Services

Home / Services / Wills and Probate Solicitors

Wills and Probate Solicitors

At Cullimore Dutton, our committed Wills & probate solicitors provide more than just a service. When you work with us, you’ll benefit from more help, more guidance, and more clarity, so that you can achieve more in life.

Our expert team help our Wills & probate clients by making certain that their wishes are respected, and by supporting them through the loss of a loved one.

We know that these areas of the law are often sensitive, and this is why we always treat our clients and their circumstances with empathy, making certain that you feel heard and supported. Regardless of the complexity of your needs, we will work proactively to ensure that the necessary processes are as simple as they can be.

Cullimore Dutton are one of just a handful of firms that can provide both financial and legal services in one place. By dealing with both at the same time, we can offer a more cohesive strategy, resulting in improved decision making, including with Wills and related areas.

Our service areas for Wills and related matters include:

  • Will writing
  • Lasting Powers of Attorney
  • Probate & estate administration
  • Trusts

Get in touch with our expert Wills and probate solicitors in Chester

To access support with Wills & probate matters, please get in touch with our expert Wills and probate solicitors at Cullimore Dutton.

You can give us a call on 01244 356789, email info@cullimoredutton.co.uk, or complete the contact form on this page, and a member of our team will contact you as soon as possible.

Our Wills & probate services

Will writing

Writing a Will is an important yet delicate task, and when drafting one, we know that our clients need to feel completely supported.

When you work with us, our team will empathetically guide you through every necessary stage. We will start by providing tailor-made legal advice regarding your Will, helping you to make important decisions including how your assets will be divided, and who will act as your Will executor.

Your solicitor will help you draft a Will that accurately reflects your wishes, making certain that the validity requirements are met to avoid disputes arising once you have passed away.

If you would like to discuss any aspects of our probate and Wills service, please do get in touch with our team.

Lasting Powers of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal arrangement whereby a person can choose a trusted individual, formally known as the Attorney. The Attorney is given the legal right to make important decisions on the person’s (donors’) behalf, usually at a time whereby the individual’s state of health will no longer allow them to make their own decisions.

There are two different types of LPA: a Financial and Property LPA and a Health and Welfare LPA. The decisions that the Attorney can make on the donors’ behalf depend on which type of LPA they have, yet in many circumstances, they may have both types.

At Cullimore Dutton, we can help you to create a Lasting Power of Attorney that meets your needs, explaining the processes carefully so that you understand your rights.

We appreciate that potentially putting your financial and health affairs in the hands of another party can feel daunting, even when this person is a trusted family member. Rest assured, we will help you create an LPA that works for you, including the specific powers that you would like your Attorney to have, and not to have.

Additionally, if you have been appointed as an Attorney for a loved one, and you require legal advice, we can provide comprehensive guidance.

Probates & estate administration

If you are acting as a Will executor for a loved one, it will be your responsibility to take care of the probate once they have passed. Where a person does not have an executor, because they have unfortunately passed away without a Will, an appropriate next of Kin may be called upon to deal with their probate.

We know that losing a loved one is an emotionally difficult time, and that taking care of the probate matters may feel hard to manage. Be assured, our team will provide all the support you’ll need, helping you to apply for a Grant of Probate, value the deceased’s estate, divide their assets between the beneficiaries, and all other necessary tasks.

Trusts

At Cullimore Dutton, we have extensive experience supporting clients in creating Trusts to protect their assets, transfer assets to loved ones, and/or as part of a tax-efficient estate planning strategy. We can help you create and manage trusts and provide tailored legal advice.

There are various Trusts that clients can use to pass on assets to their loved ones while improving tax efficiency on their estate. These include bare trusts, interest and possession trusts, and discretionary trusts. We can provide personalised guidance, explaining how the different types of trusts work, and which might be best for your circumstances.

To learn more about wills, trusts and probate, please contact our experts at Cullimore Dutton.

Why work with Cullimore Dutton?

We have a wonderful reputation in the community, being the most established legal firm in the region, with a rich history that dates back to 1792. We deliver an outstanding quality service, thanks to the dedication and passion of our teams.

By providing both legal services and financial services under one roof, we can offer a more holistic strategy, resulting in more assurance, more planning, and more care.

At Cullimore Dutton we are experts in Wills & probate law, with over 70 years of experience supporting and advising clients with regard to their Wills, as well as LPAs, trusts, tax and estates. All of our team are either members or working towards membership of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners).

We know that legal and financial areas such as these can be extremely sensitive, this is why we remain both empathetic and supportive. With our specialist guidance and clear planning, you and your loved ones will receive more.

For more information, please get in touch with our wills and probate lawyers today.

  • Experienced

    Our team has more than 70 years’ experience of helping, supporting, and advising clients on their Wills, LPAs, Trusts, Tax and Estates.

