Will Writing

Your consultant provides an expert, confidential, friendly and affordable will writing service in your home at a time that is convenient for you.

Single Will £196. Joint Mirror Wills £276

Willsafe

Even once your Will has been professionally written it is of no value if it cannot be found. By law the Will is deemed not to exist if it cannot be found.

One option is to keep you Will at home but can you be sure it is safe from fire, flood, theft or tampering? A spilt cup of tea or a child's creative artwork with a crayon could be considered tampering which would invalidate the Will.

Some institutions such as banks offer storage facilities but this can be expensive especially when you or your executor need to access the Will.

In response to our customers need's we have developed an inflation proof complete Will storage service called Willsafe. Some of the Willsafe benefits:

• A single one-off payment including free updates. No hidden extras.
• Safe storage. Your Will is stored in our highly secure, fire-proof safes.
• We check that your Will is correctly signed and witnessed before storage.
• We provide you a duplicate Will to keep at home so you can conveniently review it at any time.
• You may access your Will at any time without charge.
• We advise your executors of their appointment and how to retrieve your Will.
• We offer your executors free advice and a booklet entitled "What to do when someone dies."

Willsafe includes Single Will, Life Time Storage (no annual fees), Unlimited Updates (any changes in the Will), Estate Assistance (help for executors on Death).

Willsafe for Joint Mirror Wills, Life Time Storage (no annual fees), Unlimited Updates (any changes in the Will), Estate Assistance (help for executors on Death).

Whether we are writing your Will for you or you already have a Will, Willsafe offers a complete solution to storage for ultimate peace of mind. Ask your consultant or visit our contact page to obtain full details.

Lasting Power of Attorney

A power of attorney provides a means for you to authorise another person to act on your behalf.

An ordinary power of attorney, granted under the Trustee Act 1925 or under the Powers of Attorney Act 1971, ceases to have effect when the donor of the power loses his mental capacity. This means that the attorney appointed by the power is no longer able to act at just the moment when the power is most needed.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a new statutory form of power of attorney created by the Mental Capacity Act. Anyone who has capacity to do so may choose a person (an Attorney) to take decisions on their behalf if they subsequently lose capacity.

Although the LPA commenced from October 1st 2007, all existing Enduring Powers of Attorney are still valid.

If you have any further questions or you wish to put an LPA in place please ask your consultant or visit our contact page to obtain further details.

Inheritance Tax

Inheritance tax was introduced on March 18th 1986, prior to this date other estate taxes applied, Capital Transfer Tax and Estate Duty. Where a surviving spouse dies on or after October 9th 2007 and their spouse died before the introduction of the current inheritance tax provisions, a claim may still be made for the nil-rate band of the surviving spouse to be increased by reference to unused allowances on their spouse.

The new rules announced on October 9th 2007 will not change the effect of existing Wills. So people who have, for example, a nil-rate band trust written into their Will do not have to take any action as a result of this measure. But if someone wants to change their Will to take account of the new rules, that change can usually be made by a Codicil, rather than having to rewrite the Will.

Example calculation:

Mr Smith dies on April 16th 2007 with an estate value of £410,000. His wife is the sole beneficiary. Mrs Smith then dies on August 12th 2009 and leaves an estate valued at £610,000. This is then shared equally between her two children. When Mrs Smith dies the nil-rate band is £325,000. As 100% of Mr Smith's nil-rate band was unused, the nil-rate band on Mrs Smith's death is doubled to £650,000. As Mrs Smith's estate value is £610,000 there is no Inheritance Tax to pay on her death.

If the figures above are changed then there will be a different outcome on IHT owed e.g.

Mr Smith's £410,000 to Wife, Mrs Smith's £670,000 to her two children, n.r.b £325,000 X 2 = £650,000, estate value £670,000, IHT owed £20,000.

Ask your consultant or visit our contact page to obtain further details of this service.

Pre-paid Funeral Plans

When we look to the future, it is often to prepare for uncertainty. But there is one certainty that we all know and understand, and come to accept as we grow older.

Our Funeral Pre-Payment Plan has been designed with two concerns in mind - the financial and the practical. It is a simple way of providing for the cost of your funeral in advance, and at the same time making sure that your specific wishes are observed.

If you choose one of our three Set Cremation Plans, you will have the assurance that your relatives will never have to worry about inflation. For yourself, peace of mind that your funeral has been paid for and the reassurance that your wishes will be observed. The result is freedom from worry and stress for all concerned, now and in the future.

Ask your consultant or visit our contact page to obtain further details.

Severance of Tenancy

Most house 'co-owners' own their home as 'joint tenants'. This means that if one joint owner dies the survivor would own the total value outright irrespective of what might be written in a Will.

There is an alternative method of ownership known as 'tenancy in common'. This means that each of the 'co-owners' owns a share of the property and can deal with it as they wish. To make this change from joint tenants there needs to be a Severance of Tenancy agreement between the owners that is recorded at the Land Registry.

A Severance of Tenancy agreement allows a co-owner of a property to dispose of their interest in the property as they see fit through their Will. This can be used as part of an effective inheritance tax avoidance strategy. Ask your consultant or visit our contact page to obtain further details of this service.