Everyone should have a Will… but not all Will Writers’ knowledge and quality of service are equal!
Heir Tight Wills is your Will writing specialist. We provide expertise in Wills and Estate Planning, explained in plain English not legal jargon. Our service standards are Professionalism, Credibility, Integrity and Transparency.
Rachael Rodgers, the owner of Heir Tight Wills, is a fully insured member of the Society of Will Writers and holds the industry’s leading qualification in Will Preparation & Drafting through STEP – the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners.
Why use a Will Writing specialist?
A lot of people still think they need a solicitor to draft their Will, but the truth is that very few solicitors specialise in Wills.
Most solicitors do a ‘little bit of everything’ rather than being specialists – and like your local GP, they know a fair amount across a lot of different areas. But if you have a complex health issue, you want your GP to refer you to a Consultant – a specialist in precisely the issue you need help with. Likewise, if you need specific advice for Wills and Estate Planning, it is best to speak to a specialist.
If you think you have a complex estate, a complicated family inheritance issue or you need some advice on business succession planning you will want to speak to a consultant specialising in that area. Rachael Rodgers, the owner of Heir Tight Wills, is the consultant you need. She’s a highly trained and qualified specialist in the complex area of Wills and Estate Planning.
Impressive in all areas. Proactive, friendly, thorough, knowledgeable, prompt and extremely professional.
Never knew such a service existed in this space.
Rachael has taken things to a whole new level and set a new benchmark of what customer service is. It has been both inspirational and very reassuring working with her.
About Rachael and Heir Tight Wills
How it all began…
Rachael worked in Business Development and Due Diligence in the City for many years, protecting the assets of commercial and large corporate clients. Then the London terrorist bombings of 2005 changed everything. This was her lightbulb moment and she realised that not only did she not want to continue working in London, but that she didn’t have a Will!
When she started researching her options for her own Will, she got ‘hooked’ on the intricacies of Wills and Estate Planning.
Specialist training for better Will Writing
With a desire to specialise in this new arena, Rachael put herself through the training college of the country’s largest professional organisation – the Society of Will Writers & Estate Practitioners (SWW), before finding a mentor to teach her how to put her learning into practice.
After several years and additional training through the Institute of Professional Will Writers to further hone her skills, Rachael was head-hunted by a local firm of solicitors in 2010 to write Wills for their clients. Here she learned exactly how NOT to run a business and decided to branch out on her own.
Continuing her learning during 2011, Rachael qualified through the industry’s leading training body, STEP – the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners, attaining the highest qualification in Will Writing in 2012 (the Diploma level ‘Advanced Certificate in Will Preparation & Drafting’) – unlike the vast majority of Solicitors and Will Writers who draft Wills. The STEP qualification has enabled Rachael to specialise in the more complex areas of Wills and estate planning.
Who we work with
Operating under the ‘Law of England & Wales’, Heir Tight Wills provides services to business and private clients across those areas. Depending on your location, we provide meetings in your own home or office or consultations via telephone and Zoom.
We advise on every conceivable aspect of this complex legal area, answer any questions you may have and take your instructions for drafting your required documents ensuring they are tailored to your specific circumstances.
This may include:
- Advising on the appointment of suitable Executors and Trustees in your Will, explaining their roles and responsibilities
- Advising on the appointment of guardians, and the considerations when your chosen appointees live overseas
- Advising on the difference in inheritance and tax rules when leaving assets to an unmarried partner or a spouse/civil partner
- Advising on how best to protect your assets from the possible remarriage or care fees of your surviving spouse or partner, to secure your children’s inheritance
- Advising on how best to protect your children’s inheritance from their own potential future divorce or creditors, or if they are, or later become, vulnerable or disabled
- Advising on provisions to minimise, mitigate or, where legally possible, avoid the payment of inheritance tax
- Advising on how to make it less likely someone you wish to exclude from your Will would make a claim against your estate
- Advising on how to provide for the continuity and succession of your business
- Advising property investors on the implications of ‘how’ they own their properties, and helping them minimise their inheritance tax liability
- Advising on how to maximise the inheritance tax reliefs available to your non-domiciled spouse
…and a lot more besides.
We specialise in supporting clients who have complex or potentially contentious situations, ensuring that they have the best provisions in place when the worst happens.
How we work
Our service is as flexible as you need it to be, but typically would follow a process like this:
- A free initial 30+ minute telephone consultation (with a free audit of your existing Will/s where relevant) to establish your specific circumstances and objectives. We’ll discuss the relevant provisions and solutions to help you achieve them. If you have completed our online Assessment form, you will already have received some useful information as to the provisions that may be relevant for your situation and we will have received an idea of what your needs might be.
- The initial telephone consultation is followed up in writing with our recommendations for your specific situation with the corresponding pricing. We charge fixed fees for our drafting services so you will know exactly what the price will be before confirming you wish to proceed.
- For business clients we can also provide an audit of your company documents (where there are any), to establish whether they will achieve what you need them to and any pitfalls which would deny your business ‘relief from inheritance tax’ on your death. Where there is more than one shareholder or partner we generally conduct a joint meeting or zoom consultation to discuss your requirements.
- For local clients, once you confirm you wish to proceed we will have a face-to-face meeting in the comfort of your own home or office or other suitable venue. This meeting is to discuss your provisions in full and take your instructions, before which I provide a full brief of the ‘things to consider and prepare’ for the meeting. For clients further afield, this meeting is generally conducted via Zoom.
- Following our meeting, I provide a summary of the Provisions you have put in place for your documents with any outstanding action points, before commencing drafting. I will send you the drafts within a week for review and confirmation. If we are conducting the instruction meeting face-to-face and drafting Lasting Powers of Attorney as well as Wills, we’ll return with your confirmed documents to ensure they are correctly signed and witnessed.
- Our document drafting services include: Wills, Trusts, Expressions of Wishes guidance letters, Land Registry work, General & Lasting Powers of Attorney, Deeds of Revocation of existing Powers of Attorney, Advance Decisions (Living Wills) & Advance Statements, Declarations of Trust, and Spanish Wills and Spanish Powers of Attorney.
- We also provide additional services through our collaborative partners, including:
- revisions to or drafting of commercial documents e.g. Shareholder/Partnership Agreements, Cross-options, Share Purchase Agreements and updating Articles via our Commercial Solicitors
- pre-nuptial and co-habitation Agreements via our family solicitors
- commercial or residential property transfers with the relevant Declarations of Trust and HMRC applications where relevant, via our property lawyers
- asset and liability searches for Attorneys acting under a ‘property and finance’ Lasting Power of Attorney
- consultations regarding life insurance, critical illness protection, income protection and pensions via our financial advisors
- full probate and estate administration services and inheritance dispute support via our probate partners and contentious probate solicitors.
Heir Tight Wills also works with many other business professionals to provide a full, specialist service for their client’s complex requirements.
Our Introducers include financial advisors, accountants, and even solicitors who don’t provide Wills or don’t deal with the more complicated situations. Our introducers understand the complex needs of their clients and that they are not being met in the general legal marketplace. Find out more about our services for Introducers.
Make sure your Will is ‘heir-tight’
Our Estate Planning Assessment will give you valuable insights into the concepts and provisions that might be applicable for your situation. Alternatively, you can contact us by phone or email.
