When a loved one passes away, the emotional strain can be overwhelming. Amidst the grief, one of the most difficult tasks is often arranging a funeral service. Whilst it's never easy to think about or plan, understanding the funeral arrangement process and how to manage the associated costs, can help relieve some of the stress experienced during a challenging time. We understand that bearing the responsibility of organising the perfect memorial to honour a loved one's life may feel like a monumental task. That's why we've created this blog post, to help you understand the steps involved and inform you of the options that are available to make the process smoother.

Life isn’t predictable nor does it happen in any specific order. Some people may get married at 21 or others at 60. Some may get divorced while others may have an opportunity to move to a new continent every few years. Whatever path we are led down in life, there is one thing that applies to us all – we will experience events that trigger the need to create and update a Will.

This blog post explores how Inheritance Tax works and which other taxes HMRC applies to a deceased person's estate.

Inheritance Tax (IHT) can be a difficult concept to comprehend, especially for those who have never had to attempt the complex process of dealing with a loved one’s taxable estate before. To put it simply, IHT is a tax that is paid upon an estate of someone who has died.

Death remains to be a topic that many of us avoid thinking about and do not wish to discuss with our loved ones, which can sometimes lead to absent or ineffective estate planning. According to the ‘UK Wills & Probate Market 2020: Consumer Research Report’, less than 4 in 10 adults in the UK have made a Will, despite predictions that the COVID-19 pandemic would encourage more people to plan for the future.

The tasks that need to be considered following the death of a loved one are not something you will face on a regular basis. Therefore, knowing where to start can often be daunting and it can be a difficult process to get the ball rolling. Whilst many people opt to instruct an estate administration specialist to help, others choose the DIY (do it yourself) route in the hope of saving more money to maximise the amount of inheritance due to the beneficiaries of the estate.

When a loved one passes away, there are a number of tasks that need to be considered and it can often be a daunting process knowing where to start. The introduction of The Coronavirus Act 2020 that came into force throughout the United Kingdom in March last year (where most provisions will remain in force for two years with regular reviews by Parliament) has simplified the process of death certification for medical professionals. However, other tasks within the process have experienced delays and ongoing restrictions which have contributed to making a difficult time even more stressful. This blog aims to set out the different stages that need to be considered when a loved one passes away and will explore how COVID-19 has impacted processes.

At Kings Court Trust, we deal with a variety of different estates and we are sometimes faced with complex intestacies when someone dies without a Will. In this blog post, we share two particularly complicated case studies where family tree research has been required to identify the entitled heirs, all of which could have been avoided by leaving a Will.

The United Kingdom went into national mourning last week as the news broke that His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, sadly passed away on Friday at the age of 99. He was the longest-serving royal consort in British history, having been married to Her Majesty The Queen for more than seven decades. The question that is now starting to surface within the industry is “what will happen to Prince Philip’s multimillion pound estate?”.