Making a Will
Many people put off making a will until later in life. It is extremely important to manage and arrange your affairs because in the event of your death this will help to ease the emotional burden on family and friends. Making a will helps you to plan for your future and can help to reduce your Inheritance Tax liability, as well as ensuring that your wishes are followed. It’s never too early to make a will, and it is vital to review and update it regularly to take account of changed circumstances. Our specialist team can guide you through making a will or reviewing an existing one.
We provide a free and safe storage system for your will.
Home visits are available if you would find it difficult to attend our offices.
If you wish to make an Advance Decision (formerly a Living Will), for example to express your wish to refuse or accept certain types of medical intervention, we can advise on this too.
Trusts
A trust is where there is money or property held by a third party (usually a family member, friend or professional person) for the benefit of someone else. For example if you have a child with special needs you may need someone else to manage money and property passing to them on your death.
This would be a trust fund and the person nominated to manage the trust fund will manage and invest the money in accordance with the best interest of your child. We can provide you with advice and guidance on whether a trust is suitable in your circumstances and, if so, we can set up and manage these for you.
Probate
When a person dies our probate department deals with everything required to wind up the estate of the deceased. This includes ascertaining and then collecting in assets, settling all debts, dealing with taxes and transferring assets to beneficiaries according to the deceased’s will.
Lasting Power of Attorney / Court of Protection Application
Powers of Attorney (PoA) are an important aspect of future planning. While you still have capacity, you can give a family member or friend PoA for your property and financial affairs and/or your health and welfare. You grant these powers to your Attorney, to be used should you lose capacity at some later stage. The Attorney is a trusted person you appoint to deal with your affairs should you become unable to, or find it onerous to do so yourself. The Attorney can simply help you deal with banks and utility companies, or take over entirely if that is what you need and wish.
Should you become incapacitated and have not appointed an Attorney to deal with your affairs your assets may become frozen, which can pose a big problem for family and friends wanting to help. Without a PoA, banks and utilities will not talk to them and debts will start to accrue.
We can provide advice on all aspects of Powers of Attorney. We can also make a Court of Protection application to appoint someone to deal with a person’s affairs if the person has already lost capacity.