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Lasting Powers of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney "LPA" can be written at any time during your lifetime as long as you have the necessary capacity to do so. It allows you to nominate a person or persons who can manage your affairs should you become incapable of managing them yourself. If you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney but you need one, your nearest and dearest will have to apply through the Court of Protection, which is likely to take at least 3 to 6 months and could cost several hundreds pounds. LPA's are complementary to your Will and should be viewed as the cheapest piece of insurance you ever buy - if you don't need it great, but if you do, you have saved yourself a lot of time, effort and money. The Lasting Power of Attorney replaced the Enduring Power of Attorney with effect from 1 October 2007.  Any EPA's which were fully completed before October 2007 remain valid.

For more information please click on the link .

Children's Trusts

Have you ever wondered what your children might do if they were to be left a large sum of money at the age of 18? By utilising a children's trust within your Will you can determine at what age your children will inherit, up to a maximum age of 25. By including a children's trust your Trustees will have access to any funds within the Trust allowing them to pay for your children's upkeep, education or for any other reasonable purpose.

Document Storage

Once you have taken the steps necessary to write a Will and plan your estate it makes sense to keep these very important documents safe and secure. Estate Planning Solutions provide a comprehensive storage service. Your Wills and other important documents can be stored in our secure document storage facility. Storing your documents give you and your family peace of mind.

Deeds of Severance

Most people own their homes jointly along with their spouse or partner as Joint Tenants. This means that you cannot determine, within your Will, who would inherit your home. It will automatically pass to the surviving Joint Tenant. It is the same for any jointly owned asset - they all pass by survivorship irrespective of what your Will or the laws of Intestacy state.

Sometimes it is advantageous to change the way you own your property from beneficial joint tenancy to Tenants in Common. This allows each spouse or partner to decide where their share of the property should go but more importantly it allows you to use the value of the property to mitigate Inheritance Tax, to protect the property against local authority care home fees and ensure your share of the property goes to your children.

It is also useful where spouses or partners have children from different relationships and want to ensure that their own children always inherit their share of the property.

Deed of Variation

A Deed of Variation can be used up to 2 years after a death to vary the terms of an existing Will and even intestacy. They are commonly used to substitute an Inheritance Tax saving Will for a simple Mirror Will (which does not save IHT) in order to utilise the Inheritance tax allowance of the first to die where no IHT planning had taken place. They can be quite expensive - solicitors may charge up to £2,000 plus VAT but our charges are far more reasonable. For a no obligation quote please contact us on 0800 781 6658.

Probate and Estate Administration

Probate and estate administration is the process of winding up and distributing a deceased person's estate. Traditionally banks and solicitors charge around 4% of the estate value plus disbursements and VAT. A relatively modest £250,000 estate could cost around £12,000. Our charges are far more reasonable. For a no obligation quote please contact us on 0800 781 6658.

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