The 2026 Estate Planning Checklist: 10 Steps to Protect Your Family

Right. Let me guess. You hear "estate planning" and picture someone with a country pile and a wine cellar. Everybody does. But if you've got a bank account, a pension, kids, a house with a mortgage on it... you've got an estate. You just haven't planned for what happens to it yet.

And look, I get why. Nobody sits you down and explains which documents actually matter and which ones are just nice to have. So you do nothing. For years, sometimes. I've seen the fallout from that more times than I'd like to count.

This checklist gives you ten steps. Concrete ones. You can go in order or jump straight to whatever's been nagging at you. None of it requires legal training. Most steps take an afternoon once you stop putting them off.

One thing before we start. This covers the law in England and Wales as of early 2026, and it's general information, not advice tailored to you. Estate planning sits at the crossroads of tax, property law and medical decision-making, so your own circumstances will always shape what's right. Where it gets complicated or the numbers get big, we'll say so.

A Will says who gets your money, your property and your stuff when you die. It names executors (the people who sort everything out) and, if you've got children under 18, the guardians you want looking after them.

Why this is the one that keeps me up at night

Die without a valid Will and the intestacy rules decide everything. Strict pecking order. Spouse or civil partner first, then children, then parents and siblings, trickling further down the line. Your unmarried partner of twenty years, shared mortgage, whole life built together? Gets nothing. Not a penny. That's not me being dramatic. That is the law.

Stepchildren, close friends, charities you actually care about. All shut out.

I've watched families torn apart by this. People who assumed everything would just "go to the right person." It doesn't work like that.

Already have one?

Good. Now think about when you last looked at it. Here's the bit that catches people out, and it catches them constantly: getting married automatically cancels a previous Will in England and Wales. So if you tied the knot after writing yours, you effectively don't have one any more. Sitting there thinking you're sorted when you're not.

Divorce is different but still messy. Doesn't cancel the Will itself, but strips your ex-spouse of any role as beneficiary or executor. Leaves gaps you never planned for.

The money side

Online services like ours charge between 50 and £150 for a straightforward Will. Solicitors tend to run from 200 to 500, sometimes more when things get complicated. Both routes produce something legally binding. The key bit: two independent adults need to witness the signing.

This is the step that people skip and then regret more than any other. I genuinely believe that.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) lets someone you trust step in and make decisions for you if you lose mental capacity. Mental capacity, in legal terms, means being able to understand information, hold on to it, weigh it up and communicate a decision.

Two types, covering very different parts of your life.

Property and Financial Affairs LPA

This handles your money. Bank accounts, pensions, investments, paying bills, selling property, dealing with tax. Once registered, your attorney can use it straight away with your permission, which is handy if you're stuck in hospital or travelling. Or you can restrict it so it only kicks in after you lose capacity. Your call.

Health and Welfare LPA

Medical treatment, care arrangements, daily routine, where you live. This one can only be used after you've lost capacity for the specific decision at hand. Not before. You also choose whether your attorney can make calls about life-sustaining treatment. That's a big decision. Sit with it.

Here's what happens without them

Your family goes to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order. Over £2,000 between court fees and solicitors. Months of waiting. And the court might appoint someone you wouldn't have picked. Someone you'd actively not want, potentially.

The thing that really gets me though. You can only create an LPA while you still have capacity. Once it's gone, that door shuts. Permanently. There's no workaround. No emergency procedure. Nothing. You had a window and it closed.

Registration fees

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) charges £92 per LPA to register, so £184 for both types. Online services like ours add a creation fee on top. People on certain benefits or low incomes can get fee exemptions or reductions.

Here's something that surprises almost everyone I talk to. Your pension probably won't form part of your estate when you die. Pension scheme trustees decide who receives the funds. They use your stated wishes as a guide but they're not bound by them. You communicate those wishes through an expression of wish form, sometimes called a nomination form or beneficiary nomination.

What that actually means

It's a document your pension provider keeps on file naming who you'd like to receive your pension benefits if you die. Because trustees have discretion, your nomination is a very strong signal rather than a guarantee. In practice they follow it in almost every case. Almost.

Why I keep banging on about this

Because the form sitting on file right now might name your ex-spouse. Or a relative who's passed away. Or nobody at all, because you ticked a box in your first week at a job twelve years ago and never thought about it again.

