Women’s wealth refers to the growing global wealth that is controlled by women and the tailored financial advice designed to target female clients. With more wealth in the hands of women it’s increasingly important for women to have the financial knowledge and confidence to handle assets, income and investments. Our financial planners are here to support throughout.

With many people now living longer and the average life expectancy of women surpassing that of men, retirement years need to be properly financed. You can read more on this on Our World in Data. If you plan to retire at or around the traditionally ‘expected’ retirement age, the impact on your pensions, savings and future retirement could be significant.

Yes, globally women’s wealth is rising due to many key factors. These include more women owning their own businesses or earning higher salaries in professional and leadership roles. For more information on this, read more on Forbes.

Women are also more likely to take career breaks for care giving and maternity leave, which can affect their opportunity to progress in job roles and limit pension contributions.

To narrow the gap, we need to see efforts like equal pay policies, salary transparency laws, better paid parental leave and an increase in women in higher paying leadership roles.

Anyone aged 18 or over and of sound mind can make a Will. You should prepare a Will once you have acquired substantial assets, chosen to marry, divorce or become a parent/responsible for dependants. It’s important to regularly review and update as necessary throughout your life as it will dictate how you wish to distribute your assets at the time of your death.

If you pass away without a Will, you are considered to have died intestate. In this case, a set of statutory rules (the laws of intestacy) will determine how your assets are distributed among your family members in a predetermined order. If no family members are found, your assets will go to the Crown.

The risk of dying intestate is that you lose control over who inherits your assets. Relatives you may not intend to benefit could inherit, while those who are not blood relatives, such as unmarried partners, might receive nothing. To avoid this, it’s essential to create a Will.

A Deed of Variation is a recognised legal document which changes the terms of an existing Will or Trust. To be valid it must be set up within two years of the date of death.

It works to change a beneficiary’s share of inheritance by redistributing the assets. One of its key benefits is that it can help reduce Inheritance Tax – perhaps by adding in a gift to charity or setting up a Trust.

When it comes to the law, no two countries are the same, so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to Wills. In the case of English and Welsh domiciled expats, the law that governs movable assets (such as cash, jewellery and personal items) is the law of England and Wales. However, immovable assets such as homes, land and property owned outside England and Wales usually falls under the jurisdiction of the country in which it is located.

In most cases – if you have relocated to or left the UK – more than one will may be required, but it’s not that simple. Having several wills means they must be carefully worded to complement each other. Normally if a new Will is written, it revokes all previous Wills. It is important that having more than one will covering two or more different countries, must not revoke the others.

Executors are the individuals you appoint in your Will to fulfil your wishes after your passing. They are responsible for handling all aspects of your affairs, such as notifying people of your death, arranging your funeral, managing any tax obligations, settling debts, gathering details of your assets and liabilities, and ultimately distributing your estate to the beneficiaries you have designated.

A trust is an arrangement which can be used to hold your assets and determine what happens to them in particular situations. Trusts are useful when it comes to tax and estate planning, as they ultimately give better control over your assets. They can be a good solution if, for example, you want to use an asset to provide an income for your spouse for a period of with the ultimate beneficiaries being your children.

As a trust needs to be a legally bound contract established with specific wording, it is beneficial to seek advice from a professional to ensure the trust deed has been drafted correctly and avoid any uncertainty.

A trustee of a trust can also be a beneficiary of the that same trust. However, its good practice that at least one trustee is not a beneficiary.

You can choose anyone or an organisation such as a charity to be a beneficiary of your trust. You can also choose people based on relationships such as grandchildren or future great grandchildren.

Family office services are designed for high-net-worth families, providing high-level professional advice using a connected approach. It combines asset management, financial planning, lifestyle management and legal services to help clients navigate the complex world of wealth management.

A family office is a group of advisers that provide high-net-worth families with a range of services including financial planning, asset management, legal and tax advice.

A family office would be beneficial for those families with a large amount of wealth, interested in growing and preserving for the next generation. With a family office, you will receive professional advisory services that will help you manage your wealth, invest in various asset classes and preserve their wealth for future generations.

Anyone aged 18 or over can act as an executor of a Will. The only caveat is that you should choose those who are comfortable and capable of taking on the responsibility.

We find that for most of our clients, their affairs are sufficiently complicated to justify a professional executor, although most people also choose their spouse, partner, adult child, friend or close relative to act on their behalf. It’s worth noting that your executor can be a beneficiary in your Will; they don’t have to be impartial.

