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You can trust us to write your will clearly and thoroughly, ensuring your wishes are clearly set out. Our will writing service allows you to create an all-encompassing will and we will explain what you can do or may want to consider when making your will. We’ll discuss areas that you may not have thought about and help you put your intentions into words.
Making a will is essential if you want to ensure that your estate is passed on exactly as you wish when you’re no longer around. At Anderson Strathern, we can work with you to make your will clear, ensuring all of your wishes are clearly set out and are legally valid.
It’s even more important to make a will that is specific to your situation, due to the way our society functions changing significantly since the current rules around wills were written.
It’s now common to find that people we’d consider ‘family members’ don’t formally have an entitlement to the estates of their loved ones unless there is a valid will in place. A key factor in this is that, in recent years, there has been a rise in the number of family units where the parents have chosen not to marry or where they’ve been married before and bring their children to the new relationships.
Another consideration is that the age to inherit in Scotland is 16, meaning that relatively young people could become entitled to large sums of money at a young age. It may be that you want to set up a trust or appoint guardians when writing your will so that children do not receive these funds until they reach a certain age. A well written will trust can also allow for advances should needs arise or circumstances change, and that your money and property are protected.
There are certain formalities involved when making a will. Documents need to be signed correctly. Forms of wording may mean one thing to you but something entirely different to someone else. Our will writing services can prevent these sorts of issues from occurring for your spouse, civil partner or children.
It is important too to know that a will may not encompass everything. A pension pot, for example, usually needs a nomination separate from the will. We can advise on what you should check to ensure that you’ve planned what will happen to all of your assets along with the distribution of your estate.
Wills, executries, and all the related issues that arise from them are a significant part of what our will writing experts do, with our aim being to guide our clients as smoothly as possible through what can be difficult times.
To request legal services in relation to the process of making or amending a will with a member of our expert team, please get in touch today.
Contact us on 0131 270 7700, visit our offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, East Lothian, Shetland or Orkney, or fill in our enquiry form to request a call back.
If you don’t already have a will, our expert team can work alongside you to clearly lay out your intentions for your estate and how you would like to cater for your loved ones when you are no longer around.
When making a will, it’s important that various steps are taken to ensure that it will be deemed valid when it’s signed, minimising the potential for any disputes among your loved ones over its terms.
For instance, this includes having an independent adult witness to the will and for every page of the will to be correctly signed.
It is important to note that there are several differences to the process of making a will in Scotland than in England and Wales (such as the age you can create a will), which is where our team’s expertise can be invaluable.
If you already have an existing will, it’s a good idea to regularly review it so that you can be certain that it accurately reflects your circumstances, as well as your family’s. It’s also important to take a closer look at your will if you have gone through a major life event, such as getting married, getting divorced, having children, or buying a home.
We can take a closer look at an existing will you have signed and suggest how it can be amended to better reflect your situation and how you would like your estate and assets to be passed down.
Amendments to existing wills may be done by making a codicil. There are no limits to the number of codicils you can make for a will, but they are usually only suitable for straightforward changes.
If you are concerned about storing your will, our wills solicitors can store it for you free of charge, ensuring that it’s readily available for your executors when the time comes. This avoids the risk for your will to be inaccessible when you pass away, which in the worst-case scenario could lead to your wishes not being carried out.
One of the key benefits of carefully planning out the terms of a will is that you will be able to understand how to take the best advantage of tax rules, such as inheritance tax. Understanding how these particular rules work and the steps you can take to minimise your estate’s tax liability when making your will allow you to put aside more money for your beneficiaries.
The solicitors in our will writing service are very experienced when it comes to tax planning in wills and can assess your situation to make your estate as tax efficient as possible.
It may be the case that you want to leave some of your money in a trust instead of it being distributed outright to your loved ones immediately after you die. This is often the preferred approach when passing assets onto children or vulnerable dependants, such as those with learning difficulties.
We can advise you on putting provisions in your will and, where required, can act as professional trustees. This is especially important as the age to inherit in Scotland is 16.
When making your will, it is usually a sensible decision to also consider making a power of attorney. This is a legal document that gives another person the authority to deal with aspects of your affairs should you lose the capacity to do so yourself, such as if you fall ill or suffer a brain injury.
We can help you with creating a power of attorney and can also act as professional attorneys where necessary.
Our wills solicitors have a wealth of combined experience and expertise when it comes to wills and succession matters, supporting clients from all walks of life.
Our expert team have various professional memberships, demonstrating their expertise, including the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), STEP Advanced Certificate in Family Business Advising.
We are a full service Scottish law firm with substantial expertise in tax matters, with members of our team being Chartered Tax Advisers, Law Society of Scotland accredited specialists in tax law and members of the Law Society of Scotland’s tax committee.
Our expertise with wills also extends to advising executors of wills, power of attorney, succession planning and will disputes. To find out more about our wider wills services, please click here.
To discuss the process of making or amending a will with a member of our expert team, please get in touch today.
Contact us on 0131 270 7700, visit our offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, East Lothian, Shetland or Orkney, or fill in our enquiry form to request a call back.
"We have been a client of the team for over 6 years, a considerable period of time. We have never queried their costs, made a complaint or had any issue worth noting. This speaks volumes for the service received, the quality of the people, but more importantly the trust built."