And if the trustees have to figure it out themselves? Delay, uncertainty, and potentially the money going to someone you wouldn't have chosen. I've seen cases drag on for months while a grieving family waited for funds that should have been straightforward.

What to do

Get in touch with every pension provider you have. Workplace pensions from old jobs, personal pensions, any Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs). Ask what expression of wish form they currently hold. Out of date or missing? Fill in a new one. Most providers let you do it online or by post, and there's no charge. Takes about fifteen minutes per provider.

One more thing. Defined contribution pensions, where you've got a pot of money, can usually pass on free of inheritance tax if you die before 75. After 75, the person receiving it pays income tax at their normal rate. But from April 2027 the government plans to bring most unused pension funds within scope of inheritance tax. That change makes keeping your nominations current a lot more pressing than it used to be. Really. Do this one soon.

Life insurance pays a lump sum when you die, or sometimes on a terminal illness diagnosis. What happens to that money depends entirely on how the policy was set up. And most people have no idea which way theirs works. Not a clue.

The trust question, and this is the big one

If your policy is "written in trust," the payout goes straight to the named beneficiary. Doesn't pass through your estate. No probate delays, no inheritance tax on that money. That's the setup you want.

If it's not in trust? Payout lands in your estate. Could push you over the inheritance tax threshold. Could sit locked up during probate for months while your family waits. Months. While bills stack up and stress compounds. Exactly the opposite of what life insurance was supposed to do.

Check two things

Find your policy documents or log into your provider's website. You're looking for: who is named as beneficiary, and whether the policy is written in trust. Beneficiary out of date? Really common after a divorce or bereavement. Easy fix, one phone call. Policy not in trust? Ask your provider about setting one up. Most insurers have a simple trust form and don't charge for it.

Genuinely one of the easiest wins on this entire list. Twenty minutes of your time could save your family thousands of pounds and months of delay.

Inheritance tax (IHT) is charged at 40 per cent on whatever your estate is worth above the tax-free threshold. Forty per cent. Even if you think you're nowhere near it, keep reading. Because people are wrong about this constantly.

The thresholds, and why they frustrate me

Everyone gets a nil-rate band of £325,000. That's what you can pass on tax-free. This figure hasn't moved since 2009. 2009. Frozen until at least April 2030. Meanwhile, house prices have done what house prices do. So families who would never have considered themselves wealthy are landing squarely in the inheritance tax net. That's by design, by the way.

Then there's the residence nil-rate band (RNRB), worth up to £175,000 per person. You get this when you leave your home, or the proceeds from selling it, to your children or grandchildren. But. Estates worth more than 2 million pounds start losing this allowance. So it's not available to everyone.

Married couples and civil partners can pass unused nil-rate band and RNRB to the surviving partner. So a couple could, in the right circumstances, have a combined threshold of up to 1 million pounds (325,000 plus 175,000, doubled). Could. Circumstances matter.

Gifts and the seven-year rule

Giving things away during your lifetime shrinks your taxable estate. Survive seven years after making a gift and it drops out of the calculation completely. Between three and seven years, taper relief cuts the tax rate gradually.

Some gifts are always exempt regardless of timing: the £3,000 annual exemption, wedding gifts up to set amounts, and regular gifts made from income you don't need to live on. That last one is powerful and wildly underused, by the way.

Work out where you stand

Total up roughly what you own. Property, savings, investments, pensions (keeping the 2027 changes in mind), life insurance payouts not held in trust, anything else of real value. Compare that to the thresholds above.

Well below? Probably not a worry today. But rising house prices change things faster than people expect. I've seen someone go from "nowhere near it" to "over the line" in three years without buying a single thing. Just property values doing their thing.

Close to the line or over it? This is where professional tax advice genuinely pays for itself. Several times over. Not an exaggeration.

Own a property with someone else? The way it's held legally makes a real difference to what happens when one of you dies. And yet most people have never even thought about it. Signed whatever was put in front of them when they bought the place and moved on.

Joint tenants

The surviving owner automatically gets the deceased owner's share. By operation of law. Your Will cannot override this. Most married couples end up here when they buy together, usually without really choosing it.

Tenants in common

Each person owns a specific share. Often 50/50 but any split works. When one owner dies, their share passes according to their Will, or intestacy rules if they didn't write one. The crucial difference: it doesn't automatically go to the other owner.

