It is often assumed that family members or perhaps godparents will automatically look after your children should both Mum and Dad pass away.

This is wrong. You must appoint legal guardians in your Will to give them the legal right to look after your children. Without this, the court will step in and decide.

If you have just started a family or have older children who are still under the age of 18 it is highly recommended that you make a Will and appoint guardians so that you can have peace of mind that your children will be with the people you want them to be cared by.

Around £3 billion a year is received by charities through people leaving legacies in Wills. Leaving monies to charities is a great way to give back and support many institutions doing extraordinary things for people, animals and worthy causes. If legacies were not left by generous people in their Wills, many charities simply could not function and provide the valuable services they do.

Notwithstanding this but there can be huge tax incentives to leave charities a legacy. If more than 10% of your estate is gifted to charity and your estate is subject to inheritance tax, then the tax rate applied is reduced from 40% to 36%.

Finally, it is worth noting that if you die without a Will and there are no relatives, your estate with pass to the Crown. It is therefore imperative to make a Will and if you do not know who to leave your estate to, then name a charity so that you have peace of mind your estate will be put to good causes.

Getting married is one of the most exciting times of your life.

But did you know marriage revokes a Will?

This means that any Will you may have made before marriage becomes no longer valid. In addition, once you are married and without a valid Will, should you die, your spouse will only receive the first £275,000 of your estate, personal chattels and half the remainder of the estate and then any children you may have inherit the other half remaining in your estate.

As a result, upon marriage, it is recommended that you and your new spouse make a Will. You will be able to pass your entire to estate to each other and gain tax advantages through the spousal exemption.

It is also worth noting that if you are engaged, special wording can be applied to a Will should you want to make a Will before marriage to ensure the Will is not revoked upon marriage. Please get in touch to discuss this further.

Going forward all trusts whether created by Will or in your lifetime have to be registered on the trust registration service.

Previously trusts were predominantly registered whereby there would be annual trust returns due to tax liabilities.

Notwithstanding this, it is backdated too. This means that if you created a trust before this year, they too need registering with the trust registration service.

The only exceptions are charitable trusts, child trust funds, bereaved minors trust and disabled persons trust where they are the sole beneficiary.

If you have created a trust or you have just lost someone and not sure if there Will has created a registrable trust, please get in touch.

In addition, if you need help with registering a trust, we are here to help guide you through that process.

Trusts must have three things:

1. Certainty of intention
2. Certainty of objects
3. Certainty of subject matter

But what does this mean?

This means that much like a triangle, there are three points to a trust. Firstly there must be an intention to have a trust.

Secondly, certainty on who is to benefit.

Thirdly, certainty of what assets are going into the trust.

Trustees are appointed to be the legal persons in charge of the trust. They will administer the income and capital and take legal ownership of all trust assets.

Trustees in a discretionary trust, will have discretion on which beneficiaries you have named in the trust will benefit from income and capital of trust assets.

Trusts are used to reduce tax liabilities, protect vulnerable beneficiaries, reduce how much you have to pay for care home fees and protect business assets.

This question is often the first that will cross any executor’s mind. The answer is that it depends on the assets in the estate.

The following are circumstances where probate is unlikely to be required.

Firstly, joint assets. Where assets are held jointly such as a joint bank account, they automatically transfer to the fellow joint owner (called survivorship) negating the need for a Grant. There are exceptions to this for example in small cases where the property is held as ‘tenants in common’.

Secondly, assets held in trust. Where a Deceased benefitted from assets held in trust during their lifetime and they did not have any legal ownership to those assets then a Grant is unlikely to be required.

Thirdly, assets of low value. Banks will always release cash in bank accounts if the value is below £5,000. However, more and more common is that banks will also close accounts where less than £25,000 is held. Each bank has its own rules for this, so it is case dependant. 

Fourthly, personal chattels. You do not need a Grant to distribute a Deceased’s personal items such as sentimental jewellery if they held a Will. This is because an executor’s authority to deal with those assets derives from the Will. A Grant for this would be required however if they died intestate i.e. with no Will.

Finally, pensions and life policies written into trust. These assets do not form part of the Deceased’s estate for inheritance tax purposes and payment of them is at the discretion of the trustees. A grant is therefore not required provided that the Deceased has nominated beneficiaries for them in their lifetime. 

In summary, there are lots of situations where a Grant may not be required. If you are an executor or administrator of an estate and are unsure, please do make contact so we can advise you accordingly. 

It is estimated that more than half of the UK know someone who has dementia. It is also often assumed that dementia is only for the elderly, however 5% in the UK are under the age of 65 and this is set to rise over the next decade.

It is also often assumed that a next of kin or a loved one would always be able to help deal with the affairs of someone living with dementia.

However, this is not the case. 

It is also not limited to dementia and losing capacity. Even if for a short period of time you were unable to look after your own affairs whether that is through a physical injury or a temporary hospital stay, your loved ones would be unable to access your bank account, settle liabilities or make decisions about your health and well-being. 

It is therefore vital to make both property & financial and health and welfare lasting powers of attorney. It gives you control now to decide who you would want to look after your affairs if you were unable to do so yourself. 

Without this in place, your loved ones may have to apply to the court of protection for a deputyship order whereby the court would decide instead who looks after you. This is not only timely and expensive but takes away your autonomy to decide who that would be. 

Should you wish to find out more about Lasting Powers of Attorney, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Here are our 5 top reasons to make a Will:

1. To appoint executors to take care of the administration of your estate

2. To ensure if you are unmarried that your Partner is provided for

3. To appoint Guardians to look after your children

4. To make gifts to friends and/or charities

5. To protect assets and mitigate and potential inheritance tax liability

No matter what age, everybody should have a Will. If you have just bought a property, got married, started a family or your children are now all grown up – these are all prompts to start planning for the future.

Here at Welland Valley Legal we will take time to go over your affairs and ensure that you have a Will that complies with your wishes and is best for your circumstance. Give us a call today to arrange your appointment.

We are very excited to announce that Welland Valley Legal are supporting free Wills month this year.

The campaign is open to anybody aged 55 and over and is designed to encourage people to leave a gift in their Will to charities (though there isn’t an obligation to do so).

We will be offering 25 slots to over 55s for a free Will.

The free Wills are basic Wills without any trust provisions. If, however, your circumstance requires a more complex Will, you will get between £50-£100 discount on the price of what that kind of Will would be.

It is an excellent opportunity if you fit the criteria to get your Wills done for FREE and by a qualified solicitor. In addition, you will be helping to support a number of charities who rely so heavily on legacies in Wills.