Inheritance tax was designed for the wealthy, and in Oxford it reaches people who have never thought of themselves that way. A retired lecturer in a North Oxford house bought in the 1970s, a nurse's family in a Headington semi, a couple in Jericho whose terrace is worth a sum they never expected: house prices have carried ordinary Oxford estates past the threshold, and will solicitors in the city spend as much time on planning as on drafting. The residence allowance that passes a home to descendants, lifetime gifts, trusts for grandchildren's education and legacies to charities, colleges among them, all come into the conversation.
The city's population adds its own complications. Academics and clinicians from abroad may have property, pensions or family in another country, which raises questions of which law applies and whether a second will is needed there. Second marriages and stepchildren are common, and a will that protects a new spouse without disinheriting children usually needs a life-interest trust. Unmarried partners, numerous in a city of younger professionals and long-term renters, inherit nothing under the intestacy rules. Lasting powers of attorney, for money and for health, spare a family the Court of Protection when capacity is lost, and Oxford's older households in Summertown and Wolvercote are quick to make them.
Probate is the other half of the work: valuing the estate, settling inheritance tax with HMRC before the grant can issue, selling or transferring the house and distributing to the beneficiaries, with executors personally liable for errors. Disputed wills and claims by those left out grow with the estates.
Wills and lasting powers of attorney are almost always fixed-fee; probate is quoted as a fixed fee, an hourly rate or a percentage, so compare.
Oxford's will and probate solicitors are listed below, verified firms first. Useful background: wills, trusts and probate explained, the articles on will-writing costs and probate costs, what a lasting power of attorney does and the general will solicitors page.
