Wills / Enduring Powers of Attorney
Wills
Making your Will means that you have control over how your property and assets are divided after your death.
When you visit us to discuss the details of your Will, you should bring a note of your assets. A very good idea is to keep a file in a safe place at home with a note of the accounts you hold in banks and financial institutions, any insurance policies you have, the address of properties held in either your sole name or held jointly with another, your prize bonds, shares certificates, together with a note of any debt that might be due to you and a copy of your birth certificate and PPS number.
You need to think about who you would like to handle your affairs after your death. The person(s) whose job it is to implement your will are called your executors. We would always advise that you appoint two.
If you have children under the age of eighteen then you will be appointing trustees and guardians for them. Ideally your executors will be the people who will fulfil all these roles. These will be the people who look after your assets for the benefit of your children, if you both have died, until they are old enough. They will generally be appointed the guardians, the legal parents of your children.
They may or may not be the people who actually look after your children and very often won’t. While you might express a wish in your will as to who should look after your children, this is best done informally. Circumstances may change over time and someone named in your will may be very unsuitable at a later stage.
We only take instructions from you regarding your Will. Anybody who accompanies you to our office will generally be asked to leave you to discuss your affairs privately together, so that we can be satisfied that no pressure or influence is being exerted on you.
If you have a particular wish regarding your funeral arrangements or your place of burial then note this in your file also. While you will more than likely have put these specific instructions into your Will (if you have made one), it can happen that you are buried before we are informed of your death, so your specific wishes will have been overlooked unless you have made them known to a member of the family.
Many people do not realise that if you’re not married to your partner, (or have not formed a Civil Partnership) and you die before making a Will, your partner will not automatically inherit anything from you. It doesn’t matter how long you have been together. The law dictates that everything will go to your nearest blood relative. You can see therefore why it is so important for you to make a Will. In these cases, a partner would have to apply to the Court for a share in your estate.
Depending on the extent of your assets the issue of tax may be relevant and you will be advised about the reliefs that are legally available to reduce the burden of tax if possible, for family members.
You can of course change your Will at any time and the only relevant Will is the latest dated one that has been signed and witnessed in the correct manner. Your circumstances will change particularly if you have a made a Will in early life, so do remember to review it on an ongoing basis.
Enduring Powers of Attorney
An Enduring Power of Attorney appoints someone to act on your behalf if you become unable to look after your affairs through illness. This avoids the legal stalemate that could occur whereby you would have to be made a Ward of Court. We recommend clients put these in place when making wills to provide for illness or accidents in the future.
The document can restrict the actions that the Attorney can take on your behalf.
The document is not effective until it is registered in Court and this can only happen if a doctor certifies that you are unable to look after your affairs.
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