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 walks you through each role in turn, explains what to think about when choosing the right person, and tells you exactly what to bring to your first meeting with us. Taking a few minutes to think through these questions 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.
An executor (in Wales, "executor" has the same meaning as in English law) is the person who carries out the wishes in your Will after you die. This means applying for the legal authority to deal with your estate (a "Grant of Probate"), gathering in your assets, paying your debts, and distributing what is left to your beneficiaries.
It is common for spouses or partners to appoint each other as the primary executor, plus one or two trusted people, a son, daughter, close friend or other family member, as backup or to act alongside. You can appoint more than one executor to act at the same time (known as acting "jointly"), which means decisions are shared, but it also means that all executors must agree, or at least be consulted, on each step.
Things to think about when choosing an executor:
Our Being an Executor factsheet is designed to help you think through these choices. For more complex estates, our Professional Executors factsheet explains when and why a professional might be the right choice.
An attorney acts under a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA): a legal document that gives someone authority to act on your behalf if you ever lack the mental capacity to do so yourself, or simply when you find it helpful. There are two types:
You can have different attorneys for each type of LPA, or the same person for both.
Typically, people appoint their spouse or partner first, plus one or two family members or friends as backup (known as "replacement attorneys") or to act alongside the primary attorney.
You can appoint as many attorneys as you like, but more attorneys can mean slower decisions. If you appoint two attorneys to act "jointly" (meaning they must agree on everything), a single disagreement can bring decision-making to a standstill. Many people appoint attorneys to act "jointly and severally" (meaning either can act alone), which is more practical for day-to-day tasks. Attorneys living overseas can cause real practical difficulties: banks and other institutions may be reluctant to deal with someone who cannot attend in person, and the LPA may not be recognised in other jurisdictions.
If you have children under 18, naming a guardian in your Will is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. A guardian has legal authority to make decisions for your children after your death, including where they live, which school they attend, and matters of day-to-day care. Without a guardian named in your Will, a family member would need to apply to the court for authority, which is slow, costly and stressful at an already difficult time.
The guardian is not automatically the same person as the trustee who holds any money for your children. Many people choose a guardian who is brilliant with children but would not be the right choice to manage a sum of money, and vice versa. You can choose different people for the two roles.
Things to think about when choosing a guardian:
A trustee holds and manages assets placed in a trust, making sure those assets are used for the benefit of the beneficiaries in the way the trust document says. If your Will sets up a trust, for example, to hold money for children until they are a certain age, or to protect a spouse's inheritance while giving your children security on the second death, those trustees are responsible for running it properly.
Where a trust holds property, the Land Registry accepts a maximum of four trustees (including you and your spouse or partner, if applicable). If you name more than four trustees for a trust that holds land, only the first four named can act. Trustees living abroad can complicate decision-making; some decisions require all trustees to sign documents, and a trustee overseas may be less readily available. It is also worth noting that having non-UK-resident trustees can affect the tax residence of the trust, in some cases even a single overseas trustee.
Our Trust Administration factsheet explains what trustees are responsible for in practical terms.
Your beneficiaries are the people (or organisations) who inherit from you. We need to know who your main beneficiaries are and in what shares. For most people, this means their children, but you may also want to make specific gifts to other family members, friends or charities before the main estate is divided.
For each person you choose in any of the roles above, we will need their full name, current address, date of birth and relationship to you. If a beneficiary is a charity, their registered charity number helps us identify them precisely.
This is your planning, and you keep control. Most people split the estate equally or in set percentages between their main beneficiaries, but you can:
Smaller gifts and personal possessions are best dealt with in a Letter of Wishes, which we provide. You complete and update it whenever you like, without redoing the main planning, and keep it with your documents where your executors will find it. Unlike your Will, a Letter of Wishes is not legally binding, but it gives your executors clear guidance and is especially useful for personal items, sentimental possessions, and messages to family members.
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 uses encryption and controlled-release processes designed to make your records available to the right people when needed.
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, or a family dispute about who should step in. Always name a backup.
Appointing too many attorneys. More attorneys feels like more security, but if they must all agree on everything, one person being unreachable can grind things to a halt. Think carefully about whether "jointly and severally" suits your situation.
Not telling the people you have chosen. Your executor or attorney turning up to their role without warning is not ideal. Asking someone first gives them the chance to say no, and means they will be prepared.
Forgetting about guardianship. Parents of young children often focus on the money side of their Will and forget that guardianship is the most urgent appointment for their family.
Leaving everything outright with no conditions. Inheriting a large sum at 18 is not always what parents intend. If your beneficiaries include young people, consider asking us about trust provisions that release money in stages.
Not revisiting the plan when things change. A Will written before a divorce, a new relationship, the birth of a child, or the death of a named person may no longer reflect what you want. Estate planning is not a one-off task.
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: June 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.
