Wills & Mental Capacity

A correctly drawn-up and regularly reviewed Will is an inexpensive way of putting you in control of the final destination of your estate and making sure you avoid difficulties for your relatives and friends after your death. It can include your wishes concerning funeral arrangements; ensure your possessions go to the people you want (rather than following the official legal ‘Rules of Intestacy’); can help to prevent your spouse, civil partner or family having to sell their home to pay the Inland Revenue or other beneficiaries; ensure that “common law” partners are legally recognised as beneficiaries; contain details of trusts and care arrangements for children, should you die and; specify people who can be trusted to sort it out and put your wishes into practice.

• I have married or entered into civil partnership since making a Will.
• I am going through a divorce and made a Will whilst married or in civil partnership. Your Will will still be valid and you may wish to change this.
• I am divorced, with young children, and my ex-spouse or civil partner cares for them. They may be able to take control of your money on behalf of the children, even though they will not inherit it themselves.
• I haven’t updated it for a while. You should update your Will regularly (every 5 years is our recommendation), particularly if you have had children or financial changes since your last Will.
• I have changed solicitor. You can easily transfer Wills from other solicitors to us and we will hold the Will for you.

We recommend that you use our personal will writing service if your Will is not straight forward. Reasons for this might include the value of your estate (and need, therefore, for Inheritance Tax advice); details referring to your having been married several times with off-spring from more than one of these (or Civil Partnership); protection of your estate from specific individuals; specialist trusts for disabled loved-ones; foreign or agricultural property ownership and; business ownership. Charges for the personal Will service start from £175 (plus VAT) for a single Will and £285 (plus VAT) for two similar Wills, but we’ll be able to advise on costs more accurately once we know your specific requirements.

If your Will is straightforward we offer an online Will writing service. All you need to do is complete the form and submit it to us. Our team of qualified experts will draft a Will and send it to you for approval. Once you have agreed the draft we will produce the Will for signing and witnessing (which you can do at our offices for no extra cost, if you like). Charges for the online Will service are £125 (plus VAT) for a single Will and £200 (plus VAT) for two similar Wills.

The executors are responsible for carrying out your wishes, as expressed in your Will, after your death. They will collect in your assets, pay any liabilities and then distribute your estate. You may appoint as many as you wish and they can also be a beneficiary. It is administratively straight-forward to appoint two and no more than four. You’ll need to check that they are happy to act. Please ask us for one of our information sheets about the role of executors. You might prefer to name professional executors to ensure that your family are not burdened with legal work when they are grieving or if your affairs are complex. We are happy to act, either solely or with other named executors. Costs are charged on a time spent basis, together with a fee based on a small percentage of the value of the estate.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a document by which you appoint someone to act on your behalf in case, in the future, you are unable to manage your own financial affairs. This person is also able to act on health, welfare and end of life decisions too. The alternative to making a Lasting Power of Attorney is for a person known as a Receiver to be appointed through an application to the Public Trust Office. They charge a fee, dependent on the value of your estate and this is an expensive and time consuming exercise which you can avoid through entering into a Lasting Power of Attorney. If you are over 18 and have full mental capacity you can make a Lasting Power of Attorney at any time. It can be revoked at any time, so long as you still have full mental capacity.

We often receive enquiries about Living Wills, which are also known as Advanced Directives. Their purpose is to make your wishes clear about your own medical care, should you for any reason be unable to communicate them in the future. Before you embark on this you should discuss it with your GP and have it noted on your medical records. This will show that you are fully aware of the decisions that you took, should a dispute arise in the future. You can always change your wishes and review this at any time but be aware… this is not about taking an active step to hasten one’s death – euthanasia is illegal in this country.

Making a Will is usually the first step to take in structuring your affairs in order to minimise your liability for Inheritance Tax. We can provide wealth preservation advice tailored to your specific circumstances, to help you minimise tax liabilities and maximise tax relief. For more information have a look at our Trusts and Estates planning need to know.

From 21st December 2005 the Civil Partnership Act allowed same sex, UK couples aged 16 and over to become “registered Civil Partners”. Although this isn’t a marriage it means that same sex couples will gain legal recognition for their relationship and will be protected by a package of rights. Before you enter into this, however, you need to make sure that you have thought about all of the legal implications where tax planning, Will-making, partnership agreements and any relationship breakdown provisions are concerned. Our team of experts offer a specialist service for same sex couples in all of these areas and will discuss all of your options with you before advising on the best course of action.

In addition to ensuring that your Will is up to date, when you get engaged to be married you might want to consider a pre-nuptial agreement. Similarly, don’t think it’s too late to put some provision in place to protect your assets after you’ve got married. A post-nuptial agreement can be structured to recognise changes in circumstances and to provide guidance on asset division should you decide to separate or divorce. We specialise in a number of wealth and asset protection methods to assist you, should the worst happen.

This is a document in which the person creating the Power of Attorney gives one or more other people the legal authority to act on their behalf in relation to their financial affairs. Importantly, this does not mean that you can no longer act for yourself but it can be helpful for a set period of time, perhaps when you are going abroad or are unable to act for yourself for some other reason (perhaps following surgery or treatment). This can be general or limited to specific matters (for example business affairs).

If your relative lacks the necessary capacity to manage their financial affairs for themselves, they may also be unable to make gifts, update their Will or undertake tax planning. If this is the case the Court of Protection can approve these things on their behalf. We can help you to apply to the Court of Protection for this, as well as take you through each stage of the legal process.

If you, or a relative, unable to manage financial affairs, but no Enduring or Lasting Power of Attorney is in place, it may be necessary for the Court of Protection to appoint a ‘Deputy’ to mange matters. We can help you to understand this application process, including completing all the relevant paperwork, obtaining the necessary medical evidence, lodging the application, arranging any required insurance and implementing the Court’s orders, as well as acting as your Deputy, should you require it. We can also help with the other elements of deputyship, including buying or selling a property, business management, employment of staff and basic accounting requirements.