What we are hearing from advisers right now
Over recent weeks, our conversations with contacts across the wealth management and financial advisory community have taken on a consistent and familiar shape. January reviews are in full swing. Clients are reassessing priorities, asking sharper questions, and looking more closely at whether everything they have in place truly works together.
One issue keeps surfacing. Financial planning is often sophisticated and well considered. The legal framework sitting beneath it has not always kept up.
This is not a hypothetical concern. It is a live topic advisers are dealing with in real client meetings.
The gap advisers are seeing first-hand
Advisers tell us they are increasingly encountering clients whose financial affairs are well managed but whose legal arrangements lag behind their current reality. Wills drafted years ago, before children or business growth. No Lasting Powers of Attorney, despite complex assets or decision-making responsibilities. A quiet assumption that marriage, cohabitation, or company structures provide cover when, legally, they do not.
Often, these issues only emerge when an adviser pauses and asks a careful question. By then, the exposure already exists.
That moment is usually where our involvement begins.
Why the issue feels pressing now
In discussion after discussion, the same scenarios arise. Clients whose wealth has grown or changed shape. Business owners whose authority would disappear overnight if capacity were lost. Families relying on documents that no longer reflect how their lives look today. Unmarried clients who are unaware of how rigid the intestacy rules can be.
These are not unusual cases. They are recurring themes that reflect how quickly circumstances change compared to how rarely legal documents are reviewed.
Familiar ground for our Legacy team
At Laurus, this type of work is well established. Our Legacy team regularly works alongside advisers whose clients need legal structures that properly support their financial planning.
In practice, that means taking what is already being discussed and translating it into documents that work in the real world. A will that reflects current family dynamics rather than historic assumptions. LPAs that allow decisions to continue if a client cannot act personally. Clear alignment between succession planning and long-term wealth strategies.
The aim is not to complicate matters, but to remove uncertainty that could otherwise undermine careful financial advice.
How these conversations usually start
There is rarely a dramatic trigger. More often, it begins quietly during a review meeting, with a question that brings clarity into focus.
Who would be able to act if you could not?
Would your estate pass in the way you expect?
When those answers are uncertain, clients tend to recognise the need to act.
Why advisers return to Laurus
The advisers we work with value the fact that this is not unfamiliar territory for us. We understand the rhythm of wealth planning conversations and the importance of reinforcing, rather than disrupting, trusted adviser relationships.
Our role is to provide legal advice that fits naturally alongside financial planning, delivered with care and an understanding of the broader context.
If this reflects the conversations you are having with your clients, you are very much not alone. It is an active issue, and one our Legacy team at Laurus navigates every day with advisers who want joined-up outcomes for the people they advise.
Ready to continue the conversation
If these issues are coming up in your client discussions and you would value a trusted legal partner to support them, our Legacy team would be very happy to talk.
You can contact us directly at enquiries@lauruslaw.co.uk, or call 020 3146 6300.
