A Will is the foundation, not the whole building
A Will is essential. Without one, the intestacy rules decide who inherits your estate, no guardian is appointed for your children, and your executor is whoever the court selects rather than whoever you trust. Making a Will is the most basic and important act of estate planning.
But a Will only operates after death. It has nothing to say about what happens while you are alive. It does not cover who manages your finances if you lose capacity. It does not govern your pension, which sits outside your estate. It does not affect jointly held assets, which pass automatically to the surviving owner. It does not determine who receives your life insurance, unless the policy is written in trust and named specifically.
An estate plan that consists only of a Will is a plan with significant gaps - and those gaps often affect people at the worst possible moments.
The most common planning gap is not the absence of a Will. It is the presence of a Will alongside a missing LPA, unreviewed pension nominations, and life insurance that pays into the estate rather than directly to the people who need it. The Will is not wrong - it is simply incomplete.
What a Will alone leaves unaddressed
Capacity while you are alive
If you lose mental capacity - through dementia, a stroke, a serious accident - your Will is irrelevant until you die. Without a registered Lasting Power of Attorney, nobody has legal authority to access your accounts, pay your bills, manage your investments, or make decisions about your care. The Court of Protection must appoint a deputy, a process that takes months and costs significantly more than an LPA would have.
Pension nominations
Defined contribution pension funds typically sit outside your estate. They are distributed at the trustee's discretion, guided by an expression of wishes - a nomination form - that you complete separately. If you have not reviewed your nomination recently, it may name an ex-spouse, a deceased parent, or simply be blank. The pension may then be distributed in a way you would not have chosen, with no recourse from your estate or your beneficiaries.
Jointly held assets
Property and bank accounts held in joint names as joint tenants pass automatically to the surviving owner on death - bypassing the Will entirely. A Will that carefully distributes your estate to your children has no effect on the family home if it is held jointly with your spouse. Understanding how each asset is held, and whether that reflects your intentions, is part of estate planning that a Will alone cannot address.
Life insurance
A life insurance policy that pays into your estate is subject to IHT, probate delays, and the distribution rules of your Will - meaning it may not reach your family quickly or free of tax. Life insurance written in trust can usually be paid directly to the chosen beneficiaries, outside the estate for probate purposes and normally outside the estate for IHT, provided the trust is set up correctly.
Components of a complete estate plan
A genuinely complete estate plan has several components, each serving a different purpose.
- Wills for both partners, up to date, correctly executed, and stored where the executor can find the originals.
- Both types of LPA registered - Property and Financial Affairs, and Health and Welfare - for each partner independently. Registration takes several months; it cannot be done in a hurry once it is needed.
- Pension nominations reviewed and current. Each pension provider requires its own nomination form, and nominations lapse in relevance as circumstances change.
- Life insurance in trust where appropriate, with up-to-date beneficiary nominations that reflect current family circumstances.
- An IHT review that accounts for current asset values, the nil-rate bands available, recent changes to the rules - particularly pensions from April 2027 - and any gifting strategy already in place.
- A letter of wishes alongside the Will, explaining the reasoning behind key decisions and providing guidance to executors and trustees that the Will's formal language cannot convey.
For individuals, estates above £325,000, or £500,000 where the residence nil-rate band applies, should be reviewed. For couples, the combined allowances and exemptions need to be considered together.
How to assess your own position honestly
A few direct questions reveal most of the gaps in most people's planning.
- If you lost capacity tomorrow, who has legal authority to access your accounts and manage your affairs?
- When did you last look at your pension nomination forms - and are the named beneficiaries still the right people?
- Does your life insurance pay into your estate or into a trust? Do you know?
- If you died tonight, would your executor be able to find your Will - and is it where you think it is?
- Is your Will more than five years old? Has anything significant changed in your life since it was made?
- Have you modelled your estate value recently, including pension savings, and do you know your approximate IHT exposure?
Most people who answer these questions honestly discover at least one area that needs attention. That is not a failure - it is the point of asking. The plan is only as good as the moment of honest assessment.
The problem with set-and-forget
Estate planning is not a one-time event. Circumstances change - and the plan that was right at one stage of life may be materially wrong a few years later. A Will written before a divorce and not updated. An LPA naming an attorney who has since died. A pension nomination pointing to a life that no longer exists.
The set-and-forget approach to estate planning produces exactly the outcomes that planning is supposed to prevent: outdated documents, wrong beneficiaries, missing authority, and a family left to unpick a mess at the worst possible time.
What regular review looks like at Prime Wills
Every Prime Wills client receives an annual review as standard - not as an upselling opportunity, but as a structural part of how we work. Once a year, we check in: has anything changed? Are the executors and attorneys still the right people? Have assets changed materially? Are pension nominations still current? Has the IHT landscape shifted in ways that affect you?
Most years, the answer is that nothing needs to change. That takes ten minutes and provides genuine reassurance. Occasionally, something does need updating - and catching it in a routine review costs a fraction of dealing with it in a crisis.
A good estate plan is not a document. It is a living arrangement that stays aligned with your actual life. That requires review - not once, but regularly, for as long as circumstances continue to evolve.
The information in our guides is provided for general information only and is not a substitute for advice based on your individual circumstances.
Wills, trusts, inheritance tax, Lasting Powers of Attorney and estate planning can be complex, and the right approach will depend on your family, finances, assets and wishes. Laws, tax rules, allowances and guidance can also change over time.
You should not act, or decide not to act, solely on the basis of the information in these guides. Where appropriate, you should obtain personalised legal, financial or tax advice before making any decisions.
Reading a guide or completing the Family Risk Review does not create a client relationship with Prime Wills & Estate Planning.