Who decides, and when
Powers of attorney, so that if someone loses the capacity to make their own decisions, a person they chose can act. Without it, families have to apply to the Court of Protection, which is slow and expensive.
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The basics
What is Life Planning?
Life Planning is the work of getting a person's affairs into order while they are well enough to make the decisions themselves, and keeping them in order as life changes. It covers the documents, the information, the wishes and the people, not just the will.
What a Life Plan covers.
Most people have one or two of these in place. Almost nobody has all five, and it is the gaps between them that cause families the most trouble.
Who inherits, and how
A valid, current will. Whether the executors know they are executors. Whether guardians are named for children. Whether anything has changed since it was written, such as a marriage, a divorce, a death or a new child.
What there is, and where
A complete record of property, accounts, savings, investments, pensions, insurance, utilities, subscriptions, digital accounts, debts and possessions of value. This is the part executors spend months reconstructing when it does not exist.
What they actually wanted
Funeral wishes, care preferences, what happens to personal items, messages to family, pets. None of it is legally binding on its own, and all of it stops arguments.
Who to call
The solicitor, the accountant, the financial adviser, the insurer, the employer. Named, with contact details, in one place.
Important
There is no such thing as UK-wide estate law.
England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland each have their own rules on wills, attorney documents and estate administration. The differences are not cosmetic. A document or a piece of advice that is correct in one nation can be wrong in another. This is why LifeWise specialises in England and Wales rather than claiming to cover the United Kingdom.
| England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wills governed by | Wills Act 1837 | Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995 and Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 | Wills and Administration Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1994 |
| Can a child be left out of a will? | Yes, although a claim may be brought under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 | No. Legal rights give a spouse or civil partner and children an automatic entitlement to a share of the moveable estate | Yes, although a claim may be brought under the 1979 Order |
| Attorney document | Lasting Power of Attorney, in two types: Property and Financial Affairs, and Health and Welfare | Continuing Power of Attorney for finances, and Welfare Power of Attorney for health and care. These are not called LPAs | Enduring Power of Attorney, covering property and financial affairs only. There is no health and welfare equivalent |
| Governing statute for attorney documents | Mental Capacity Act 2005 | Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 | Enduring Powers of Attorney (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 |
| Registered with | Office of the Public Guardian | Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) | Office of Care and Protection, High Court |
| Authority to administer an estate | Grant of Probate, or Letters of Administration | Confirmation, obtained through the Sheriff Court | Grant of Probate, through the Probate Office in Belfast |
This table is a general summary for information only and is not legal advice. Law and practice change. Anyone making arrangements should take advice from a professional qualified in the relevant jurisdiction.
LifeWise is built for England and Wales.
That is a deliberate choice, not a gap. All of our training, documents, frameworks, software and referral partners are built for the law of England and Wales as it stands in 2026, and kept current with it.
A platform that tries to serve three legal systems at once ends up serving none of them properly. Generic materials that gloss over the differences are how families end up with documents that do not work and planners end up out of their depth.
We would rather be genuinely expert in one jurisdiction than approximately right across three. Life Planners trained by LifeWise work with clients whose affairs fall under the law of England and Wales.
Cross-border cases
Families do not stay neatly inside one legal system. A client living in Manchester may own a cottage in Fife, or have a son who is executor and lives in Belfast.
Part of your training is recognising when a case crosses a border, and referring it to a practitioner qualified in the right jurisdiction rather than guessing. Domicile, not address, usually decides which succession law applies to the estate as a whole, and that is a question for a solicitor.
Note also that while succession and attorney law is identical across England and Wales, social care is devolved. Care funding for Welsh clients runs under different rules, and that is covered in your training.
Ready to explore the opportunity?
Apply to become a LifeWise Life Planner, or book a no-obligation information call to ask everything you want to ask first.