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Wills and Probate Solicitor
What is a Will?
A will is a legal document that you write during your lifetime. The main purpose of a Will is to set out who you want to inherit your money, property and other possessions when you pass away. These people are called your beneficiaries.
A will enables you to make other arrangements that will come into force when you die. For example, you can name executors who will be responsible for winding up your affairs and distributing your assets your beneficiaries. You can name legal guardians who will care for your children if they are under the age of 18. You can also specify any funeral preferences, such as whether you want to be buried or cremated.
If you die without a will, you are said to have died 'intestate'. Your estate (which is the collective word for everything someone owns when they die) will be distributed to your family members. The law will decide who gets what, regardless of any wishes you may have expressed while you were alive.
What is Probate?
Probate is the legal process that happens when someone dies. The main purpose of probate is to give a person (or people) the legal authority to deal with a deceased person's estate. These people are called personal representatives.
Probate enables the personal representatives to access the deceased person's assets, such as their bank accounts, property, and pensions. It means they can do things such as:
Finalise utility bills
Sell or transfer property
Gather in assets, including pensions, stocks, shares and savings
Liquidate (sell) all the assets in the estate
Pay any outstanding debts using funds from the estate
Calculate and pay any income tax or inheritance tax due
Distribute the estate to beneficiaries (as set out either in the will, or the law).
With our Probate Complete Service we take full responsibility for getting grant of probate and dealing with the legal, tax (excl VAT), property and estate administration affairs.
Probate isn't needed every time there is a death. Generally there are two scenarios where Probate won't be needed:
The deceased person's husband or wife is still alive, in which case assets that are jointly owned will automatically pass to the surviving spouse
The deceased person owned very little – known as having a small estate
Otherwise, it's highly likely that the deceased's loved ones will need to go through the probate process.
Without probate, the deceased person's assets will effectively remain 'in limbo'. There won't be anyone with the legal authority to deal with the estate, so it can't be administered and distributed to the beneficiaries.
Wakefield is a cathedral city[a] in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census.[1] The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield, which had a 2022 population of 357,729, the 26th most populous district in England. It is part of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area and the Yorkshire and The Humber region.
In 1888, it gained city status due to its cathedral. The city has a town hall and is home to the county hall, which was the former administrative centre of the city's county borough and metropolitan borough as well as county town for the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The Battle of Wakefield took place in the Wars of the Roses, and the city was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War. Wakefield became an important market town and centre for wool, exploiting its position on the navigable River Calder to become an inland port. In the 18th century, Wakefield traded in corn, coal and textiles.
