According to Lloyds Bank's latest house price index, published last week, the average UK home was worth £298,441 in September, almost exactly the same as a year ago. Underneath that flat figure there's a split. Northern Ireland rose 7.4% and Scotland 3.4%, but prices fell 2.2% in Greater London and 2.1% in the South East. Five-year fixed mortgage rates have also hit 6% for the first time in three years, so buyers are borrowing less and haggling harder. If you're selling your home this autumn, the balance of power has shifted, and how you handle the conveyancing could decide whether your sale completes.

Last week, the Law Society called on Andy Burnham's government to deliver the legal aid means-test reforms that ministers have promised for years. The figures are stark. The financial thresholds haven't been properly updated since 2009, and the share of people eligible for legal aid has fallen from around half the population in 2000 to about 19%. In family courts, the number of people representing themselves has more than tripled since 2013.

The reforms were due this year after a consultation in 2022, but they have stalled. Meanwhile, many people going through a divorce or separation are unsure whether they can get any help with legal costs. Here's how legal aid for divorce works now, and what other options you have.

The number of life insurance policies written in trust has almost tripled in five years. New figures from the protection specialist Stonebridge, reported last week by Today's Wills and Probate, cover 8,000 policies. They show that 14.3% of life policies were placed in trust in 2026, up from 5.3% in 2021. The main reason is speed. A payout that goes into your estate has to wait for probate, while one held in trust usually doesn't.

That gap can matter a great deal to a grieving family with a mortgage and bills to pay.

Two brothers are in court this month over their late father's £400,000 estate. In the case, reported by Today's Wills and Probate, the 89-year-old father's 2015 will split his estate equally between his children's families. A new will made in 2023, months before he died, left everything to his youngest son and his son's wife. The older brother says their father was "unduly influenced". He alleges that his brother isolated their father and took control of his money. The younger brother denies this and says their father was independent and that his older son had stopped visiting. The judge adjourned the hearing for more evidence, and it is due to resume later in October.

Whatever the outcome, the case shows how quickly a late change to a will can split a family, and what you can do to stop it happening to yours.