Putting your intentions beyond doubt
Clear wishes, properly recorded
A will decides who receives what, who administers your estate and — where children are involved — who is appointed to care for them. Without one, the intestacy rules decide instead, and they rarely match what people assume.
A Lasting Power of Attorney deals with a different problem: not what happens after death, but who may act for you if you become unable to make decisions yourself.
Cromwell Associates coordinates these enquiries and introduces you to appropriate specialists. Legal documents and legal advice are provided by appropriately qualified third parties, not by Cromwell Associates.
Nothing left to assumption
We help you set out what you want to achieve before you are asked to make legal decisions about it.
Sensitive coordination
Estate matters often arrive at difficult times. Having one familiar contact makes the process less exhausting.
Joined-up thinking
A will rarely stands alone. Protection, trusts and business interests usually belong in the same conversation.
In this area
Wills & Estates enquiries we coordinate
Where we work
Areas we coordinate enquiries from
In plain English
Estate planning: putting the pieces in one order
Estate planning is the whole picture rather than a single document: what you own, how it is owned, who should receive it, who would act for you if you could not act for yourself, and what could get in the way. A will is one part of it. Ownership structure, pension nominations, powers of attorney, trusts, gifts and any protection cover are the rest.
Plans can contain inconsistencies between ownership, wills and nominations — a will leaving a home to children when the home passes automatically to a survivor, a pension nomination naming a former partner, or an attorney appointment nobody made in time.
This describes the law of England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules.
Step by step
What the process involves
- Step 1
Build an accurate inventory
Property and how it is legally owned, savings, investments, pensions and their nominations, business interests, life policies and whether they are written in trust, debts and any foreign assets.
- Step 2
Map what passes outside a will
Joint property held as beneficial joint tenants, discretionary pension death benefits and policies written in trust are not governed by the will. Check these first — otherwise the will is planning around assets that will never reach it.
- Step 3
Decide the outcome you want
Who is provided for, in what order, and what happens in the awkward cases: a second marriage, a beneficiary who cannot manage money, a business that needs to keep trading, a child who has already been helped.
- Step 4
Cover incapacity as well as death
Lasting Powers of Attorney deal with the period while you are alive but unable to decide. Plans that only address death leave that gap open.
- Step 5
Check the tax position honestly
Establish whether Inheritance Tax is realistically in play at all before considering anything designed to address it.
- Step 6
Write it down and review it
Keep a record of what exists and where, so an executor is not searching. Review after any significant change.
Being straight with you
What this cannot do
- No plan can guarantee a tax outcome, a care-fee outcome, or that no one will make a claim against the estate.
- Tax rules, allowances and thresholds change, and plans built around today's rules need reviewing.
- Cromwell Associates coordinates the enquiry and introduces you to qualified specialists. We do not draft documents, give legal or tax advice, or arrange insurance ourselves.
Before you speak to anyone
Useful things to have ready
Gather or think about
- A list of assets and debts with rough values
- How your home is legally owned — joint tenants or tenants in common
- Pension scheme names and who is nominated on each
- Existing will, LPAs, trust deeds and life policies, and whether any policy is in trust
- Family circumstances that matter: earlier marriages, step-children, dependants, anyone vulnerable
- Anything you have already given away in the last seven years
Questions worth asking the specialist
- Which parts of this can you deal with, and which need someone else?
- What is your scope of work, and what is explicitly outside it?
- What will each piece cost, and is any part of it ongoing?
- Do you receive any payment for referring me elsewhere?
- How often should this be reviewed, and what would trigger a review sooner?
Ask us to explain any charges that would apply, and any remuneration we may receive for making an introduction, before you decide whether to proceed.
Sources
Official guidance referenced on this page
What happens next
Four steps, no obligation at any of them
- 01
You tell us what matters
A short guided enquiry, or a message in your own words. Only what is needed to route the enquiry, and nothing is committed.
- 02
One named contact reads it
Personally, not through a call centre. If anything is unclear we come back to you using the contact preference you chose.
- 03
We introduce you to the right specialist
Only with your agreement. Where regulated advice is required, the introduction is to an appropriately authorised specialist.
- 04
They take it from there
The specialist is responsible for advice, documents, quotations and terms. We stay available to coordinate connected needs.
Cromwell Associates coordinates enquiries and makes introductions. It does not provide regulated financial, legal or tax advice.
Arrange a confidential consultation
Tell us what you would like to protect or resolve. One named contact will read your enquiry personally and come back to you.
- One dedicated point of contact
- No call centres
- Introductions handled discreetly
- Serving Hampshire, West Sussex, Surrey and the Isle of Wight
Cromwell Associates coordinates enquiries and introduces clients to appropriately qualified specialists. We do not provide regulated financial, legal or tax advice, and submitting this form places you under no obligation.
Your enquiry is reviewed personally before any introduction is made.