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Bees & Co Wills,Trusts LPAs and Estate planning Expert advice on the construction of Wills, Lasting Power of Attorney and the effective use of Trusts. Expert Financial guidance which comes FREE of charge.

The clocks go back on Sunday, 25 October, which means you get a free hour. I am going to suggest you spend it on somethi...
23/10/2026

The clocks go back on Sunday, 25 October, which means you get a free hour. I am going to suggest you spend it on something extremely dull.

Here’s what fits comfortably inside an hour, and most people manage it in rather less.

Find your will and read it. Don’t skim it; read it. Does it still say what you would say today?

Check who your executors are, and whether they’re all still alive, still willing, and still on speaking terms with one another.

Write down where things are kept. The will, the deeds, the policies, the pensions, the name of your accountant. One sheet of paper, somewhere a person would think to look.

Note anything that has changed in the family since you signed it. A marriage, a divorce, a new grandchild, a death. Any one of those can make a will say something you no longer mean.

That’s the lot. An hour, once a year. It is not how anybody dreams of spending a Sunday, but it is a good deal better than the alternative. Send me a message if something looks wrong.

'Everything is in joint names, so we do not really need wills.' I hear that a lot!It is half right, which is exactly wh...
18/10/2026

'Everything is in joint names, so we do not really need wills.' I hear that a lot!

It is half right, which is exactly what makes it dangerous.

If you own your home as joint tenants, it passes automatically to the survivor when one of you dies. The same goes for a joint bank account. So on the first death, things often do look perfectly straightforward.

The problem is the second death. At that point there is no survivor, nothing passes automatically, and everything you own is distributed by the intestacy rules rather than by you. Any thoughts you had about stepchildren, godchildren, a charity you cared about, or keeping a share of the house for the children of a first marriage count for nothing at all.

There is also a second way of owning property, as tenants in common, where each of you owns a defined share and can leave that share to whoever you choose. Which of the two you have is worth knowing, because most people are not sure.

Get in touch if you need any help with this, and we can find out.

In 2025, there were 1,217 disputed probate cases filed at the High Court in England and Wales, the highest annual total ...
14/10/2026

In 2025, there were 1,217 disputed probate cases filed at the High Court in England and Wales, the highest annual total on record and almost 13% up on 2024.

Separately, more than 11,300 probate caveats were lodged, which are the formal notices used to pause an estate while somebody raises a concern.

Those are not all greedy relatives. In my experience, most inheritance disputes start with confusion rather than malice.

What actually prevents this from happening are things like this: a will drafted by somebody who asked the right questions in the first place. Clear wording about who gets what, particularly where there are children from more than one relationship. A proper record that the person understood what they were signing. And, where possible, beneficiaries who roughly know what to expect.

A dispute can swallow a large part of an estate before anybody inherits a penny. The prevention is a lot cheaper than the cure.

With the Budget looming on 28 October, a few people have asked what I’ll be looking for on the day.First, inheritance ta...
11/10/2026

With the Budget looming on 28 October, a few people have asked what I’ll be looking for on the day.

First, inheritance tax and social care. Andy Burnham argued for replacing inheritance tax with a flat levy on all estates long before he became Prime Minister, first as Health Secretary and later as Mayor of Greater Manchester. It was reported in July that 10% was being considered. The Government said within a day that it had no plans for it.

Some people have read the 10% figure as a tax cut, because it sits next to the 40% they already know about. Inheritance tax today is 40%, but only on the part of an estate above the allowances, which is why roughly only 1 estate in 20 pays anything at all. A flat levy charged on every estate swaps a high rate on a few for a lower rate on everyone. A £400,000 estate with the house going to the children very likely pays nothing today. At 10% it would pay £40,000. A much larger estate would pay considerably less than it does now.

Whether that is fair is a political question and not mine to answer. But it would not be a tax cut for most of the families I work with.

Second, the gifting rules. There's been talk of limits on gifts made out of surplus income. Nothing is confirmed.

Third, pensions, which are settled. From April 2027, unused pension funds count towards your estate. That is law, not speculation.

I will read the details rather than the headlines, and I still will not rewrite a will on a rumour. Send me a message if something is worrying you about all this.

Did you know there is an estimated £31 billion sitting in around 3.3 million lost pension pots in the UK, according to t...
10/10/2026

Did you know there is an estimated £31 billion sitting in around 3.3 million lost pension pots in the UK, according to the Pensions Policy Institute? The average forgotten pot is worth roughly £9,500. Most of it belongs to people who changed jobs, moved house and simply lost the thread.

