Estate Planning Services
Codicil Estate Planning & Consultancy is an independent estate planning consultancy based in London, supporting clients across England and Wales. We provide clear, practical guidance so you can understand your options, make informed decisions and put practical arrangements in place to support the people and causes that matter to you.
Please note: Codicil Estate Planning & Consultancy provides unregulated estate-planning services, including drafting Wills, Trusts and Lasting Powers of Attorney. We use sophisticated estate-planning software and a structured CRM workflow to support an efficient, well-documented process for preparing personalised, professional estate-planning documents. These tools support the drafting and client workflow but do not make our service regulated legal advice, do not replace a solicitor or other regulated professional, and do not, by themselves, guarantee legal validity, tax outcomes or suitability for your individual circumstances.
Our Core Services
Through Will Writing, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Trust Planning, we provide clear, step-by-step consultancy guidance, document drafting and practical support so your arrangements are easy to understand and tailored to you. We use sophisticated estate-planning software and a CRM-based workflow to help manage information, support the drafting process and keep your matter organised and on track, while you remain in control of the decisions made. Codicil provides these services on an unregulated estate-planning basis only. The use of these tools does not make our work regulated legal advice, does not replace a solicitor or other regulated professional, and does not guarantee legal validity, tax outcomes or suitability. Where regulated legal services, contentious legal work, probate or estate administration, legal representation, or formal legal, tax or financial advice are required, we will explain this and, where appropriate, refer you to a suitably regulated solicitor, tax adviser, financial adviser or other professional.
Will Writing
Having a clear, well-prepared Will helps set out what should happen to your money, property and personal belongings, and can make a difficult time easier to manage for the people you care about.
We offer a Will writing service that helps you think through and prepare a Will that clearly reflects your wishes and family circumstances. Codicil drafts Wills as an unregulated estate-planning service. We do not provide regulated legal advice or any other regulated legal services, and we do not act as solicitors or provide legal representation. Where your situation involves complex, contentious or otherwise regulated legal matters, we will explain this and, where appropriate, work alongside or refer you to a solicitor or other suitably regulated professional.
- Deciding who should benefit from your estate, including family, friends and charities
- Thinking about who to ask to act as executors to manage your estate and carry out your wishes
- Naming guardians for children and setting out how you would like them to be cared for
- Planning for blended families and second marriages so everyone is considered fairly
- Recording personal gifts and messages for loved ones
- Capturing your funeral preferences and any specific requests
- Reviewing existing Wills from a practical, non-legal perspective and highlighting areas you may wish to discuss with a solicitor or other regulated professional
Our role is to provide calm, practical consultancy guidance for individuals, couples and blended families, taking the time to explain your options in plain English so you can make confident, well-informed decisions about your Will and any other steps you wish to take, including where you choose to instruct a solicitor or other professional. Where a professional executor is needed — for example if there is no suitable person to act, or where your estate is complex — we can, where appropriate, connect you with a suitable professional executor service.
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) lets you choose trusted people to make decisions on your behalf if you ever become unable to do so yourself due to illness, accident or loss of capacity. Codicil can help you complete your LPA documents and provide practical support with submitting them to the Office of the Public Guardian for registration.
Without an LPA, your family may face additional delays, costs and uncertainty at an already stressful time. Even though LPA registration is an administrative process, having professional support to guide you through each step can help ensure your documents are completed correctly and submitted properly.
- Explaining the two main types of LPA: Property & Financial Affairs, and Health & Welfare
- Helping you think through which LPA(s) may be appropriate for your situation
- Providing guidance on choosing suitable attorneys and replacement attorneys
- Discussing how your attorneys can make decisions and work together in line with your values
- Walking through the LPA forms with you so you understand the information requested
- Providing practical guidance on the completion, signing and witnessing process and supporting you with submitting your LPA forms to the Office of the Public Guardian for registration
- Reviewing existing LPAs from a practical, non-legal perspective to see if they still align with your wishes, and signposting where legal advice may be helpful
Our role is to help you understand your choices and provide practical support through the entire LPA process, from initial consultancy through to registering your LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian. Codicil can draft LPAs and provide registration support as an unregulated estate-planning service. Where you need regulated legal advice—such as advice on complex capacity issues or contentious legal matters—we will signpost you to an appropriately regulated professional such as a solicitor.
Trust Planning
Trusts can be a useful way to manage and protect assets, provide for vulnerable or younger beneficiaries and give you more control over how and when your estate is passed on. As with any estate planning tool, trusts have limitations and may not be suitable in every situation.
As part of our estate planning consultancy, we can help you think through and outline suitable trust arrangements, and we can draft trust documents as an unregulated estate-planning service where appropriate. We do not administer estates after death (probate), and we do not provide complex tax structuring, regulated financial advice or other regulated legal services. Where this type of work or advice is required, we will explain this clearly and, where appropriate, refer you to a solicitor, tax adviser, financial adviser or other suitably regulated professional.
- Clarifying your priorities, such as protecting a family home or providing long-term support for a loved one
- Explaining different types of trust in plain English, including discretionary trusts, life interest trusts and property trusts
- Considering how trusts may help manage assets for children or vulnerable beneficiaries
- Discussing at a general level how trusts might interact with care fee assessments and inheritance tax (IHT) exposure, and highlighting when specialist tax or legal advice is needed
- Working alongside your solicitor, tax adviser or financial adviser where specialist legal, tax or financial advice is required
- Helping you think about how trusts might be incorporated into your Will or wider estate planning documents by a solicitor or other regulated professional
Our focus is on practical, understandable structures that reflect your wishes and family circumstances.
Referrals and working with other professionals
Codicil Estate Planning & Consultancy is an independent, unregulated estate planning consultancy. We focus on practical, plain-English support around Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Trust Planning. We use sophisticated estate-planning software and a CRM workflow to help us gather information, manage your instructions and support the preparation of your documents in a consistent, efficient way. We do draft Wills, Trusts and Lasting Powers of Attorney as unregulated estate-planning services, but we do not provide regulated legal services or act as solicitors, and we do not give regulated legal, tax or financial advice. The use of software and workflow tools does not of itself make our service regulated, does not replace a solicitor or other regulated professional, and does not guarantee legal validity, tax outcomes or suitability.
Where your needs call for regulated legal services or advice — for example, probate or estate administration, contentious legal matters, court applications, formal tax advice or matters requiring legal representation — we will explain this clearly and, where appropriate, refer you to a suitable regulated professional such as a solicitor, financial adviser, tax adviser or probate practitioner. Codicil does not provide probate or estate administration services.
These introductions are a normal and valued part of our service, made because we believe they are in your best interests. We do not receive referral fees, and we are always happy to work alongside your chosen solicitor, financial adviser, tax adviser or accountant so that you receive clear, joined-up support from all of your professional advisers.
Book a consultation
If you would like to discuss any of our services or are unsure where to start, we are here to help. We will take the time to understand your situation and outline the practical options available, including when it may be appropriate to involve a solicitor or other regulated professional.
Codicil Estate Planning & Consultancy provides unregulated estate-planning services, including drafting Wills, Trusts and Lasting Powers of Attorney. We do not provide regulated legal services, probate, tax advice, financial advice or any other form of regulated advice. Where your situation requires input from a solicitor, tax adviser, financial adviser or other regulated professional, we will explain this and, where appropriate, refer you to someone suitable.
