Personal, professional estate planning across Mayfield and the surrounding villages — at your home, on your schedule.
Mayfield is a picturesque historic village on the High Weald in East Sussex, between Crowborough and Heathfield.
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 are usually held over a cup of tea at the kitchen table, on an evening or weekend if that's what works, with no office visits and no rushed appointments.
All prices include home visits across Mayfield and the surrounding villages.
From £225
A professionally drafted will that clearly expresses your wishes, protects your assets, and provides for your loved ones with legal certainty. Includes a free phone consultation, a home visit for detailed instructions, careful drafting tailored to your circumstances, and a signing appointment at your home with proper witnessing.
£350
Coordinated wills for partners that reflect shared wishes while accounting for individual circumstances. One phone consultation, a home visit for joint instructions, two complete wills, and a signing appointment at your kitchen table.
£275 per document
Ensure trusted people can make important decisions on your behalf for health, welfare, and financial matters if you're ever unable to. I guide you through every step including registration with the Office of the Public Guardian. OPG registration fee of £92 per document is payable separately.
Free with will / £85 standalone
A personal document to guide your executors on matters close to your heart — funeral preferences, personal bequests, and messages to loved ones. Included free with every will, or £85 as a standalone document.
£595 per couple
Protect your share of the family home while ensuring your partner can continue living there — safeguarding assets for future generations. Includes severance of joint tenancy so your property is properly structured for the trust to work.
1.5% of estate value
Practical, compassionate help administering an estate after a loved one has died. I handle the paperwork — applying for the Grant of Probate, valuing assets, dealing with banks and HMRC, settling liabilities, and distributing the estate to the beneficiaries — so the family doesn't have to. Transparent percentage pricing, far below typical solicitor rates. Probate Registry fees are payable separately.
A recent client near Mayfield
“Emma came out to the house in Mayfield to talk us through a Property Trust Will and made what felt like a daunting subject genuinely easy to understand. She came back on a Saturday morning for the signing over a pot of tea — exactly what we needed.”
For families in Mayfield, Five Ashes and the smaller High Weald hamlets that fan out around the village, the family home is almost always the single largest asset in the estate — and often by a wide margin. That makes how the home passes, and to whom, one of the most consequential decisions in your will. A standard will leaves your share of the property outright to your partner, which is the right answer for many couples, but it isn’t the only option and it isn’t always the best one.
A Property Trust Will — sometimes called a Property Protection Trust — lets you ringfence your share of the home so that, once you’ve gone, your partner can continue to live there for the rest of their life, but your share is ultimately protected for the people you want to inherit it. In a village where period properties routinely sit well above the national average, that protection can be the difference between a home staying in the family and a share of it being lost to circumstances no one anticipated. It’s particularly relevant for:
The process includes the severance of joint tenancy — the legal step that changes how the property is held so the trust can actually take effect. I handle that as part of the £595-per-couple fee. There’s no extra charge for the home visit, and the conversation usually happens over a cup of tea at your kitchen table rather than in a solicitor’s office in town. If you’d like an unhurried run-through of how a Property Trust Will would work in your specific circumstances, give me a call for a free no-obligation phone consultation — and if you decide to go ahead, I’ll come out to Mayfield at a time that fits around your week.
I cover Mayfield itself and the surrounding High Weald hamlets, including Five Ashes, Mark Cross, Argos Hill and Rotherfield, as well as the lanes that connect the village out towards Heathfield and Crowborough. Home visits are included in the quoted price — there's no extra travel charge for clients in the smaller surrounding hamlets. If you're not sure whether your address is within easy reach, give me a call and I'll confirm; in practice I travel across the High Weald most weeks and rarely turn anything down.
Mayfield property values sit well above the national average, and for most families here the village home is by far the largest asset in the estate. That makes how you hold it, and how it passes, central to any will. A Property Trust Will lets you ringfence your share of the home so your partner can continue living there for life while your share is protected for your children or chosen beneficiaries. It also provides a measure of insulation against the way the home is treated for future care-fee means-testing, which is a common worry for clients in the village.
Yes — I work seven days a week, including evenings, with no extra charge for out-of-hours visits in Mayfield or the surrounding villages. A lot of clients prefer an evening appointment after work, and weekends are often easier when adult children want to be present alongside an elderly parent. First appointments usually take around an hour over a cup of tea, and if a second visit is needed for signing I'll come back at a time that suits — including a Sunday morning if that's what fits around the family's schedule.
Possibly — and it's worth thinking about carefully. With many Mayfield properties sitting well into seven figures, the combined nil-rate band and residence nil-rate band for a married couple can still be exceeded by the home alone before any savings or investments are counted. I can't give tax advice as a regulated adviser would, but I'll walk you through how the allowances work for your circumstances, how leaving the home to direct descendants affects the position, and whether a Property Trust Will fits alongside any wider tax planning you're already doing.
Of course — most of my clients prefer to talk these things through in their own sitting room, and that's particularly important for older clients or anyone with mobility difficulties. I'm happy for family members to be present for the conversation if that's helpful, and I can coordinate appointments around relatives travelling in from further afield. I take care to make sure the wishes recorded are the client's own, and I'll always speak with them on their own at some point in the process so capacity and independence are properly evidenced.
Most couples in Mayfield choose the Complete Peace of Mind Package at £1,195 — mirror wills, both types of LPA for both partners, and letters of wishes. That's six professionally drafted documents in one process. OPG registration fees (£368 for four LPAs) are payable separately to the government.
