Estate Planning Checklist UK (2026): The Complete Action List

A complete estate plan for England and Wales consists of the following core documents: (1) Your will: the foundation document. It appoints executors (ideally two people plus a substitute); appoints guardians for minor children under CA 1989 s.5 (essential if you have children under 18); leaves specific gifts of property, money, or possessions; sets up trusts for minor children (bereaved minor trust s.71A or age-25 trust s.71D, or a standard discretionary trust if appropriate); deals with the residuary estate (everything not specifically gifted); contains survivorship clauses (e.g. 30-day survival clause to prevent double administration on simultaneous death); names contingency beneficiaries if primary beneficiaries predecease. Without a will, intestacy rules apply — and for unmarried partners they are disastrous; (2) Lasting Power of Attorney — Property and Financial Affairs: authorises your attorney to manage bank accounts, pay bills, sell property, and deal with financial institutions while you are alive but lack mental capacity. Must be registered with OPG before use. Register now, while you have capacity — you cannot register it when you need it; (3) Lasting Power of Attorney — Health and Welfare: authorises your attorney to make decisions about your care, medical treatment, and living arrangements. You should specify whether your attorney can consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment. Also only usable when you lack capacity; (4) Letter of wishes: a non-legally-binding document alongside your will explaining HOW you want your estate administered — how executors should exercise trust discretions, who should receive personal items not in the will, your wishes about the care of pets, your digital legacy preferences; (5) Funeral wishes planner: records your preferences for burial or cremation, type of funeral, hymns, music, readings, flowers or charitable donations in lieu. Executors cannot be required to follow this but it guides them and reduces family disagreements; (6) Digital legacy inventory: a catalogue of your online accounts, subscriptions, cryptocurrency, cloud storage, social media, and the instructions for what you want done with each. Executors cannot legally access your digital accounts without this information; (7) Expression of wishes for pension: a non-binding nomination telling your pension scheme who you want to receive the pension death benefits. The trustees of the pension scheme have discretion, but expression of wishes guides them and keeps benefits outside your estate for IHT. Review this whenever your circumstances change.

Beyond the legal documents, a complete estate plan includes the following financial and insurance elements: (1) Life insurance written in trust: if you have a life insurance policy that pays out on death, it should be written in trust (placed in a trust structure at the time you take out the policy, or by a deed of assignment for existing policies). Writing life insurance in trust keeps the proceeds outside your estate for IHT purposes — a £500,000 life insurance policy not in trust adds £200,000 in IHT (40% × £500,000) at the 40% rate. Written in trust, it passes to the chosen beneficiaries directly without probate delay and without IHT; (2) Income protection insurance: pays a replacement income if you are too ill to work. Not strictly an estate planning document, but the absence of income protection can force a family to liquidate estate assets during lifetime if the breadwinner becomes incapacitated before death. Income protection ensures the estate plan you have built does not have to be dismantled by financial necessity; (3) Critical illness cover: lump sum on diagnosis of specified serious illness. Again, a financial planning tool rather than a will instrument, but it protects the estate from being depleted by illness costs during lifetime; (4) Death in service — expression of wishes: if your employer provides a death in service scheme (typically 2–4× salary), the trustees of that scheme need an expression of wishes form to guide their discretion. Like pension death benefits, death in service benefits are usually discretionary and outside the estate for IHT, but only if nominated correctly. Ensure your nomination is up to date when you change marital status, have children, or separate from a partner; (5) Pension nominations — check all schemes: you may have multiple pension pots from different employers. Check that every pension scheme has a current, up-to-date expression of wishes/nomination form. A nomination from 20 years ago naming an ex-spouse may still be on file and the trustees may follow it. After April 2027, unused defined contribution pension funds passing on death will be drawn into the estate for IHT (Finance Act 2024 provisions) — this makes pension nominations even more important as part of an IHT mitigation strategy.