Tracking one down costs nothing. Dig out old payslips and P60s, ask former employers which provider they used, and use the Government's free Pension Tracing Service on gov.uk. Do not pay anybody to do it for you.

And now there’s a second reason to bother. As things stand, from 6 April 2027, unused pension funds will count towards your estate for inheritance tax. If a forgotten pot surfaces years after a death, the calculation for the whole estate may have to be reopened, and the bill can be handed to beneficiaries long after everybody thought the matter was closed.

Far better found now than found then.

People often assume that if there is no will, everything simply passes to the husband or wife. It is a perfectly reasona...
07/10/2026

People often assume that if there is no will, everything simply passes to the husband or wife. It is a perfectly reasonable assumption, but it is not what the law says.

In England and Wales, where somebody dies without a will leaving a spouse or civil partner and children, the spouse receives the personal possessions, the first £322,000 of the estate, and half of whatever is left above that. The other half is divided between the children.

For a good many families these days, the house on its own takes the estate past that figure. Which means a surviving husband or wife can find that a share of the estate, and in practice a share of the family home, is due to the children. That is fine while everybody gets on. It is considerably less fine when they do not.

And if you are not married, the rules give your partner nothing at all, regardless of what you’ve built together and for however long.

A will overrides all of it. It is the difference between your wishes and a formula written in 1925. https://beesandco.com/

Free Wills Month starts on 1 October, and I would rather tell you about it than not.If you are 55 or over, participating...
28/09/2026

Free Wills Month starts on 1 October, and I would rather tell you about it than not.

If you are 55 or over, participating solicitors will write or update a simple will free of charge, funded by the charities taking part. Only some areas are included, and appointments fill quickly, so have a look at freewillsmonth.org.uk early in the month rather than late.

Worth knowing: it covers simple wills only. Trusts, business succession, blended families and inheritance tax planning usually sit outside it.

If a simple will is all you need, take the free one with my blessing. If it is more complicated than that, send me a message.

People often assume that if there is no will, everything simply passes to the husband or wife. It is a perfectly reasona...
28/09/2026

People often assume that if there is no will, everything simply passes to the husband or wife. It is a perfectly reasonable assumption, but it is not what the law says.

In England and Wales, where somebody dies without a will leaving a spouse or civil partner and children, the spouse receives the personal possessions, the first £322,000 of the estate, and half of whatever is left above that. The other half is divided between the children.

For a good many families these days, the house on its own takes the estate past that figure. Which means a surviving husband or wife can find that a share of the estate, and in practice a share of the family home, is due to the children. That is fine while everybody gets on. It is considerably less fine when they do not.

And if you are not married, the rules give your partner nothing at all, regardless of what you’ve built together and for however long.

A will overrides the lot of it. It is the difference between your wishes and a formula written in 1925. https://beesandco.com/

If you’ve written a will or are about to write one, be aware of a rule that tends to catch people out, and when it does,...
24/09/2026

If you’ve written a will or are about to write one, be aware of a rule that tends to catch people out, and when it does, it costs them dearly.

If a beneficiary of your will, or the husband, wife or civil partner of a beneficiary, acts as one of your witnesses, the will itself is still valid. But their gift is void. They get nothing.

That is S15 of the Wills Act 1837, and it exists for a sensible reason. It removes any incentive to lean on somebody while they are signing. The trouble is that it is exactly the sort of rule many people don’t know about, and somebody signing at their own kitchen table quite naturally calls in whoever happens to be in the house. Very often that is the person who will be inheriting from the will.

No one realises until after the death, but by then it can’t be put right.

And the other formalities matter just as much. A will must be signed by you in the presence of two witnesses who are both there at the same time, and who then sign in front of you.
If there is a homemade will sitting in a drawer at yours, drop me a message, and I'll happily cast an eye over it for you.

September is World Alzheimer's Month, and World Alzheimer's Day is today.It is the right moment to say the one thing abo...
21/09/2026

September is World Alzheimer's Month, and World Alzheimer's Day is today.

It is the right moment to say the one thing about Lasting Powers of Attorney that so many people find hard to hear: you can only make one while you still have the mental capacity to understand what you are doing. The moment an LPA would be most useful is very often the moment it has become too late to make one.

If that point has already passed, the family has to apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship instead. It costs a good deal more, it takes considerably longer, and the court decides who is appointed rather than you.

I am not trying to frighten anybody. Most of the people I sit down with are perfectly well and fully expect to stay that way, which is exactly the right time to do it. A Lasting Power of Attorney can sit in a drawer doing nothing whatsoever for twenty years, and that is precisely what you want from it.

If you'd like a chat about an LPA, feel free to contact me via the website (link in comments).

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