Why this matters more than you'd think

Tenants in common gives you options that joint tenancy simply doesn't. You could leave your share to your children while letting your partner carry on living there through a trust arrangement, sometimes called a life interest trust. Useful for inheritance tax. Useful for protecting assets if a surviving partner later needs residential care, because means-testing for care home fees can eat through everything. Useful in blended families where children from a previous relationship need providing for.

Not glamorous. I know. But I've sat across from people who lost hundreds of thousands of pounds because nobody explained this to them when it would have mattered. Five minutes of thought at the right time.

Checking and changing

Look up your Land Registry record online for £3, or dig out your title deeds. If you're joint tenants and tenants in common would suit you better, a solicitor can make the switch through what's called severance of the joint tenancy. Typically 100 to £300. Talk to your partner about it first, and ideally get a solicitor's view. The right choice genuinely depends on your family setup and finances.

Digital assets. Everything you own or control online. Email accounts, social media, cloud storage, online banking, cryptocurrency wallets, subscriptions, domain names, websites, online businesses. The list is almost certainly longer than you think.

Nobody talks about this until it's too late

When someone dies, their digital life carries on without them. Emails landing in an inbox nobody checks. Subscriptions billing a bank account month after month. Social media profiles popping up in friends' feeds in ways that can be genuinely upsetting.

And if there's cryptocurrency sitting in a private wallet without a recovery phrase? Gone. Permanently. I've seen families lose tens of thousands this way. Not because anyone did anything wrong. Just because nobody wrote down twelve words on a piece of paper.

Your executor needs to close accounts, recover money, cancel recurring payments and deal with online profiles. If they don't even know what accounts exist, that job becomes incredibly slow and frustrating. At a time when they're already dealing with enough.

Getting this sorted

Write down every digital account you hold. For each one, note the platform, which email you registered with, and whether it has financial value or sentimental content worth preserving. Don't put passwords in your Will. Wills become public documents after probate. Instead, keep login details in a password manager and make sure your executor knows it exists and how to get into it. Or leave a sealed list with your solicitor or in a secure spot alongside your other important papers.

Add instructions for each account. Close it, transfer it, memorialise it, download the contents. The law around digital inheritance is still catching up with reality. But clear written wishes give your executor the strongest possible footing when they're dealing with platforms that weren't designed with death in mind.

Every document in this checklist becomes worthless if nobody can find it when it matters. A Will locked in a safe that nobody knows the code to? For all practical purposes, same as no Will at all. I've seen it happen. Twice in the same year once.

The documents that matter

Your original signed Will. Your registered LPAs. Life insurance policy documents. Pension information and expression of wish forms. Property deeds or mortgage details. Your digital assets inventory. Any letters of wishes you've written for executors or attorneys. Quite a stack when you put it together.

Where to keep them

Don't overthink this. Your solicitor's office is a solid choice, most offer storage and it's sometimes free for clients. Professional Will storage services work well. The Probate Service stores Wills for a one-off fee. A fireproof safe at home, or a bank safe deposit box if you want belt and braces. Whichever you go with, the originals need protection from fire, flood and loss. Keep copies at home for your own reference.

The bit people forget. Every single time.

This is where it falls apart. Your executors need to know where the Will lives. Your LPA attorneys need to know where the registered LPAs are stored. Your next of kin should have a rough sense of your arrangements even if they don't need every detail.

Put together a simple letter. Where everything is held. Who your solicitor is. Which providers hold your pensions and insurance. Give a copy to your executor and keep one with your own papers.

Takes about twenty minutes. Saves your family hours of hunting around during what's already a terrible time. And yet. So many people skip it. They do all the hard work of getting the documents sorted and then hide them so well that nobody benefits.

The step everyone dodges. Might also be the one that matters most, honestly.

Estate planning isn't just forms and signatures. It involves real people who'll be affected by your decisions. And surprises landing after a death or during a medical crisis can do lasting damage to family relationships. The kind of damage that doesn't heal.

Why the awkwardness is worth it

If your children don't know you've appointed one of them as your attorney, they'll find out at the worst possible moment. If your partner doesn't know you've switched the property to tenants in common, they'll feel blindsided. Then there's the inheritance question. A family member who expected to inherit discovering they've been left out. While grieving. Grief and resentment mix in ways that can take years to untangle. Sometimes never.

I've seen siblings stop speaking. Permanently. Over things that a single conversation could have prevented.

Are these comfortable conversations? No. But having them now, calmly, on your own terms, is so much better than the alternative that there's no real comparison.

