Estate Planning Checklist for the UK

A UK estate planning checklist usually covers five things: a valid will, a lasting power of attorney, an idea of where your estate sits against the inheritance tax bands, some thought about later-life care, and clear records of what you own and who should benefit. Work through them in turn and you cover most of the ground (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change).

Estate planning is simply arranging what happens to your money, property and responsibilities if you lose capacity or die. It is not only for the very wealthy. This checklist walks through each step, points to the current figures where they matter, and flags the questions many people choose to raise with a qualified professional. It forms part of our wider estate planning guide. Figures are current as at July 2026 and are subject to change.

The estate planning checklist at a glance

At a high level, estate planning breaks into a short list of tasks. Not every item applies to everyone, and the order can vary, but most people find a will and a lasting power of attorney sit near the top. The table below sets out the core steps and why each one tends to matter.

1. Make or update your will

A will is the foundation of the checklist. It records who inherits, names the executors who will deal with your estate, and can appoint guardians for young children. If you die without a valid will you are said to die intestate, and fixed statutory rules decide who benefits, which often does not match what people assume (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). It can be worth reviewing an existing will after marriage, divorce, a new child or a death.

Marriage generally revokes an earlier will in England and Wales, and divorce affects gifts to a former spouse, so life events are a common prompt to revisit it (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). Many people choose to have a will professionally drawn where their affairs are anything beyond straightforward. For the detail, see our guide on How to Write a Will.

3. Check your inheritance tax position

The third step is to see roughly where your estate sits against the tax-free bands. Inheritance tax is charged at 40% on the value of an estate above the available nil-rate bands, with the ordinary band at £325,000 per person and an extra residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 where a home passes to children or grandchildren (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). Transfers between spouses and civil partners are generally exempt, and unused bands can pass to the survivor.

That means a married couple or civil partners leaving a home to their children may combine bands worth up to £1,000,000, and these figures are frozen until the end of the 2030-31 tax year (5 April 2031) (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). Regular gifting within the annual and small-gift exemptions is one option some consider, but it needs weighing against your own needs.

Sources: gov.uk/inheritance-tax and gov.uk, rules on giving gifts, as at July 2026 and subject to change. For more, see our guide to estate planning and its links on gifting.

4. Think about later-life care

Care planning belongs on the checklist because care costs can reduce what is eventually passed on. Where you may need care, a local authority can carry out a needs assessment and then a financial assessment, or means test, to work out what you contribute (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). Care fees planning is about understanding these rules early, not about last-minute moves.

It is important to be careful here. If a council decides you have deliberately given away assets to reduce care charges, it can treat you as still owning them under its deprivation of assets rules, so giving property away to sidestep future fees can be challenged and may not work (gov.uk, Care and Support Statutory Guidance, as at July 2026, subject to change). This is one area where many people take advice before doing anything, framed around limiting the impact of care fees rather than avoiding them.

• Assessments first. A needs assessment and financial assessment set the starting point for any council help.
• Deprivation of assets. Deliberate giveaways to cut care charges can be reversed by the local authority.
• Take advice. Care fees planning is best discussed with a qualified professional before acting.

5. Keep your records in order

The last core step is often the most neglected. Clear records make an estate far easier to deal with. A simple list of bank accounts, pensions, investments, property, debts and digital accounts, together with where the will and any LPA are kept, saves executors weeks of searching. There is no set legal format, so a securely stored document that your executors can find is usually enough (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change).

Naming beneficiaries directly on pensions and some life policies matters too, because those can pass outside the will. Many people choose to keep this list with their will and to tell a trusted person where to find it, while keeping login details secure. Pensions are a regulated product, so any decision about them is best discussed with an FCA-authorised adviser.

Reviewing your plan

Estate planning is not a one-off task. A checklist is worth revisiting every few years and after major life events, such as marriage, divorce, a new child or grandchild, a death, buying property, or a significant change in wealth. Rules and figures also change over time, so a plan that suited you a decade ago may no longer fit (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). A short periodic review helps keep everything current.

Estate planning in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Inheritance tax is a UK-wide tax, so the £325,000 nil-rate band and the 40% rate apply across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland alike (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). The surrounding law differs, though. Scotland has its own succession rules, including legal rights that can give a spouse and children a fixed share, and uses confirmation rather than a grant of probate. Powers of attorney and care funding also follow different rules in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so it can be worth taking local advice. For the wider picture, see our estate planning guide.

Frequently asked questions