Sidmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Exmouth have some of the oldest populations in the country, and Exeter is where many of their residents go for a solicitor. That gives the city's wills and probate practices a distinctive caseload: couples in their seventies and eighties updating wills made when their children were small, widows and widowers facing a house sale and care fees, and families trying to sort out an estate that includes a bungalow, a share portfolio and a timeshare nobody wants.
A will solicitor in Exeter will often begin with lasting powers of attorney rather than the will itself. One for property and finances and one for health and welfare allow a trusted person to act if dementia or a stroke removes capacity; without them, the family must apply to the Court of Protection to become a deputy, which is slow and expensive. The will follows: who inherits the house, whether a share of it should be held in trust for children from a first marriage, how to provide for a disabled child without affecting benefits, gifts to the Devon charities and churches that many clients support, and, where the estate is large, planning to reduce inheritance tax. Unmarried partners receive nothing under intestacy, which surprises people every week.
Exeter's rural hinterland adds farms and land, where succession planning has become urgent as agricultural and business property relief changes, and the university and hospital add academics and clinicians with pension death benefits and overseas assets.
Probate is handled by the same firms: the valuation, the tax return to HMRC, the application for the grant and the final distribution, with fixed fees for simple estates and hourly or percentage charges for complex ones. Wills and powers of attorney are nearly always fixed-fee.
The Exeter firms offering wills, trusts and probate are listed below, verified firms first. Read wills, trusts and probate explained, what a will costs, lasting powers of attorney and the general will solicitors guide.
