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Writing a will is the starting point for almost every family that comes to us.

Not because it is the most sophisticated part of estate planning.

Because without one, the decisions that matter most are taken out of your hands entirely.

If you die without a will, you are said to have died intestate.

At that point a set of rules written by the government determines what happens to everything you own.

Those rules are fixed.

They do not know anything about your family.

They do not know which of your children you would have wanted to receive what, or whether you had promised something to a grandchild, or whether there is someone in your life who matters to you but has no legal claim.

They simply apply a formula.

For some families the outcome of that formula happens to be close to what the person would have wanted.

For many others it is not.

Unmarried partners, for example, have no automatic entitlement under the intestacy rules regardless of how long you have been together.

Stepchildren you raised as your own are not recognised unless they were legally adopted.

And the order in which relatives inherit may bear very little resemblance to the relationships you had in life.

There is also a practical cost.

Administering an intestate estate tends to take longer and cost more than one where clear instructions exist.

The people you leave behind are the ones who absorb both.

So while writing a will does not do much on its own to reduce an Inheritance Tax bill, it does something arguably more fundamental.

It means the decisions about your wealth are yours rather than the government’s.

It is worth saying that having a will is not the end of the job either.

A skilfully drafted will is a critical part of any estate plan, but it should be reviewed regularly.

Legislation changes. Family circumstances change. What you want changes.

We offer a will review service designed to identify any clauses that could become problematic after your death, so that the document still does what you intended when the time comes.

Because a will that was right ten years ago is not necessarily the right will today.