisations to wind up the estate

There is no initial legal obligation upon you to act as Executor. However, you need to make the decision to take on the role in the early stages to avoid intermeddling (carrying out tasks that only an Executor should do). If you have not intermeddled, you have the option to appoint someone else to act on your behalf as the named Executor. This may be a specialist Bereavement company, like Trust Inheritance, or a solicitor. They will ask you to sign a renunciation form at the outset. If you have already started carrying out the tasks of an Executor, you can still obtain help. We have a number of services which will support you throughout the Estate Administration process. You can find out more about what we do, here.

If you want to find out more about the whole bereavement process, our Executor Toolkit is a great tool to help families, Executors and Administrators. It gives you a clear, step-by-step overview of the whole process, from the immediate steps to take, to distributing the property or possessions of the deceased. Try it now by clicking here.

Its simple! You can do a DIY Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) online by visiting your Toolboxx® here*.

Alternatively, if you would like one of our Life Planning Advisers to produce the LPA for you, book a call back here and the Team will be in touch to discuss your options.

*You will be directed to the Toolboxx® website to write your LPA.

Keeping your documents safe is a crucial part of making sure your wishes are adhered to. It reduces possible issues in the future, for example, by avoiding claims against your estate. Please visit our Vault page here to learn more about document storage.