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Straight answers, without the jargon.
Estate planning has a vocabulary problem. These are the things worth understanding before you make any decisions.
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The Family Guide to Planning for a Vulnerable Beneficiary
What happens to means-tested benefits when an inheritance arrives, which trust structures exist and how they differ, how to choose trustees who will still be there in thirty years, and what to put in a letter of wishes that only you could write.
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Glossary
The words, translated
- Intestacy
- Dying without a valid Will. A fixed statutory order then decides who inherits, which may exclude an unmarried partner entirely.
- Executor
- The person you appoint in your Will to gather in your estate, settle debts and distribute what remains.
- Attorney
- Someone appointed under a Lasting Power of Attorney to make decisions for you. Nothing to do with a lawyer.
- Trustee
- A person who legally holds assets in a trust and must manage them for the beneficiaries, not for themselves.
- Beneficiary
- Anyone who benefits from your Will or a trust — whether they receive money outright or through trustees.
- Nil-rate band
- The amount of your estate that passes free of inheritance tax. A residence nil-rate band may add to it where a home passes to direct descendants.
- Joint tenants
- A way of co-owning property where your share passes automatically to the survivor, regardless of what your Will says.
- Tenants in common
- Co-ownership in defined shares. Your share passes under your Will, which is what makes property trust planning possible.
- Deprivation of assets
- Giving assets away to reduce a care-fee assessment. A local authority can assess you as though you still owned them.
- Deputyship
- A Court of Protection appointment made when someone has already lost capacity and has no Lasting Power of Attorney. Slower and more expensive than an LPA.
- Letter of wishes
- A private, non-binding letter guiding your executors or trustees. Not part of your Will, and not made public.
- Potentially exempt transfer
- A lifetime gift that falls outside your estate for inheritance tax if you survive it by seven years.
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