What is STEP? And why it's essential for inheritance planning.

What is STEP?

STEP is a professional body, with more than 22,000 members worldwide comprising lawyers, accountants and trustees that help families plan for their future.

STEP members are specialists in inheritance and succession planning. They draft wills and trusts, administer estates, act as trustees and advise families on how best to structure their finances to ensure compliance and preserve their assets for future generations.

What’s special about STEP?

To become a STEP professional, you must not only have your legal qualifications which itself takes upto 7 years, practical experience and a law degree. But you must also have a STEP diploma comprising four further exam papers and demonstrable experience in the wills, trust and probate field. Overall, a STEP professional will have over 10 years of experience. And that’s important – knowing what questions to ask clients, understand their family set up and assets, and clearly comprehend the impact of making one decision over another for both inheritance and tax purposes.

And what’s problematic about some of the rest

Unbelievably, will-writing is unregulated; anyone can write a will for you. But by having the STEP qualification, practitioners agree to Continuous Professional Development, and are always up-to-date with the latest legal, technical and regulatory rules. With budgetary changes coming quick and fast, being on top of legal changes and their long-term ramifications is essential.

STEP: code of conduct + continuous learning = best practice

Additionally, STEP members are subject to an extensive Code of Professional Conduct, requiring them to act with integrity and in a manner that inspires the confidence, respect and trust of their clients. In England and Wales, STEP members are also bound by STEP’s Will Code.

If you want to be secure in the knowledge that your assets go to the right people after your death, we’d strongly recommend a STEP professional. They have the expertise, experience and knowledge to ensure that problems do not arise. And with contested wills on the increase, a well-written will or trust ensures that the risk of disputes are minimised.

What type of work do STEP professionals do?

Here are some examples of what STEP members do:

provide for someone following their partner’s death, while ensuring the assets eventually go to children;
ensure that a family business or agricultural asset will pass safely from one generation to another;
ensure vulnerable children are cared for and supported;
help families with assets abroad to be compliant with the laws and tax rules of different countries;
help clients to support charitable causes in an effective way;
protect families with complex assets or a complicated family tree from disputes;
mitigate inheritance tax and other relevant taxes.

Our STEP professionals

At AWB Charlesworth, we have three full STEP members, or TEPs as they’re called:

Mark Shaw, Head of Wills, Trust and Probate, who has a STEP worldwide excellence award.
Jenny Barron, Director and Solicitor
Sally Houghton, Legal Accountant

And all our solicitors in our Wills, Trust and Probate team have STEP qualifications and are working towards full STEP qualification.

For more information about Wills, Trusts and Probate, please contact Jenny Barron on 01756 692866 or email jenny.barron@awbclaw.co.uk.