It’s good practice to have two executors, one of whom should be a professional, although up to four are legally allowed. Having two offers good ‘cover’ if one is unable to act or passes away before you’ve updated your Will, whilst removing the difficulties of having too many people involved. A professional executor will have specialist knowledge to ensure your estate is looked after and help remove some of the burden from your family. It’s worth noting that some of the documentation which executors might face is extremely daunting; the forms related to IHT top more than 100 pages alongside a similar number of pages of notes. Specialist software can be a big help, although the costs can be prohibitive for if you have specified a family member or friend as your executor.

A professional executor has the required skills and experience to deal with your estate, ranging from handling the deceased’s tax affairs, selling or transferring their property and managing their investment portfolio.

The executor of a Will ensures all property owned by the deceased party is secure as soon as possible following their passing. This individual has a legal responsibility to identify all assets in the estate, obtain valuations, settle any tax due and, if necessary, make an application for the grant of probate. The executor will also be responsible for paying any outstanding debts and liabilities and making distributions to the chosen beneficiaries according to the terms of the deceased’s Will.

You can appoint as many executors as you like in your Will, and you can also choose substitute executors should any of your initial choices be unable or unwilling to act. However, the maximum number of people that can act as executor at any one time is four.

Some of an executor’s powers are standard, given under state legislation, whilst others may be granted in the Will. Traditional executor powers include:

• Investment power
• Power to advance money to minor beneficiaries
• Lending
• Use of estate property

The process of probate can take up to 6 months or more from the date of death till the estimate being distributed amongst beneficiates. An experienced solicitor can assist you and help you avoid any mistakes, which may can result in further delays. 

Once the grant has been issued, probate typically takes a few months to work through but it can take longer. Ultimately the time needed depends on the size or complexity of the estate in question, including whether your assets are just in the UK or overseas too.

Executors will then gain access to your funds and deal with your finances so that they can follow your wishes for sharing out your estate.

The executor of your estate, who you’ll have nominated in your Will, will apply for a grant of probate. Probate is usually needed for any estate worth more than £5,000 and is a legal document enabling your executor to gain access to your funds and deal with your finances so that they can follow your wishes for sharing out your estate. Applying for the grant will need your executor to identify the estate’s total value and have the original Will and a death certificate.

Probate is one of those financial planning terms that lots of us have heard of, but few understand the meaning of, and whether it will apply to us.

Most of us will leave an estate when we die – anything from some cash savings in the bank to a collection of properties, investments and savings. In its simplest form, probate refers to the process which identifies and values these assets, pays any remaining debts and shares what’s left in line with the Will.

Estate planning in simple terms refers to preparing your estate and assets in the event of your death. This includes Wills, trusts and much more.

Estate planning is often put off or even forgotten about, but leaving things too late can result in surprising or unwanted consequences for your loved ones. We know this area of planning needs care and tact to ensure that your wishes will be properly fulfilled throughout your life and beyond.

Achieving your estate planning goals and minimising the impact of IHT go hand in hand and involve a range of actions. This starts with writing your all-important Will and also potentially including, trusts, gifts, life assurance and more.

The Court of Protection makes decisions and assigns deputies to act on your behalf if you are unable to make decisions about your personal health, finance, or welfare.

The Court cannot make any decisions on behalf of anyone who has capacity to make that decision on their own. It also cannot force other public bodies such as a councils or hospital to provide treatment or services.

The process of becoming assigned as a deputy by the Court can take up to 6 months.

The standard IHT rate is 40%. It’s only charged on the part of your estate that’s above the tax-free threshold of £325,000.

Our team are highly experienced in setting up and managing trusts for younger family members, as well as facilitating discussions around wealth with the next generation.

We have helped countless clients with their business succession planning, whether they decide to go down the route of family succession planning or MBOs.

We can support in creating the appropriate vehicles for passing on wealth to children and grandchildren.

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property ownership from one party to another through sale and purchase.

Generally speaking, conveyancing takes 12 to 16 weeks from start to finish. However, this timeframe can vary based on certain factors such as delays in property searches, surveys and mortgage lenders.

Conveyancing can be a lengthy process for a variety of reasons. The most common being that the buyer, seller or other solicitors involved can be slow to respond to enquiries. Other reasons can be issues with the property title, problems revealed by the building survey, or local authorities taking a while to respond to requests.