Will writing, LPAs and probate in Rochester
Personal, professional estate planning across Rochester, Strood and the Medway valley villages — at your kitchen table, on your schedule.
Rochester sits on the west bank of the Medway around its castle and cathedral, with Strood across the bridge and a string of villages running south along the valley towards Snodland. From my base I regularly visit clients in Strood, Frindsbury, Borstal, Cuxton, Halling, and Wouldham. 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 Rochester
Every fee is quoted in writing before you commit, and will and LPA prices include a signing visit to your home in Rochester 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
Property Trust Wills in the Rochester area
In Rochester, Strood and the older streets running south through Frindsbury, Borstal, Cuxton, Halling and Wouldham, a great many estates come down to one thing: the house. There is rarely a portfolio sitting behind it.
A Victorian terrace off the High Street, a post-war semi bought decades ago on one wage and paid off slowly — for most of the couples I sit down with here, that house is the inheritance. Which is exactly why it is worth thinking carefully about how it passes. Under a straightforward will, your share of the home goes outright to your husband, wife or partner. It becomes theirs entirely, to do with as they wish, and from that point it is bound up in whatever happens in their life afterwards — a second marriage, a change of heart about who should benefit, or simply years in which money has to come from somewhere. None of that involves anybody behaving badly. It is just what an outright gift means. Families with one asset feel it more sharply than families with several.
A Property Trust Will takes a different route. Rather than passing outright, your share of the home is held in trust on your death. Your partner keeps the right to live in the property for the rest of their life — nothing about the day-to-day changes — and your share ultimately passes to the people you named. It is particularly relevant for:
- Couples where one or both have children from an earlier relationship, who want to be certain their own children eventually receive their share without leaving a surviving partner without a home.
- Couples with concerns about future care costs — your share is held for your named beneficiaries rather than forming part of the surviving partner’s estate in the way an outright inheritance would. It is a structural change, not a guarantee about any future assessment.
- Estates where the house is effectively the whole inheritance — when there is little else to leave, the half you can direct is the half worth directing properly.
For the trust to hold anything, the property cannot stay in joint names in the usual way: the joint tenancy has to be severed so each of you owns a defined share to leave. That is done by formal notice, with a restriction entered at the Land Registry. I handle it as part of a single fixed fee for the couple, quoted in writing before you commit, alongside both wills. The signing visit is included in that price — no separate charge for coming out to Halling or Wouldham. The first conversation is a free phone call, with no obligation, and you will have a written quote before you decide anything.
Questions from Rochester clients
Which villages around Rochester do you cover?
I cover Rochester itself along with Strood, Frindsbury, Borstal, Cuxton, Halling and Wouldham. Strood sits inside Rochester's built-up area rather than out on its own, so it is very much part of my regular round, and the villages running south along the valley are only a few minutes further on. There is no additional charge for visiting any of them — the home visit is included in the quoted price for whichever service you choose. If you are just outside that list and unsure whether I come to you, give me a call and I will tell you straight away.
How does a Property Trust Will actually work?
Your share of the home is held in trust when you die rather than passing outright to your partner. In practice your partner carries on living in the house exactly as before, for the rest of their life, and nothing about the household changes. What changes is where your share goes afterwards: it passes to the beneficiaries you named, usually your children. For the trust to have anything to hold, the property has to be owned as tenants in common rather than as joint tenants, so severing the joint tenancy is part of the work. I deal with that paperwork within the single fixed fee for the couple, quoted in writing before you commit.
Do you offer evening or weekend appointments in Rochester?
Yes — I work seven days a week, including evenings, and there is no extra charge for an out-of-hours appointment. Plenty of my Rochester and Strood clients are still working, and losing a morning to an office appointment is far more disruptive than a seven o'clock visit once the house is quiet. Weekends tend to suit families who want a son or daughter sitting in on the conversation, particularly when they are driving over from the far side of Kent or up from London. Tell me what fits around your week and I will work to it.
We're worried about care costs eating into the house — can a Property Trust Will stop that?
It is the question I am asked most often around here, and I would rather answer it honestly than sell you something. A property trust will does not put your home beyond the reach of a local authority assessment, and anybody promising you that is overstating what it does. What it does is structural: your share of the house is held in trust for the beneficiaries you named instead of passing outright, so it does not form part of the surviving partner's estate in the way an outright inheritance would. How any future assessment treats a particular estate depends on the circumstances at the time.
I'm helping an elderly parent in Strood or Cuxton — can you visit them at home?
Of course — a good part of my work is with older clients, and it is the main reason I come out to sign rather than asking people into an office. If your mum or dad is in Strood, Cuxton or one of the valley villages, no longer drives, or finds a long appointment tiring, we can take it at their pace: the questions come on paper and over the phone, in as many short calls as they need, and the only appointment is the signing. You are very welcome to sit in. The one thing I would ask is that the instructions come from them rather than from you — it needs to be plainly their decision.
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.