A listed house in Bath can push an ordinary family into inheritance tax on its own. Add a pension, some investments and the paintings and furniture that a Georgian house seems to collect, and the estate of a retired teacher or engineer in Bathwick or Lansdown may face a tax bill that forces a sale. Will solicitors in Bath therefore do a great deal of planning as well as drafting: lifetime gifts, trusts for grandchildren, charitable legacies that reduce the rate of tax, and the careful use of the allowances available for a home left to children.
The drafting still matters. Bath's older population includes many second marriages, where a life interest trust lets a surviving spouse remain in the house while the children of the first marriage inherit it in the end, and many people with no close family, who want to leave money to the city's churches, charities and institutions. Unmarried partners inherit nothing under the intestacy rules, and home-made wills that leave the house to one child and "the rest" to another are a reliable source of litigation. A solicitor's will costs little more than an online one and is far harder to challenge.
Lasting powers of attorney are prepared at the same time, one for property and finances and one for health and welfare. In a city with an older population they are used constantly, and without them a family must apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship.
Probate follows with the same firms: valuing the estate, including the house and its contents, dealing with HMRC, obtaining the grant and distributing to beneficiaries. Estates with trusts, overseas assets or a business are charged hourly or as a percentage; simple estates and all wills and powers of attorney are usually fixed-fee.
Bath's wills, trusts and probate firms are listed below, verified firms first. Read wills, trusts and probate explained, how much a will costs, what probate costs and the general guide to will solicitors.
