Tag: wills | Wills Jacobsen

It’s true – some good things in life really are FREE

Are you keen to protect your assets for your loved ones? Do you have children, and are you motivated to provide for them?

If so, you have probably made a Will to ensure that the assets you have worked hard to acquire are passed on to your chosen beneficiaries after your death.

However, your Will is just one step and can only control the assets that you own at the date of your death. If those assets are eroded during your lifetime, because of care fees or other issues, there will be little if anything for your beneficiaries to inherit.

It is therefore crucial that you plan for the future and consider using a Family Trust, specifically designed to protect assets from care fees and spendthrift beneficiaries. You can have a Family Trust as part of your Will or create the Trust in during your lifetime. Either way a Family Trust gives you the peace of mind that your assets can pass on securely down your bloodline (or to other named beneficiaries).

For more comprehensive information regarding the Family Trust and to find out how to make the best use of your Inheritance tax allowances, pensions and why Equity Release may be a saviour, attend our FREE seminar on 1st December 2016 from 10am to 1pm, at The Holiday Inn Huntingdon.

To book please call Wills Jacobsen on 01487 808000.

Keep it professional – keep it regulated

We have decided to write a short article about unregulated legal service providers and hopefully get some understanding out there about what regulation means and what it can mean if you use an unregulated firm or person.

Firstly you should know that some legal services are called “reserved legal activities”. This means they can only be provided through a firm which is regulated by an overarching body given such powers in law. For instance the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), CILEx Regulation and The Council for Licenced Conveyancers are three main regulators of legal firms.

If a firm is not regulated they cannot provide reserved legal activities. Not all legal services are reserved legal activities but the main ones are. Some of these main ones are matrimonial work, litigation, probate work, conveyancing, commercial work, and personal injury work to name but a few. If you are being offered these services by an unregulated person or firm, that person or firm is breaking the law.

Notably, Will writing and making Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) are not classed as reserved legal activities. So what does this mean? Well basically anyone can do this work even if they are not qualified. So if you were minded to, you could buy a book on Wills, read it and then call yourself a Will writer. You could offer Will writing and LPA writing services and you would not need a regulator looking over your shoulder making sure you are doing things right. You would not be breaking the law if you carried out this work and were not regulated.

Worse still, if you are not regulated, you are not required to carry indemnity insurance. All regulated firms must carry minimum indemnity insurance of £2,000,000.00 to cover their clients if a mistake is made.

In addition, a regulated firm has to have an accountants audit every year to make sure they are not misusing their clients money and that they are meeting their regulators accounting standards. An unregulated firm or person does not have to do this – which means they can mix your money with theirs and in some cases make a real mess of everything (we have seen this happen), with no come back on them.

Many unregulated Will writing firms see Will writing as a great opportunity to make money from vulnerable people by selling them schemes to protect their assets from care fees and Inheritance tax, which frankly do not work. Such firms charge extortionate fees (we have seen one company charging £4,295 plus VAT) for two Wills with trusts and four LPA’s. Regulated firms simply would not charge this sum and in addition would never try to sell you something which they know does not work.

So before you attend one of these firms seminars that they offer, or read their glossy and expensive brochures, do a little research and find out if they are a regulated firm and by regulated we mean by one of the above 3 bodies. Its easy – go to the regulator and search for the firm in the regulators directory. It simply is not good enough for someone to say they are a member of the Institute of Professional Will Writers, or a member of the Society of Will Writers, as honestly you do not need to pass any exams set out by these bodies to become a member and they do not have power to regulate firms for reserved legal activities.

Grossly expensive does not mean it is better or works, and conversely inappropriately cheap does not mean it is better either. Will writing is a skill and it takes 4 years of training to fully understand its integration into Succession law, Land law and Trusts and Equity, before you should even consider writing a Will for someone. Anything else means you are just messing with peoples lives and the lives of their beneficiaries.

So remember – keep it professional and keep it regulated.

See our regulation details here:
http://www.cilexregulation.org.uk

The effect of Brexit

The UK woke this morning to the news that it has been determined that Britain is to leave the European Union. Following this result, David Cameron announced he is to step down as Prime Minister by October 2016.

