Will writing, LPAs and probate in Gillingham
Personal, professional estate planning across Gillingham and Rainham — at your kitchen table, on your schedule, evenings and weekends.
Gillingham is the largest of the Medway towns, running east from the river through Twydall and Hempstead out to Rainham and the villages on the edge of the marshes. From my base I regularly visit clients in Rainham, Wigmore, Twydall, Hempstead, and Parkwood. The signing visit is included in the quoted price wherever you are on that list — there's no extra travel charge for the smaller villages.
I'm Emma Wrigley — a law graduate with over 20 years in the legal sector — and I set up Kent Legacy Planning because estate planning should fit around your life, not the other way around. The conversations I have with clients happen mostly on the phone, at whatever time of day suits you, and the signing happens over a cup of tea at your own kitchen table — evenings and weekends if that's what works, with no office visits and no rushed appointments.
Services available in Gillingham
Every fee is quoted in writing before you commit, and will and LPA prices include a signing visit to your home in Gillingham or the surrounding villages.
Wills & related documents
Will Writing
From £225
A will drafted from scratch for your circumstances, signed and witnessed properly at your own kitchen table.
Read more →Mirror Wills for Couples
£400 per couple
A coordinated pair of wills for a couple whose wishes broadly match, drafted together so they agree with each other.
Read more →Trust Wills
Price on consultation
Ringfence your share of the family home so your partner can go on living there and your children still inherit it.
Read more →Letter of Wishes
£35 with a will / £85 standalone
The personal guidance that sits alongside your will — funeral preferences, bequests, and notes for guardians.
Read more →Will Review
£95
A read-through of the will you already have, whoever wrote it, and an honest answer on whether it still works.
Read more →Codicils
From £125
A signed, witnessed addition to an existing will, where the change is straightforward enough not to need a new one.
Read more →Powers of attorney & health decisions
Lasting Powers of Attorney
From £275 (plus OPG fees)
Let people you trust make health or financial decisions for you if you ever can't make them yourself.
Read more →LPA Reviews & Revocations
From £95
Check, change or revoke a registered LPA that no longer says what you need it to say.
Read more →General Power of Attorney
From £195
Financial authority for someone who has capacity now — a spell abroad, a stay in hospital, a property sale.
Read more →Advance Decision (Living Will)
£195 one person / £300 per couple
A written, legally binding refusal of specified medical treatment, so your wishes are known if you cannot say them.
Read more →Probate & estate administration
Executor & Estate Review
£195
What the will means, what you actually have to do, and whether a grant of probate is needed at all.
Read more →Estate Administration Support
Quoted for the work agreed
Help with as much or as little of an administration you're running yourself.
Read more →Comprehensive Estate Administration
From £2,500
Everything from registering the death to distributing the estate, apart from the Grant application, which stays with the executor.
Read more →Other documents
Lasting Powers of Attorney in the Gillingham area
Across Gillingham, Rainham, Twydall and Hempstead I meet a lot of households who have been in the same home for thirty or forty years, and who arrive at estate planning through a health event rather than years ahead of one. A lasting power of attorney is the document that makes that situation manageable.
An LPA lets you decide, in advance, who can act for you if the day comes when you can’t act for yourself. There are two types, and they are separate documents. A health and welfare LPA covers medical treatment, day-to-day care, where you live, and — only if you choose to grant it — decisions about life-sustaining treatment. A property and financial affairs LPA covers the money side: bank accounts, bills, pensions and benefits, and selling or letting a property. Most people put both in place, and you can appoint different attorneys for each if that suits the family.
The critical point is timing. You can only make an LPA while you still have the mental capacity to understand what you’re signing. Once capacity has gone the option closes, and the only route left is an application to the Court of Protection for a deputyship — slower, considerably more expensive, and supervised, with accounts to file every year. That single fact persuades more people than anything else I say. The situations where it comes up most:
- After a diagnosis — dementia, Parkinson’s or a stroke in the family. There is often a window in which capacity is intact and an LPA can still be made properly. That window doesn’t stay open.
- When one partner handles everything — the bills, the pension, the mortgage. If that person becomes unwell, the other can find themselves shut out of accounts and unable to deal with the mortgage lender at exactly the wrong moment.
- When the family is spread out — common in Gillingham’s service and dockyard families, where adult children are posted or settled elsewhere. An LPA lets them speak to a bank or a care home on their parent’s behalf without going to court first.
My fee is a flat fee per document, fixed and quoted in writing before you commit rather than billed by the hour, and it covers taking your instructions by questionnaire and phone, drafting, coming out to you to get the signatures completed in the right order, and lodging the application with the Office of the Public Guardian. Separately from that, the OPG charges its own registration fee for each document, and that one is paid straight to the government — it is a government charge, not part of what I charge, and I’ll set out both figures for you before you decide anything. Registration is not instant and an LPA cannot be used until it has gone through, which is another good reason to start before you need it. We begin with a free phone consultation, and if you decide to go ahead, the signing visit is included in the price.
Questions from Gillingham clients
Which villages and areas around Gillingham do you cover?
I cover Gillingham itself along with Rainham, Wigmore, Twydall, Hempstead and Parkwood. There's no additional charge for visiting any of them — the signing visit is included in the quoted price, whether you're a few minutes from the high street or out towards the edge of the marshes. If you're just outside that list, do still ring: I work across the Medway towns and the surrounding parts of Kent, and it's far easier to tell you on the phone whether you're in my patch than for you to guess from a map.
What does a lasting power of attorney actually cover?
A will decides what happens after you die. A lasting power of attorney decides what happens if you're still here but can't make decisions for yourself — after a stroke, say, or as dementia progresses. There are two separate documents. A health and welfare LPA covers care, treatment and where you live. A property and financial affairs LPA covers bank accounts, bills, pensions and property. They're often made together, but one doesn't imply the other, and neither is created automatically by being someone's husband, wife or next of kin.
Do you offer evening or weekend appointments in Gillingham?
Yes — I work seven days a week, including evenings, and there's no extra charge for an out-of-hours appointment. A lot of Gillingham households are two-income households with shift patterns or a commute into London, and an evening visit is simply easier than losing a morning's work. Weekends tend to suit families who want a son or daughter in the room while an older parent gives instructions. Tell me what works when we speak and I'll fit the visit around it rather than the other way round.
My father has already been diagnosed with dementia — is it too late for an LPA?
Not necessarily. Capacity isn't all-or-nothing, and a diagnosis on its own doesn't remove it — what matters is whether he understands the document at the time he signs it. An independent certificate provider has to confirm that, and if there's any real doubt his GP or a specialist can assess it properly. What I would say is don't wait. If capacity has genuinely gone, the only route left is applying to the Court of Protection to be appointed deputy, which is slower, far more expensive and carries ongoing supervision and annual reporting.
I'm helping an elderly parent in Rainham or Twydall — can you visit them at home?
Yes. The questions come on paper and over the phone, so your parent doesn't have to sit through a formal appointment or manage a car journey and a waiting room, and then I bring the documents to the house to be signed. You're very welcome to sit in — with LPAs it often helps, because the attorneys are usually the adult children and they have their own questions about what they'd be taking on. If relatives are travelling in from further afield, tell me when and I'll arrange the signing visit around them.
What does it cost to get everything sorted in one go?
Most couples choose the Complete Peace of Mind Package — mirror wills, both types of LPA for both partners, and letters of wishes. That's six professionally drafted documents in one process, and it works out cheaper than arranging each piece separately. I'll give you the exact figure on our first phone call, and OPG registration fees are payable separately to the government.