Lifetime gifting is the most accessible form of IHT planning and can be built into a regular routine. Key gifting rules and strategies: (1) Annual exemption (IHTA 1984 s.19): £3,000 per tax year to anyone. Unused annual exemption can be carried forward ONE year only. A couple can each make £3,000 per year = £6,000 combined, potentially £12,000 in year 1 if the previous year's exemption was unused; (2) Small gifts exemption (s.20): unlimited gifts of up to £250 per person per tax year, to any number of different people. Cannot be used to top up an annual exemption gift to the same person; (3) Normal expenditure out of income (s.21): unlimited regular gifts funded from income (not capital) which do not reduce the donor's standard of living. This is the most powerful exemption for high-earners with regular surplus income. Must be: (a) regular/habitual; (b) out of income (not capital); (c) not reduce donor's standard of living. HMRC form IHT403 Schedule of gifts must be completed if claiming this exemption in an estate. Many families miss this exemption entirely; (4) Wedding/civil partnership gifts (s.22): gifts to a child: up to £5,000; grandchild or great-grandchild: up to £2,500; any other person: up to £1,000. Must be made before or on the date of the wedding/civil partnership; (5) Potentially Exempt Transfers (PETs): any gift to an individual is a PET. It becomes fully exempt if the donor survives 7 years. Between years 3 and 7, taper relief reduces the effective rate. Gifts within 3 years of death are charged at full 40%. Make PETs as early as possible and keep records; (6) Charity: gifts to qualifying charities during life and in your will are fully exempt. Leaving 10%+ of the net estate to charity reduces the IHT rate on the remainder from 40% to 36%; (7) Business Property Relief (BPR): if you own a qualifying business or AIM-listed shares, consider whether business assets should be held in a way that maintains BPR eligibility. From April 2026, BPR+APR above £1m will be charged at 20% rather than 0%.

An estate plan should not be a one-off exercise. Use this checklist to review your plan regularly: IMMEDIATE TRIGGERS — review your will and LPAs immediately if: (1) You get married or enter a civil partnership — marriage revokes your existing will (WA 1837 s.18). Make a new will before the wedding and register new LPAs immediately after; (2) You divorce or dissolve a civil partnership — divorce voids gifts to your ex-spouse in an existing will (s.18A) but does NOT revoke the will. You need a new will and new LPAs (your ex-spouse's LPA authority is not automatically removed by divorce); (3) A new child or grandchild is born or adopted — appoint a guardian; consider a new trust; update pension nominations and death in service; (4) You buy or sell a major property — review RNRB eligibility; consider if care home fees planning is needed; (5) A beneficiary or executor dies — review all provisions to avoid lapsing gifts and leaving the estate without an executor; (6) You start, buy, or sell a business — BPR eligibility; cross-option agreements; key person insurance; (7) A significant change in relationship — new partner (make a new will if cohabiting); separation (do not rely on s.18A to protect you — make a new will); PERIODIC REVIEW (EVERY 5 YEARS) — even without a major life event: (8) Check IHT thresholds and allowances — the government changes them (the April 2027 pension IHT changes are a recent example); (9) Check your attorney's circumstances — have they moved, changed relationship status, become incapacitated, or been convicted of fraud? (10) Review pension nominations and death in service forms at every employer — including old pensions you have not touched for years; (11) Review life insurance — is it still written in trust? Is the trust deed current? (12) Review your letter of wishes — does it still reflect your actual wishes for how the estate should be administered? (13) Review your digital legacy inventory — are all accounts current? Have you added new accounts or cryptocurrency holdings?

Business owners have additional estate planning needs beyond a standard will and LPAs: (1) Will provisions for the business: for sole traders — the will should grant the executor power to continue trading (Trustee Act 1925 s.39 power) for a period long enough to achieve a proper sale or orderly wind-down. Without this, the executor may have to wind down the business immediately; for partnerships — check the partnership agreement; under Partnership Act 1890 s.33, a partnership is dissolved by the death of a partner unless the agreement says otherwise. The will should deal with the deceased's share; for company directors — the company continues but the directorship ends. The executor votes the deceased's shares to appoint a new director. The will should identify who should receive the shares and how they should be managed; (2) Business succession agreement: a shareholders' agreement or partnership cross-option agreement (backed by life insurance) enables the deceased owner's interest to be purchased by surviving owners at a pre-agreed valuation. This prevents the deceased's family from ending up as unwanted business partners; (3) Key person insurance: life insurance taken out by the business on the life of key individuals, pays into the business on death or serious illness of that person to fund recruitment of a replacement or maintain trading; (4) Business Property Relief (BPR) protection: ensure BPR eligibility is maintained — avoid mixing trading and investment activities excessively; avoid holding excessive cash reserves; document all business activities; note that from April 2026, BPR+APR above £1m combined will be charged at 20% IHT rather than 0%; (5) LPA for the business: the Property and Financial Affairs LPA should explicitly authorise the attorney to manage business affairs, vote shares, and deal with business bank accounts if the owner loses capacity mid-life. Without this, a Court of Protection application may be needed to manage the business — extremely disruptive.