Services
Wills
A Will is a legal document in which you arrange how your property will be distributed, and who will deal with your estate (your executors), on your death. Importantly, wills enable you to pass on your assets in a tax efficient way. You would decide who is the successor of your business and plan well in advance for that succession to evolve efficiently.
Estate Planning
Estate planning involves maximizing your wealth to then passing it on efficiently in a way that achieves your aims, which would normally include the provision of financial security for yourself and your family and mitigating tax. The scope of options available to you are primarily dependant on your circumstances including the value and type of assets included in your estate, your civil status and your family unit.
Probate and Estate Administration
This process is concerned with applying for a Grant of Probate to enable to administer the deceased's estate, pay debts and expenses and distribute the assets to the beneficiaries. Inheritance tax, if due, is payable prior to obtaining the Grant.
Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare
You may encounter situations when planning and dealing with your personal welfare and health matters will be difficult if you are unable to make decisions due to lack of mental capacity. People of any age can lose their mental capacity -temporarily or permanently- because of an accident or illness for instance, and by making a Lasting Power of Attorney you ensure that the person you choose (your attorney) will be helping you if and when required. Having appointed an attorney under a Lasting Power of Attorney will also prevent potential family disputes as to whom should deal with your health affairs and what decisions shall be made if you lack mental capacity.
Lasting Power of Attorney for Property and Financial Affairs
You may encounter situations when planning and dealing with your financial affairs will be difficult if you are unable to make decisions due to loss of mental capacity. People of any age can lose their mental capacity -temporarily or permanently- because of an accident or illness for instance, and by making a Lasting Power of Attorney you ensure that the person you choose (your attorney) will be helping you if and when required. Having appointed an attorney under a Lasting Power of Attorney will also prevent potential family disputes as to whom should deal with your financial affairs and property and what decisions shall be made if you lack mental capacity.
Business Lasting Power of Attorney
A Business Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document to appoint a business attorney if you are you a sole trader, in a business partnership or a company director.
Deputyship/Court of Protection
If a close family member has lost their mental capacity and they have not appointed an attorney under a lasting power of attorney, then a close relative of such person can make an application to the Court of Protection to be appointed that person’s deputy. A deputy thus appointed can deal with that person’s financial affairs and/or health and welfare matters. Separate applications have to be made to be appointed as a personal welfare deputy and as a financial affairs and property deputy and they each attract a court fee. There is also a fee if there is a court hearing
Pre-paid Funeral Plans
Pre-paid Funeral Plans not only make financial sense they relieve your grieved family from unnecessary stress.
Trusts
Trusts are legal arrangements you can be set up during your lifetime – sometimes referred to as Settlements- or in your Will – normally called Will Trusts. Instead of making outright gifts a settlor (during their lifetime) or testator (trust is created in their Will and is constituted on the testator's death) would create a trust to transfer assets to their trustees who will manage the trust property for the beneficiaries of the trust.