What to actually bring up

You don't need to open your entire financial life. Broad picture is enough. Let your family know a Will exists and where it's kept. Tell your chosen executors and attorneys that you've named them, and check they're actually willing to take the role on. You'd be surprised. Or actually, maybe you wouldn't. People assume someone will do it without ever asking. Then the person finds out after a death and doesn't want the responsibility at all.

Share your general feelings about medical treatment and end-of-life care with the people who might need to act on them. If you've made any decisions that could come as a shock, whether that's a gift to a friend, a family member left out, or one child given a particular role over another, a brief explanation now prevents a much bigger problem later. Trust me on that one.

How to go about it

Pick a quiet moment. Not a family gathering. Not a hospital visit. Definitely not Christmas dinner. Keep the tone practical rather than emotional. You're not asking for anyone's permission. You're letting the people you trust know what's in place so they can carry out your wishes when the time comes.

Estate planning isn't a one-and-done job. I wish it were. But life changes. The law changes. Plans you made five years ago might not fit any more. Plans from ten years ago almost certainly don't.

A rough schedule

Every three to five years, check your Will, LPAs, pension nominations and insurance arrangements. But certain events should push you to review straight away:

• Marriage or civil partnership (automatically cancels an existing Will in England and Wales, and this catches people out constantly)
• Divorce or separation
• Birth or adoption of a child or grandchild
• Death of a beneficiary, executor or attorney
• A big shift in finances, like an inheritance, buying or selling property, or selling a business
• Moving to another country, since different legal systems apply
• A change in the law (such as the 2027 pension inheritance tax changes)
• A change in your health, or the health of someone you've appointed

The questions to ask yourself

Are your executors still willing and able? Are your LPA attorneys still the right people? Do your pension and insurance nominations match your current family situation or are they still naming your ex? Has your estate crept above the inheritance tax threshold since you last checked? Is your property ownership still set up sensibly for where life is now?

If the answer to any of those is "I'm not sure," that's your cue. Don't wait for the next scheduled review. Do it now while it's on your mind.

Costs for changes

Reviewing what you've got costs nothing if you do it yourself. Updating a Will typically costs the same as writing a new one, so 50 to £500 depending on how you do it. LPAs can't be amended once registered, which catches people off guard. To change attorneys or other details, you'd need to cancel the existing LPA and create a fresh one. New registration fees of £92 per document. Annoying. But better than leaving the wrong person in charge of your life.

Plenty of steps in this checklist are things you can handle yourself or through an online service like ours. Straightforward Will, pair of LPAs, updated pension nominations. Most people don't need a solicitor for those.

But some situations genuinely call for professional help. And here's my strong opinion on this: trying to save money on the complicated stuff always costs more in the end. Always. I've never seen an exception.

• Your estate is near or above the inheritance tax threshold. A solicitor or tax adviser can spot reliefs and structures that cut the bill. The savings typically dwarf the fees many times over. This is not an area to DIY.
• You own a business. Succession planning, Business Property Relief and shareholder agreements need specialist knowledge. General guides like this one can point you in the right direction but they can't replace someone who does this daily.
• You have property or assets in another country. Different countries, different inheritance laws. You may need a separate Will in each jurisdiction. Gets tangled quickly.
• You have a blended family. Children from different relationships, stepchildren, second marriages. Competing interests that need careful thought. Get this wrong and you'll create conflict that outlasts everyone involved.
• You want to set up a trust. Trusts are powerful for protecting assets, providing for dependants who need extra support, or managing inheritance tax. But they have to be drafted properly. A badly written trust is worse than no trust at all because it gives you a false sense of security.
• Someone might challenge your Will. If you're excluding a family member or making an unusual provision, professional drafting plus a detailed letter of wishes strengthens your position considerably. Worth every penny.
• You need help with the Court of Protection. If a family member has already lost capacity without an LPA in place, a solicitor can guide you through the deputyship process. Difficult situation but not hopeless.

For most of these, a solicitor specialising in Wills and probate is the right starting point. For inheritance tax specifically, you want either a solicitor or a chartered tax adviser (CTA) with estate planning experience. Many offer free or fixed-fee initial consultations. Genuinely nothing to lose by picking up the phone.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Estate planning involves areas of law that depend on your individual circumstances. You should seek independent professional advice before making decisions that could affect your legal or tax position. Keystone Estate Planning is an estate planning service, not a firm of solicitors.