Personal, professional estate planning across Tenterden and the surrounding villages — at your home, on your schedule.
Tenterden — the so-called "Jewel of the Weald" — is a historic market town in southern Kent, surrounded by a band of villages stretching across to Romney Marsh. From my base I regularly visit clients in Biddenden, Smarden, Woodchurch, High Halden, St Michaels, Appledore, and Wittersham. Home visits to all of these are included in the quoted price — 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 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 Tenterden 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 Tenterden
“Emma came out to our cottage in Biddenden on a Saturday morning and walked us through the property trust step by step over a pot of tea. My husband had been dreading the conversation, but she made the whole thing feel genuinely straightforward — including the severance of the joint tenancy.”
For couples in Tenterden, Biddenden and the surrounding villages, the family home is almost always the most valuable thing in the estate — and how it passes on matters as much as who eventually inherits it. A standard will leaves your share of the property outright to your partner, which suits many couples, but it isn’t always the right answer when there are children from a previous relationship, real worries about care costs, or simply a strong wish that the home stays in the family.
A Property Trust Will — sometimes called a Property Protection Trust — lets you ringfence your share of the home. After you’ve gone, your partner can continue living there for the rest of their life, but your share is held in trust and ultimately reaches the people you want it to. It’s a popular choice for households around Tenterden because so many estates here are dominated by a single Wealden property, and a clear plan for that property tends to be the foundation everything else sits on.
It’s particularly relevant for:
The process includes severance of joint tenancy — the legal step that changes how you hold the property so the trust can actually take effect. Most couples around Tenterden hold their home as joint tenants without realising what that means in practice, and severing it is straightforward once you know what’s needed. I handle that as part of the £595-per-couple fee. There’s no extra cost for the home visit, and we’ll work through the details at your kitchen table rather than in a solicitor’s office — at a pace that suits you, with time to ask every question that comes to mind.
I cover Tenterden itself and all of the surrounding villages, including Biddenden, Smarden, Woodchurch, High Halden, St Michaels, Appledore, and Wittersham. Whether you're in the town centre, out towards the Marsh, or tucked away on a lane between villages, home visits are included in the quoted price. There's no additional travel charge for any of these locations, and I'm happy to make the journey out to the more remote farmhouses and cottages just as readily as into the centre of town.
The Tenterden area has a high proportion of older couples whose estate is dominated by a single Wealden property — often worth well above the national average, with most of the family's wealth tied up in the home. A Property Trust Will lets you ringfence your share of that home so it ultimately passes to your chosen beneficiaries, while still letting your partner live there for life. It's also a sensible safeguard against future care costs eroding the inheritance you've spent decades building up.
Yes — I'm available seven days a week, including evenings, with no extra charge for out-of-hours visits. Plenty of my Tenterden clients prefer a Saturday morning at the kitchen table, or an evening appointment once the working day has finished. If you're coordinating with a partner who's still commuting, or with adult children driving down from London at the weekend, I can fit the appointment around whichever time works best for everyone involved. The same goes for clients out in the villages — Smarden or Wittersham on a Sunday afternoon is no different to a Wednesday morning in the town centre.
This is one of the most common reasons couples in the Tenterden area come to me. Without a trust, your share of the home typically passes outright to your surviving spouse, who is then free to leave it however they wish — which might not include your children from a previous relationship. A Property Trust Will protects your half of the property in a trust, gives your partner the right to live there for life, and then directs your share to your own children when the trust ends. It's a clean way to look after both families.
Absolutely — and for older clients in the villages around Tenterden, a home visit usually works far better than asking someone to travel into a town-centre office. I'm very used to sitting down with elderly clients at their own kitchen table, taking my time, and explaining things in plain English without legal jargon. Family members are welcome to join the conversation if that's helpful, and I'm happy to coordinate timing around relatives travelling down from elsewhere in the country to be present.
Most couples 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.
