Blog

A Guide To Deceased Estates Notices

If you are an executor or administrator of a Will, you are responsible for dealing with any claims against the estate.  After you receive a grant of probate, Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 recommends that you place something called a “deceased estates notice” in the UK’s Official Public Record, The Gazette, as well as a local newspaper, to find creditors who may be owed money by the estate.

How will the Stamp Duty changes affect you?

If you're buying a house at the moment the SDLT changes may affect how much you pay.

Looking after a property as an Executor

A property can often be the most valuable asset in an estate.  Managing that property can be a concern for the person dealing with the administration of the estate.  

As an executor you might ask whether you have a duty to make improvements to the property to help it sell faster, or for a better price.  You may even feel under pressure from the beneficiaries to do so.

Lasting Powers of Attorney – More important than ever

We know we have told you before how important Lasting Powers of Attorney are, but we won’t apologise for repeating ourselves.  Putting Lasting Powers of Attorney in place is the only way to ensure that you can appoint the people that you trust to look after you and your finances, if you aren’t able to make decisions for yourself.

We understand that the cost of putting LPAs in place may be a barrier to setting them up at the moment so we’ve reviewed our charges to try to help.

Summer Holiday Poster Competition

We enjoyed our Easter Egg colouring competition this year so much that we’ve decided to run a summer holiday drawing competition too!

We’d like your kids to make us a poster showing their dream holiday! 

When should we start planning for our later years?

With one in six people in the UK being 65 or over, and with more people now living in to their 90s, the point at which we start to think of ourselves as old has moved considerably even from a generation ago.  

This means we tend to feel like we have much more time to plan for our old age, such as putting Wills in place and set up Lasting Powers of Attorney.

However, we think it's never to early to start planning for the future.

Inheritance Tax Planning: No Longer the Preserve of the Super Rich

Inheritance Tax is a tax payable from your estate after your death.  It is currently charged at 40% on any amount in your estate over £325,000, so for every £100 in your estate over that amount HMRC could receive £40 of it.

We are able to offer advice and guidance on how you can reduce the amount of tax payable.  In some cases, with careful planning, it is possible to reduce the tax payable down to zero.

Changing Your Name

Lots of people go by a name that is different to the one on their birth certificate.  This may be a small change such as: a different spelling of a forename or surname, adding in a hyphen to create a double barrelled surname, or something more obvious like the long standing use of a nickname which has just become the norm.  

Others decide that they have had enough of their current name and want a change, or want to add a name to that which they already have.  A growing trend we have seen in recent years is for couples who are marrying to have a double barrelled surname, combining both their names and so they change their names before the wedding or after.

Financial Consent Orders on Divorce

When couples divorce, it is common for them to reach an agreement between themselves as to how they want to divide their property and finances.  There is no legal requirement for that agreement to be recorded and the couple are often just pleased to reach the end of the process as amicably and easily as possible.  However, there is the option to formalise that agreement by asking the court to make a financial consent order, usually on a “clean break basis”.  There is a very good reason to consider doing this.