Personal, professional estate planning across Royal Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding villages — at your kitchen table, on your schedule.
Royal Tunbridge Wells is the largest town in the area, an affluent spa town on the Kent–East Sussex border with a fan of villages spread out across the High Weald to its south and east. From my base I regularly visit clients in Pembury, Matfield, Brenchley, Lamberhurst, Frant, Capel, and Five Oak Green. 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Tunbridge Wells
“When my mother passed away, the thought of dealing with probate on top of everything else felt impossible. Emma came out to the house in Matfield, talked us through the whole process over a pot of tea, and then quietly got on with it. She even drove back over on a Saturday morning to pick up some paperwork we'd forgotten.”
For families across Royal Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Brenchley and the surrounding High Weald villages, administering a parent’s estate is rarely the kind of paperwork you can tackle alone in the evenings. The values involved are too high, the deadlines too unforgiving, and the emotional weight too heavy to add to everything else that comes with a bereavement.
Probate in the Tunbridge Wells area is shaped by one dominant factor: property. A long-held family home in TW, Pembury or Matfield is very likely to be the largest single asset in the estate, and very likely to push the total above the inheritance tax threshold. That changes the process. Instead of a relatively simple application for a Grant, you’re dealing with HMRC, with valuations that have to stand up to scrutiny, and with reliefs and allowances — the residence nil-rate band, transferable allowances from a predeceased spouse — that can save the family tens of thousands of pounds if they’re claimed correctly, or cost them just as much if they’re missed.
I’m a will writer, not a solicitor, and I price probate the way I think it should be priced: a flat 1.5% of the estate value, with no hourly add-ons and no padded disbursements. On a typical TW-area estate, that’s substantially less than the 2–4% most local high-street firms charge — and the work itself is identical.
Three scenarios where my probate service is particularly useful for families in the area:
In practical terms, I’ll come to your home for the first conversation — no charge, no obligation — and walk you through what’s likely to be involved before you commit to anything. If you’d like me to take it on, I prepare and submit the Grant application, deal with HMRC for any inheritance tax, value the assets, settle the liabilities, and distribute the estate to the beneficiaries. Probate Registry fees are payable separately. Most estates are concluded within six to nine months, and I keep you updated at every stage so you’re never left wondering where things stand.
I cover Royal Tunbridge Wells itself and the villages spread out across the High Weald to the south and east — Pembury, Matfield, Brenchley, Lamberhurst, Frant, Capel, and Five Oak Green. Home visits to all of these are included in the price I quote, with no extra travel charge for the smaller villages. If you live just outside that list and aren't sure whether you're in my area, give me a call — most of the time the answer is yes, and if it isn't I can usually point you in the right direction.
My probate fee is a flat 1.5% of the estate value. High-street solicitors in the Tunbridge Wells area typically charge between 2% and 4%, and some still bill by the hour on top. On a £600,000 estate — well within range for a family home in TW or Pembury — that difference can run into thousands of pounds that stays with the family rather than being absorbed in fees. The work itself is the same: applying for the Grant, valuing the estate, dealing with HMRC, and distributing to the beneficiaries.
Yes — I'm available seven days a week, including evenings, and there's no extra charge for out-of-hours visits. Many of the working families I see in Tunbridge Wells find an evening appointment after work much easier than trying to take time off, and weekend visits suit clients who want a grown-up son or daughter present for the conversation. Probate in particular tends to involve coordinating several family members at once, so being flexible on when and where we meet usually makes the whole thing run a great deal more smoothly.
It adds steps but it isn't unusual round here, where a long-held Tunbridge Wells home can easily push an estate above the nil-rate band. I prepare the full inheritance tax account for HMRC, claim any transferable allowance from a predeceased spouse, and apply the residence nil-rate band where the family home is passing to direct descendants. The IHT must be settled before the Grant is issued, so getting the figures right first time matters — I'll walk you through what's owed, when, and what reliefs apply before we submit anything.
Of course — that's how most of my work happens. Older clients almost always prefer to talk these things through somewhere familiar rather than travelling into town, and a home visit lets me see the whole picture rather than rushing through a checklist in an office. You're very welcome to sit in on the conversation if your parents want you there, and I'm happy to fit appointments around relatives travelling down from London or further afield. Whether it's a will refresh, new LPAs, or probate, we always start with a free no-obligation phone consultation so we can talk through the situation and agree a quote before anything is arranged in person.
Most couples in Tunbridge Wells 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.
