We provide a range of legal documents that help you and your family, both after your death and during your lifetime.
Wills
By making a Will, you can ensure that your assets, including money and property, go to the people you love when you die. In a Will, you can nominate executors – trusted individuals who will administer your estate – and name the people you wish to benefit. It’s particularly important for unmarried couples and parents of young children to have Wills. If you’re unmarried and you don’t have a Will, you won’t inherit from their partner’s estate. For parents of young children, a Will is a legal way of naming guardians. If both parents should die while their children are still under the age of 18, the named guardians would have the legal right to bring them up. Writing a Will also allows you to give gifts of money and treasured possessions to non-family members such as friends and charities. This isn’t the case if you die without a Will, or “intestate”. The rules of intestacy state that a fixed sum goes to your spouse first of all, with the remainder split equally between your spouse and children. With no surviving spouse or children, your estate would pass to blood relatives in a strict order of succession, which could be contrary to your intentions.
Trusts
Trusts provide a lot more flexibility than Wills. Instead of your estate being passed direct to beneficiaries, assets held in Trust are managed by trustees – people that you appoint. It’s the trustees’ job to manage the assets according to your instructions. Trustees are often family members but you can appoint a professional trustee if you wish. Many people think that trusts are a new invention but this is a common misconception. In fact, they first became part of English law 800 years ago, although the concept dates back even further than that. You can think of a trust as a wrapper around property, money and other assets. Instead of being owned in an individual’s name, the assets are owned by the trustees on behalf of the beneficiaries. The benefit of doing this is that it stops assets being taken away from your beneficiaries. If you leave your house to your children and they get divorced, the house cannot be taken as part of a divorce settlement if it’s in a trust. Similarly, if children go bankrupt, get remarried or ultimately need expensive nursing care, the assets are ring-fenced inside the trust. If you own one or more rental properties, you may be able to avoid paying inheritance tax on those assets if you put them in trust.
Lasting Powers of Attorney
Whereas Wills are documents that apply after death, Lasting Powers of Attorney are documents that help you and your family during your lifetime. They give you the reassurance that, if you were to lose mental capacity, trusted family members or friends would be able to make financial- and health-related decisions on your behalf. The people you choose as your attorneys must be over the age of 18 and must be people you completely trust. Using a Lasting Power of Attorney for financial decisions, they could access your bank account to pay for essential bills and shopping, rather than having to use their own money. With a Lasting Power of Attorney covering health and care decisions, they could talk to doctors and other medical professionals on your behalf. That way, you’ll know that decisions about your everyday life and medical care will be made in your best interests. Putting Lasting Powers of Attorney in place also gives your family members peace of mind. If you ever lose mental capacity, they’d know that they would not have to go to court and pay hundreds or even thousands of pounds to get your bank account unfrozen.
Probate
The paperwork associated with applying for probate can be challenging. If a friend or family member has been appointed executor under a Will, they may need some help. Probate can take many hours of administrative work to gather all of the required information about the deceased’s assets and liabilities, and to fill in the correct forms. This can be complicated and stressful, particularly if there are tax considerations involving capital gains tax and inheritance tax. It’s well worth doing carefully, because otherwise you might miss out on tax-free allowances, including the £175,000 inheritance tax-free allowance for passing on your home to your children – it’s called the residence nil rate band. Whatever your needs and budget, we can provide services to support you and your family. You may simply require a one-off meeting with us to get some advice on what you need to do. Or you might want us to carry out some post-death planning on your behalf. Whatever your requirements, we can advise you on the most cost-effective option, ranging from hourly rates to a fixed percentage fee. With our assistance, you can ensure that the deceased’s affairs are managed correctly and sensitively.
