Can I Do My Own Estate Planning?
Partly. Some of it you can and should do yourself today, for free. Some of it is where people cause expensive, irreversible damage by acting on something they read.
The dividing line is roughly this: organising what you already have is DIY; restructuring ownership to avoid tax is not.
At a glance
- Free and DIY
- Pension nominations, allowances, record-keeping
- Cheap and DIY-able
- A simple will
- Get advice
- Trusts, gifting property, IHT planning
- Common costly mistake
- Giving away a home and still living in it
- Often overlooked
- Lasting power of attorney
Key Takeaways
- Nominating who gets your pension is free, takes minutes, and sits outside your estate for inheritance tax — most people have never done it.
- A simple will can be done yourself, but the signing and witnessing rules are strict and get wills invalidated.
- Using annual gift allowances needs no adviser, only a record of what you gave and when.
- Trusts, gifting property and inheritance tax planning are where DIY causes irreversible damage.
- A lasting power of attorney matters more than most people realise and can be done yourself through GOV.UK.
What you can genuinely do yourself
Nominate your pension beneficiaries. This is the single most overlooked free win in estate planning. A pension usually sits outside your estate for inheritance tax, and it passes according to the nomination form your provider holds — not according to your will. If that form is blank or names an ex-partner, your will cannot fix it. Log in and check it today.
Write a simple will. If your affairs are straightforward — everything to a spouse, then to the children — you can do this yourself. The content is the easy part; the execution is where wills fail. It must be signed in the presence of two witnesses, both present at the same time, and neither witness (nor their spouse) can inherit anything. Get that wrong and the gift to them fails. See can you write your own will.
Use your allowances and keep records. You can give away a certain amount each year without it counting towards inheritance tax, and there are additional exemptions for gifts out of surplus income and for weddings. None of this needs an adviser — it needs a written record of what you gave, to whom, and when. Your executors will need that, and reconstructing it after death is difficult.
Set up a lasting power of attorney. You can register one yourself through GOV.UK. It matters more than most people expect, because without it your family cannot manage your affairs if you lose capacity — they must apply to the Court of Protection, which is slower and dearer. See power of attorney.
Keep a list of what you have. Accounts, policies, pensions, passwords, where the will is kept. Unglamorous, and it saves your executors months.
Where DIY goes badly wrong
These share a common feature: they are hard or impossible to undo.
Giving away your home but still living in it. The most common serious mistake. Transfer the house to your children and carry on living there rent-free, and HMRC treats it as a gift with reservation of benefit — it stays in your estate for inheritance tax, so you achieve nothing. Meanwhile the house is now legally theirs, exposed to their divorce, their creditors and their bankruptcy, and you may have created a capital gains tax problem that did not exist.
Trusts. Genuinely useful in the right circumstances and genuinely damaging in the wrong ones. They have their own tax treatment, their own reporting, and they are difficult to unwind.
Inheritance tax planning generally. The residence nil-rate band, the seven-year rule and taper relief interact in ways that reward advice.
Anything involving a business, agricultural property, or assets abroad.
The honest summary
Do the free, reversible things yourself this week — check the pension nomination, sort a power of attorney, write down what you own.
Get advice before you move ownership of anything, particularly the house. The fee for an hour of proper advice is small next to the cost of undoing a gift you should not have made.
Frequently asked questions
What estate planning can I do myself for free?
Nominating your pension beneficiaries, keeping a record of gifts and assets, and setting up a lasting power of attorney through GOV.UK. All are free or near-free and none needs an adviser.
Does my will cover my pension?
Usually not. Most pensions pass by the nomination form your provider holds, outside your estate and outside your will. This is why checking that form matters.
Can I put my house in my children's names to avoid inheritance tax?
You can, and it very often backfires. If you continue living there it is treated as a gift with reservation of benefit and stays in your estate anyway, while exposing the house to their circumstances. Take advice first.
Do I need a solicitor for a will?
Not for a simple one, but the witnessing rules are strict and a witness who inherits loses their gift. Anything involving a blended family, a business, or property abroad is worth paying for.
What is the most overlooked part of estate planning?
A lasting power of attorney. It only matters while you are alive, which is exactly why people skip it — and without one your family must go to the Court of Protection.
General information only, not legal or financial advice. Where the stakes are high or the decision is hard to reverse, take advice from a suitably qualified professional.
