We would advise that every person makes a Will during their lifetime. It give you the opportunity to state who you would like to benefit from your estate when you have passed away. You can also appoint executors, guardians and include your funeral wishes.

If you die without a valid Will, you will have died “intestate”. Legislation will then stipulate who takes receipt of your estate. This could result in your spouse, partner or children losing out, and your estate instead passing to people that you would not have chosen.

By making a Will, you are ensuring that your family will be taken care of and making the administration process much simpler.

We charge £139 to write a Will although we offer many employers both public & private a free Will writing service as part of their staff benefits. We also run a referral scheme for our existing clients to extend our free Will writing service to their friends and family. This has been a great benefit to both us and them because many of our clients ask us to help them in other ways.

Two in every three people will lose their mental capacity at some point. For many, this is the result of an illness such as a stroke, a coma, Alzheimer’s or dementia. Capacity can be lost through an accident too.

If you were to lose your mental capacity, and you do not have a valid Lasting Power of Attorney in place, things can become very difficult. In such circumstances, your loved ones would have to apply to become your “Deputy” through the Court of Protection. Deputyship can be a time consuming and costly court process; often entering into thousands of pounds.

Also, whilst a deputyship application is pending, the court will freeze all of your accounts and assets (including joint assets). In many cases, these assets can be frozen for several months.

“Mirrored” Wills are commonly made by unmarried or married couples. Each person has their own document, but the wishes contained within them will be pretty much identical. For example, a “mirrored” Will may say that a couple want to leave everything to each other first, but then when both of them have passed away, the estate should pass to their children.

This is a term used to describe what assets of yours are left after any gifts, debts, tax funeral costs and other testamentary expenses have been paid.

The remainder of your assets are then distributed to your beneficiaries. This could include: your bank accounts, property and personal possessions.

Your residuary estate does not include things such as jointly owned property or bank accounts. It would also not include pensions or life insurance policies that have been written into trust – you would normally have nominated someone to receive these when you set them up.

You have to be at least 18 years of age to receive any inheritance that you may have been left. Sometimes clients feel that 18 years of age is still too young, and will instead opt for 21 or 25. Where a person is under the age of 18 (or whatever age you have specified), their inheritance would be looked after for them by trustees. The trustees would have the discretion to distribute money to them as and when they see fit. Once the child has attained the age of 18 or older, they will then become responsible for their inheritance and make all the decisions for themselves.

An Executor is someone who deals with the administration of your estate. You will appoint these people in your Will, and they are most likely to be close relatives or friends. For more complicated estates, it is not uncommon for someone to appoint a professional to act as their Executor.

An Executor is responsible for the following:

• Finding your Will;
• Locating and valuing your assets;
• Paying off any debts that there may be at that time;
• Distributing the remainder of your assets (your residuary estate) to your beneficiaries.

A trustee is someone who looks after your property until a given time in the future. For example, where money has been left to a child, and they are unable to inherit until they attain a certain age.

Trustees must act with honesty, and integrity. Their responsibilities include: taking control of trust property, to safeguard such property and to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries.

A guardian is someone that you appoint to look after your child/children if something happens to you whilst they are under the age of 18.

If you pass away leaving young children, and you have not appointed a guardian, it will then become the role of the courts to find someone suitable to care for them. This could mean that someone other than who you would like is appointed to look after them.

An Attorney is a person that you appoint to make decisions on your behalf if you are ill or lose capacity. As you are giving the authority to your attorneys to act, the courts do not need to be involved. Attorneys must act in your best interests whilst dealing with the things that you would normally have dealt with yourself had you not lost capacity.

Attorneys must:

• act in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005’s principles;
• have regard to the guidance in the Code of Practice;
• act only within the scope of the authority given;
• carry out instructions as required by the LPA;
• to keep records of decisions and transactions made;
• not delegate powers unless authorised to do so.

The role of an attorney is hugely important. A great deal of care and consideration should be taken when deciding who to appoint in this role

A trust is a way of managing assets (money, investments, land or buildings) for people. There are different types of trusts and they are all taxed differently.

The main reasons trusts are set up are:

• to control and protect family assets
• when someone’s too young to handle their affairs
• when someone cannot handle their affairs because they’re incapacitated
• to pass on assets while you’re still alive
• to pass on assets when you die (a ‘will trust’)