Kirwans Solicitors
Here are the details for this solicitor's practice area of Wills,Trusts & Probate. Please contact the solicitor using the details listed in the contact panel to the right hand side of this page. You can also choose to send an email enquiry or request a call back.
Our wills and estates team can assist you with all aspects of planning your finances during your lifetime and ensuring that your estate is distributed in accordance with your wishes following your death.
We can help with the following:
- Wills drafting, from straightforward wills to detailed Inheritance Tax Planning
- Setting up gifts and trusts
- Powers of Attorney and management of your affairs
- Court of Protection matters
- Care home planning
- Personal Injury Trusts
The team is lead by Jasper Dawson, who has a wealth of knowledge and experience in private client services. John-Paul Dennis and Claire Currie are both specialist solicitors in this field.
Jasper and his team deal in all areas of private client work especially estate planning and administration. The wills and estates department is based primarily in our Wirral offices, but we also offer home, hospital or nursing home visits where necessary, and will attend client meetings in our Liverpool office by appointment at no extra cost.
Wills
We are experienced in the production of wills, regardless of marital and family situations, and we can also offer Inheritance Tax and care home fee planning advice for clients with these issues.
Your will can be stored within our offices, and we can make provisions for the future management of your affairs. We are also members of Certainty.co.uk which is a national wills register which will ensure that the whereabouts of your will is electronically recorded so that your family can always locate it at our office.
Administration of Estates (Probate)
We recognise that people, when dealing with an estate, need a sympathetic and understanding approach, combined with professional advice and expertise. Following bereavement, we can offer you a full range of estate administration services to help relieve some of the pressure and administrative responsibilities.
- Applying for the appropriate Grant of Representation
- Administering the whole estate to the appointed beneficiaries from applying for Grants of Representation to ultimate distribution
- Personal administration where required, including registering death, arranging a funeral and sorting through personal possessions
- Arranging deeds of Variation for IHT planning purposes
Lasting Power of Attorney and Court of Protection
We can also assist in preparing an appropriate Power of Attorney for immediate or future use. We have many years experience in assisting clients to deal with their affairs at what can be a difficult time, including equity release mortgages, selling your home to facilitate a move to care or full management of clients' affairs whilst acting as their Attorney. If a relative has lost mental capacity without having granted a Lasting Power of Attorney, we can act in an application to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship order to give you authority to manage their affairs.
Contentious Probate
Kirwan’s private client team have acted in a number of cases in the area of Contentious Estates, providing expert advice in this complex area of law.
The process of challenging a will in terms of its validity or content or indeed the administration of an estate generally, is only available to certain persons and then only after the demise of the Testator. Civil action cannot be brought during that person’s lifetime.
Many people do not make a will (intestacy), which then means that a person can die intestate and thus make no provision for the disposal of their estate. In that event the law provides for the net estate to pass to relatives. This can be relatively straightforward in some cases, however in others it can lead to litigation by the deceased person’s family. There are other persons not necessarily related who by virtue perhaps of dependency on the deceased during his/her life time may also be able to challenge the estate and make a claim. In the event that there are no living relatives or other claimants then the estate will pass to the Crown.
At Kirwans, we act for all parties including executors, beneficiaries and claimants. Many disputes surrounding the administration of an estate can often be resolved using mediation, which is always advisable due to the cost implications of attending Court.
We would advise anyone considering making a claim against an estate to seek our expert legal advice to see whether or not they will be able to challenge the will or estate etc. For more information please call David Kirwan or John Paul Dennis on 0151 677 3433. Alternatively email dsk@kirwanssolicitors.co.uk
