What happens to the shop? For a great many Leicester families the answer is the whole estate: the business on Melton Road or in the Cultural Quarter, the flat above it and the house in Evington bought from its profits. A will that simply leaves everything to a spouse can leave the business without anyone authorised to run it for months, and a will that splits it between children who do not get on can finish it altogether. Will solicitors in Leicester spend much of their time on exactly this problem.
The rest of their work is the familiar range. Unmarried partners and stepchildren inherit nothing under the intestacy rules, so couples who never married, common in Clarendon Park and the West End, need a will more than anyone. Parents name guardians. Second families use life interest trusts to balance a surviving spouse against children from a first marriage. Families with property in India, Kenya, Uganda or Poland usually need a separate will for that country, drafted so that neither will cancels the other, and Leicester's Muslim, Hindu and Sikh clients often ask for wills that respect their faith's inheritance customs while remaining valid in English law.
A lasting power of attorney is the companion document, appointing someone to manage finances or make health decisions if dementia or illness strikes; without one the family must go to the Court of Protection, which is slower and far dearer.
Probate follows a death. The solicitor values the estate, deals with HMRC, obtains the grant and distributes the assets, and will warn executors that they are personally responsible for getting it right. Expect fixed fees for wills, mirror wills and powers of attorney, and a fixed or hourly fee for probate depending on the complexity of the estate.
Wills, trusts and probate firms for Leicester are listed below, verified firms first and the others by distance. Our guides explain wills, trusts and probate, the cost of a will, probate costs and lasting powers of attorney, and our page on will solicitors describes what they do.
