Registered number: 10816512.
Registered office: Squiggle Consult Ltd, Suite 2069, Letraset Building, Wotton Road, Ashford, Kent, TN23 6LN
Squiggle Consult Ltd. is a limited company registered in England and Wales.
Good legacy planning starts with a handful of decisions about people. Before we can draft your Will, set up a Lasting Power of Attorney, or put a trust in place, we need to know who the key people in your plan are and what role you want each of them to play.
This factsheet sets out who you need to choose, what we will need to know about each of them, and exactly what to bring to your first meeting with us. Taking a few minutes to think these questions through in advance means your planning meeting can focus on your goals rather than the basics, and makes it more likely that we can draft your documents without needing to come back to you for more information.
Five roles come up in almost every plan. What each one does, and how to choose well, is set out in our Writing Your Will: The Decisions That Matter factsheet. What follows is what you need to settle before the meeting, and the practical traps that catch people out while they are deciding.
Your executors carry out the wishes in your Will after you die: applying for the legal authority to deal with your estate (a "Grant of Probate"), gathering in your assets, paying your debts, and passing on what is left. Decide who they are, name a substitute in case one cannot act, and ask them first. Up to four executors can take out the grant, and one living abroad can slow the whole estate down. Our Being an Executor and Professional Executors factsheets cover the job itself and when a professional is worth considering.
An attorney acts under a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), and there are two types: property and financial affairs, and health and welfare. You can appoint different attorneys for each type, or the same people for both. Our Lasting Powers of Attorney factsheet explains both in full.
Two things are worth settling before you arrive. First, how your attorneys act. "Jointly" means they must agree on everything, so one disagreement, or one attorney who cannot be reached, brings decisions to a standstill. "Jointly and severally" means any of them can act alone, which is far more practical day to day. Second, where they live. Banks and other institutions can be reluctant to deal with an attorney who cannot attend in person, and an LPA may not be recognised in another country.
If you have children under 18, a guardian named in your Will has legal authority to make decisions for them after your death. Without one, a family member has to apply to the court, which is slow, costly and stressful at an already difficult time. Ask the people you have in mind before the meeting, and name a substitute in case your first choice cannot act. The guardian does not have to be the same person as the trustee who holds money for your children, and often should not be.
Trustees hold and manage anything your Will puts into trust. Two points are worth settling in advance. Where a trust holds property, the law allows a maximum of four trustees to hold land, and the Land Registry will not register more (including you and your spouse or partner, if applicable), so if you name more, only the first four can act. And a trustee living outside the UK can hold up any decision that needs every signature, and can change where the trust is treated as resident for tax, in some cases even a single overseas trustee. If anyone you have in mind lives abroad, tell us at the meeting and we will flag whether specialist tax advice is needed. Our Trust Administration factsheet explains what trustees are responsible for in practical terms.
Your beneficiaries are the people and organisations who inherit from you. For the meeting, all we need is the rough shape: who benefits, and roughly in what shares. The choices behind that (specific gifts, holding a share in trust until a beneficiary is older, protecting a partner's home for life, leaving someone out) are worked through in our Writing Your Will: The Decisions That Matter factsheet.
Smaller gifts and personal possessions are usually better dealt with in a Letter of Wishes, which we provide. It is not legally binding, but it guides your executors, and you can update it yourself whenever you like without redoing the main planning. Bring a list of any items you already know you want to go to particular people.
If you own digital assets (online accounts, cryptocurrency, digital photographs, social media profiles) these need special thought. See our Digital Assets After Death factsheet for guidance. Many clients also store their Letter of Wishes, passwords and key documents in Squiggle LegacyVault. LegacyVault is designed so your records reach the right people at the right time. Ask us how it works, and what it does and does not cover.
The more thought you give to these questions before your meeting, the smoother the process will be.
You do not need to have every answer pinned down before your meeting; part of our job is to help you think through the decisions that are less clear-cut. But the further down this list you can tick, the more productive your meeting will be.
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Choosing an executor who is older than you. If they die before you do, you may end up with no executor at all, or a family argument about who steps in. Always name a substitute.
Not telling the people you have chosen. An executor or attorney finding out by letter is not ideal. Asking first gives them the chance to say no, and means they will be ready.
The wider list of drafting mistakes, including leaving everything outright and never revisiting the plan, is in our Writing Your Will: The Decisions That Matter factsheet.
Imagine Sarah and Mark, a couple in their early forties with two children aged eight and eleven. They come to Squiggle for their first planning meeting without having thought much about who they want in each role.
After working through the checklist above, they decide: each appoints the other as primary executor, with Sarah's brother James as backup. For attorneys, they choose each other first, then James and Mark's sister Claire to act jointly and severally. They name Mark's parents as guardians, having checked with them first, and appoint James and Claire as trustees for any trust holding money for the children. They decide the children should inherit in equal shares at age 25, with the trustees having discretion to release funds earlier for education or a housing deposit.
The meeting takes an hour and a half. Because Sarah and Mark arrived with their people-decisions already made, the conversation focuses on the finer points of their wishes rather than the basics. Their documents were drafted and returned within a couple of weeks.
This is a hypothetical example for illustration only.
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This factsheet is general information for England and Wales, not legal, tax or financial advice. Last reviewed: August 2026.
Registered number: 10816512.
Registered office: Squiggle Consult Ltd, Suite 2069, Letraset Building, Wotton Road, Ashford, Kent, TN23 6LN
Squiggle Consult Ltd. is a limited company registered in England and Wales.
