Administering an estate or trust can feel overwhelming, especially when it involves unfamiliar legal processes, tax complexities or family sensitivities.
Whether you are acting as an executor, trustee or beneficiary, we provide clear guidance and support at every stage.
From straightforward estates to those involving international assets, business interests or complex family arrangements, we work alongside you to ensure everything is handled smoothly and in line with your responsibilities and the wishes of your loved one.
Practical support
You may be facing questions such as:
- How do I value assets accurately?
- What are my obligations when dealing with HMRC?
- How can I manage Inheritance Tax efficiently?
- Is a deed of variation appropriate for our family’s needs?
- What’s the best way to handle a trust?
These are the moments when specialist advice can make all the difference.
Whether the estate involves UK-based assets or complex international interests, we help you make informed decisions by:
- Negotiating tax reliefs
- Coordinating valuations
- Identifying opportunities to preserve wealth and reduce risk
- Ensuring full and accurate HMRC disclosures to avoid unnecessary queries or delays
With the right advice, probate can be managed effectively and also present an opportunity to safeguard your family’s future.
Supporting trustees
Acting as a trustee carries significant responsibility. Whether you have been appointed under a will or are managing a lifetime trust, we can help you:
- Understand your legal duties
- Prepare trust accounts and file tax returns
- Plan distributions and long-term strategies
- Stay compliant with evolving regulations, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism measures
Our Trust and Administration team brings together deep technical expertise and decades of experience advising trustees, executors and families. We support a wide range of trusts, including:
- Multigenerational trusts preserving family wealth
- Trusts funding education
- Trusts holding the family home
Many of our lawyers and partners act as trustees themselves, so we understand the pressures involved. We will help you make informed decisions that honour the trust’s purpose and meet your legal obligations, ensuring it continues to serve its role for generations to come.
Trustees and executors face growing compliance demands, including those under the US’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS), the UK’s Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) rules, and the completion of HMRC Trust Register. We help you meet your obligations while protecting the confidentiality of private family structures.
Our trust company
Bedford Trust Corporation Limited (BTCL) is an independent trust corporation wholly owned by Wedlake Bell LLP. Established as a private limited company and governed by a board of directors comprising leading partners from our Private Client team, BTCL provides bespoke fiduciary services exclusively to clients of the firm and can acti as executor, trustee, attorney, deputy, nominee, or litigation friend. BTCL is particularly well placed to support complex, high-value, and cross-border arrangements, drawing on the full breadth of Wedlake Bell’s legal capabilities.
How we can help
Probate and trust matters require sound and practical legal advice. These issues often carry significant personal and financial implications, particularly where they involve family dynamics, long-term planning or cross-border considerations. Whether you are an executor, trustee or beneficiary, you can rely on us for clear, discreet advice on your duties, entitlements and risks.
Recent experience
- Advising the family of a UK-born individual with assets in Germany, Portugal and Malta, addressing complex succession issues due to a disputed divorce and forced heirship risks.
- Acting for trustees of two family trusts worth £40m to extend the trust period and avoid a significant Capital Gains Tax charge, using an application under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958 involving minor and unborn beneficiaries.
- Representing a son challenging his father’s final will, which left the estate to a carer he had secretly married.
- Advising four adult children in negotiating a settlement with their stepmother over an estate, including business shares.
Please see here for regulatory information in respect of our fees for uncontested probate work, as required by the SRA’s Transparency Rules.
Please click here to view our factsheet “Bereavement”, which details the probate process and the key stages involved. Please click here to view our factsheet on obtaining a grant of probate for a foreign domiciled individual.