Financial markets reacted immediately to the news and the FTSE fell by 8.7% at open; with banking and house building shares being some of the hardest hit. The Pound has also slumped against international currencies to levels not seen since 1985.

The only thing that now seems certain, is that we cannot be sure of much in the short term. The process of Brexit is unlikely to be quick or easy, and the prolonged period of uncertainty that will accompany this may be difficult.

The Brexit result is likely to impact on the housing market as well as the wider economy.

However, the collapse of Sterling may drive property prices down in the short term meaning cheaper properties in both the capital and outer regions. We will have to wait and see. Since the announcement this morning, both equities and Sterling have regained some of their early morning losses, as the UK, and indeed the world come to terms with Brexit.

There is likely to be an emergency budget following the Brexit announcement and it remains to be seen whether legislation will be changed to increase taxation or other revenue streams. We highly recommend anyone with significant planning strategies in their Wills to revisit matters after the emergency budget to ensure their documentation is up to date.

The year of the Celebrity death

2016 has seen a spate of celebrity deaths, some shocking and unexpected. It is clear to see that the unexpected can happen to any of us. So what can we learn from these celebrities estate planning?

David Bowie was very clear about his funeral wishes and about which of his loved ones should benefit from his estate. There was no funeral held for him. Instead, his close family scattered his ashes following a Buddhist ceremony in Bali. He left an estate of £70m to his wife, Iman, and his two children, along with leaving £1.4m to his long-standing assistant and £700,000 to the nanny to his eldest child. Other’s also benefited from remaining assets under his Will.

Ronnie Corbett is said to have sold his £1.3m home in 2003 to prevent his children from facing a large inheritance tax bill. At death he lived in a bungalow worth £250,000. He is thought to have gifted his daughter’s cash from the sale of the property in the hope he would live for more than 7 years from doing so thereby making the gifts IHT free.

Prince died suddenly and it seems he did not leave a will setting out what he wanted to happen to his £200m estate. He isn’t the first celebrity to die without a will and undoubtedly won’t be the last. If state law where he lived ends up dictating who gets what from his estate, his siblings will most likely inherit everything as he died unmarried and without living parents or children. No one likes to think about dying young, but Prince tragic lay highlights the importance of making a will however old you are.

Everyone should draw up a will and it’s equally as important to review it regularly once you have one, to ensure it meets with your wishes and your circumstances. We offer free storage of your Will and also free registration on the Certainty National Will Database.

As a nation of animal lovers we must make provision for our pets if we die….

Pets usually have shorter life spans than their human caregivers, so many people plan for their animals passing before them. However, all too often it is the human who becomes ill or incapacitated or dies first.

To ensure your beloved pet will continue to receive care should something unexpected happen to you, you must plan ahead. In the confusion that accompanies a person’s unexpected illness, accident, or death, pets may be overlooked.

There are some simple precautions you can take to stop this from happening:

Find at least two responsible friends or relatives who agree to be temporary emergency caregivers in the event that something unexpected happens to you. Provide them with keys to your home; feeding and care instructions; the name of your vet; and information about the permanent care provisions you have made for your pet.

Make sure your neighbours, friends, and relatives know how many pets you have and the names and contact numbers of the individuals who have agreed to serve as emergency caregivers. Emergency caregivers should also know how to contact each other.

You could carry a wallet “alert card” that lists the names and phone numbers of your emergency pet caregivers and details of your pets

Draw up a Will with your legal advisor to provide for the care and ownership of your pet as well as the money necessary to care for him or her. You should authorise your executor to spend funds from your estate for the temporary care of your pets as well as for the costs of looking for a new home and transporting the animals to it. Make sure your legal advisor has details of your pets and your emergency caregivers. Update these details with your legal advisor if they change

Ask your legal advisor about granting in your Will broad discretion to your executor in making decisions about your animals and spending estate funds on their behalf as necessary

Remember, most humane organisations do not have the space or funds to care for your pet indefinitely and cannot guarantee that someone will adopt your animal, although some may be able to board and care for your pet temporarily until he or she can be transferred to his or her designated caregiver. There are a few organisations that specialise in the long term care of pets of deceased owners normally for a fee or donation, and you should carry out research as regards these if you wish to opt for this service. Remember to tell your legal advisor the details if you do.