Unused pensions are due to be brought into inheritance tax from 2027, and in Gloucester, where a working life at the nuclear headquarters, the engineering plants or the county council often ends with a pension worth more than the house, that change has sent people who never expected to pay the tax to a will solicitor in Gloucester. The answers are the familiar ones, lifetime gifts, drawing the pension first, nominations and trusts, but they have to be worked out family by family.
Farms add a second planning problem. Agricultural and business property reliefs are being cut back, so dairy farms in the Severn Vale and holdings on the Cotswold edge that once passed down tax-free now need succession plans: partnerships that bring the next generation in, land held in the right names, and wills that do not force a working farm to be sold.
The everyday work is that of any county town with an ageing population. Wills for Gloucester couples in Hucclecote and Longlevens who want the house to reach the children while protecting a surviving spouse; wills for the remarried; wills that remember the cathedral, the hospice and the county's charities. Unmarried partners, who inherit nothing on intestacy, need one more than anyone. Lasting powers of attorney, for finances and for health decisions, are made at the same appointment, and avoid a Court of Protection application if dementia comes later.
Probate is handled by the same firms: valuing land, shares and the pension, paying the tax, taking out the grant and distributing; executors of a farm estate should take advice early, because the reliefs must be claimed correctly.
Wills and powers of attorney are fixed-fee; probate may be quoted as a fixed fee, an hourly rate or a percentage.
Gloucester's wills and probate firms are listed below, verified ones first. Read wills, trusts and probate explained, how much a will costs, what probate costs and the general will solicitors guide.
