Some wills in Sutton are made in a hospital room. A patient at the Royal Marsden or St Helier who has been given a prognosis may want to put their affairs in order within days, and will solicitors in the borough are used to visiting a ward with a draft, checking capacity carefully, and finding two independent witnesses who are not beneficiaries. It is not the ideal way to make a will, but it is far better than dying without one.
Most of the borough's wills are made at a desk. Sutton has an older population than most of London, and the typical estate is a semi in Cheam, Carshalton Beeches or Worcester Park, or a former council house on the St Helier estate bought under the right to buy, plus savings and a pension, left between children who may no longer live nearby. Inheritance tax is a real question for larger houses in Belmont and Cheam, where the exemptions for a spouse and a home passed to children, and gifts made in good time, can save a great deal. The intestacy rules leave an unmarried partner nothing, which surprises many couples in their sixties and seventies who never saw the need to marry.
Lasting powers of attorney matter as much as the will in a borough with many residents living alone: one for finances, one for health and welfare, both made while the person has capacity and held until needed. The same firms handle probate when the time comes, from valuing the estate and dealing with HMRC to selling the house and distributing the proceeds.
Wills and powers of attorney are generally fixed-fee; probate may be fixed, hourly or a percentage of the estate.
Will and probate solicitors near Sutton are listed below, verified firms first. The guides to wills, trusts and probate, the cost of a will, probate costs and lasting powers of attorney explain the basics, and the will solicitors page covers the service in general.
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