Wills and Probate Solicitors in Braintree

• Braintree
• Wills & Probate
• Family Law
• Conveyancing

Our Braintree Wills and Probate Team are highly experienced and aim to provide you with an efficient, friendly and approachable legal service

We know that planning your life and estate is important to both you and your family; that is why we provide comprehensive advice about your options and the likely consequences.

We always aim to work with our clients in a personable and stress-free way and to communicate your options and outcomes in plain English.

Private client expertise

The solicitors in our Wills & Probate department are Dementia Friends, and have strong links within the local community. They have years’ experience of dealing with vulnerable clients and their families, so you can be sure they are dealt with in a kind and caring way.

Our Braintree Wills & Probate team has you covered

Our Braintree private client department and trust and estate practitioners can help you and your family with:

• Probate,
• Wills,
• Lasting Powers of Attorney,
• Deeds of Variation,
• Court of Protection,
• Trust Deeds, and
• Trust Administration

More about the services offered by our Wills and Probate team

Probate

Dealing with someone’s estate can be complex and stressful, especially as it is such a difficult time anyway. Our probate lawyers can help you with the time limits to observe, tax allowances to be claimed (or otherwise lost), tax to be reclaimed, assets to be protected, and legal responsibilities to HMRC, the Probate Court and the estate in general.

Our probate solicitors can use their extensive knowledge and experience to help guide you through this legal maze.

Writing Wills

Getting our affairs in order with a correctly drafted Will can avoid a lot of additional stress when we are gone. It is already a difficult time, and taking some of the stress away from your friends and family with a valid Will is a great help. Issues such as succession planning, division of financial affairs, and legal documents dealing with estate assets can come up, making any probate disputes less likely.

Our carefully drafted Will can:

• avoid tax allowances being reduced or lost;
• make use of any charitable exemptions, whilst at the same time potentially reducing the rate of inheritance tax paid;
• ringfence assets for children; and
• be used to protect vulnerable family members.

What’s the problem?

Need advice on a legal matter? Why not visit our advice centre in Braintree to discuss your concerns with us.

Learn more

Lasting Powers of Attorney

Lasting Power of Attorney is your choice as to who will manage both your financial affairs and personal welfare if you are unable to do this job yourself.

Talk to us about why having a Power of Attorney in place is important and what benefits they provide you with.

Deeds of Variation

The use of a Deed of Variation to redirect assets received from an estate could provide you a very powerful tool when it comes to your planning for Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax and family intergeneration Tax.

The Deed of Variation is entirely tailored to fit your circumstances and there are rules to be observed for a Deed of Variation to work, so expert advice is a must.

Court of Protection

Losing mental capacity throws up all sorts of challenges if there is no Power of Attorney in place.

Issues such as

• who will administer the finances,
• how they obtain legal authority to do so,
• what can and cannot be done when it comes to making gifts, managing investments,
• as well as the day to day administration,

are thrown up.

Our Private Client lawyers have a wealth of experience in helping you with your legal and administrative duties and have been Court-appointed Deputies.

Trust Deeds

A carefully-drafted Trust Deed can be used as an agreement between partners as to who will get what back if your home has to be sold due to separation.

Trusts have other useful functions which may help protect your family from third parties and tax.

Trust administration

Trustees have many responsibilities, duties and accountabilities. We can help you with the correct administration of your Trust.

What areas are covered by the Braintree branch of Cunningtons?

From our Great Square offices, we provide Wills, probate and estate planning services throughout Essex and Suffolk, including Braintree, Colchester, Ipswich, Halstead, Sudbury, Haverhill, Saffron Walden, Bishop’s Stortford, Long Melford, Harwich, Manningtree, Hadleigh, Tiptree and surrounding areas.

Whether you’re planning your estate in historic Colchester, need probate support in bustling Ipswich, or require Court of Protection assistance in market town Sudbury, our Braintree team provides the same expert wills and probate service with local knowledge that only comes from 275 years serving Essex and Suffolk families.

Who runs the Braintree Wills and Probate solicitors team?

The team is headed by partner and Wills and Probate solicitor Bryony Wilmshurst, who is amongst her other roles a member of The Association of Lifetime Lawyers and a Dementia Friend Champion. You can read more about Bryony here.

Branches offering Wills and Probate services

Click to learn more about our Wills and Probate solicitors in Brighton, Chelmsford, Croydon, Hornchurch and Wickford.

Staff Spotlight

Bryony Wilmshurst

Partner and Solicitor

Bryony Wilmshurst is head of Wills & Probate and partner in charge of our Braintree branch.

More about Bryony