  • Specialists

    Our team are all specialists in this area of law and are either qualified members or working towards membership of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners).

  • Understanding

    We understand the importance of delivering a considerate and approachable service when dealing with sensitive matters at what can often be a difficult time.

Frequently asked questions about Wills & probate

A tax efficient Will refers to a Will that is drafted to minimise how much tax is owed on the estate, and therefore make certain that as much of the estate as possible is transferred to the beneficiaries.

There are various ways to create a tax efficient Will, including making use of spousal exemptions and tax allowances, such as the nil-rate band. It is also possible to structure the Will by creating trusts, and therefore shielding certain assets from tax liabilities.

Probate refers to the legal right to handle someone’s estate once they have passed away. Usually it is the Will executor who is granted this right, however, where there is no Will, an appropriate next of Kin will be selected.

First, the executor or administrator must apply for a Grant of Probate. Once they have this, they can value the deceased’s estate and divide it amongst the beneficiaries as per the Will.

Once we have all the relevant information it will typically take two – four weeks to complete your will, though this is dependent on the complexity of the will in question.

We will also offer to register and store your will for free.

Once we have all the relevant information it will typically take two – three weeks to complete your LPA and obtain all signatures before we send it to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) to be registered. The OPG’s registration process takes between twelve and sixteen weeks after which point your LPA is ready.

This is very much dependent on how complex the probate matter is and issues such as the number of assets and value of the estate, inheritance tax liabilities, number of beneficiaries etc need to be considered. No two probates are the same.

In addition, the probate process is reliant on several third parties such as HMRC, banks, building societies, property professionals and the Probate Registry to name just a few, we will manage these relationships and processes on your behalf and keep you up to date as we progress through the probate process.

Yes, they can. An executor of a will is the person (or persons) nominated by you to deal with your estate in line with your will. A beneficiary is someone who benefits from your will i.e. someone to who you leave property, possessions or finances.

You can also nominate a professional such as ourselves as the executor of your will.

Should you wish to, we will guide you through the process of leaving a bequest to your nominated charity or charities. There are financial benefits of doing so – if you leave 10% of the value of a taxable estate to charity your inheritance tax liability reduces from 40% to 36%.

Lasting Powers of Attorney or LPAs are documents which give a person or persons who are appointed by you as your Attorneys, the power and authority to make decisions on your behalf should you become unable to do so.

There are two types of LPA:

Property and financial affairs LPA, which gives your attorneys authority to deal with your property and finances. With this LPA you can choose to enact it and repeal it whilst you still have capacity should you simply need support with your financial affairs.

Health and personal welfare LPA, which allows your attorneys to make welfare and health care decisions on your behalf. This could also extend, if you wish, to giving or refusing consent to the continuation of life-sustaining treatment.

You can nominate whoever you wish so long as they are happy to be nominated. You can also appoint different attorneys on each of your LPAs should you wish to do so.

In addition, you can appoint replacement attorneys should your first choice attorneys not be able to take on the role, you can also specify if your attorneys are required to act jointly or not on some or all decisions.

Both the property and financial affairs LPA and the health and personal welfare LPA can be brought into effect should you lose mental capacity (as defined by a medical professional). This could be because of a brain injury, a stroke, mental illness, or an illness such as dementia.

You can also choose to enact and repeal the property and financial affairs LPA whilst you still have capacity should you simply need support with your financial affairs.

For a single person the current inheritance tax threshold is £325,000. This means that if the total value if your estate; property, savings, shares, pensions, possessions etc, equates to more than £325,000 anything above that figure will be liable to inheritance tax at 40%.

For married couples or those in a civil partnership, this allowance can be shared, and as such this raises the threshold to £650,000.

Over recent years several digital will registries have begun recording when and where wills have been written and stored, we offer this as part of our will writing service. Conducting a will search on these registries ensures that we have the deceased’s most recent will when administering their estate. This is beneficial especially if the deceased has written multiple wills during their lifetime.

Yes, they can if the funds are available. Should we be administering the estate we would simply send the invoice to the deceased’s bank for payment.

Get in touch with our expert Wills and probate solicitors in Chester

To access support with Wills & probate, please get in touch with our expert Wills and probate solicitors at Cullimore Dutton.

You can give us a call on 01244 356789, email info@cullimoredutton.co.uk, or complete the contact form and a member of our team will contact you as soon as possible.

Who will work on your matter?

A fully qualified lawyer. Your matter will either be handled or supervised by a solicitor with at least 10 years’ experience in this area of work.

Some areas of work may be supported by our Paralegal team.

Administrative duties will be undertaken by our support staff.

As Head of Private Client, Adele Bebbington-Plant has overall responsibility for the supervision of all work carried out by her team.