Wills, Probate, Care of the Elderly

Why make a will?
Between 50% and 65% of people in England and Wales die without any Will or with a faulty will (usually home made). As a result they leave their loved ones with what may be unnecessary, complicated and expensive problems, at the time when they are least able to deal with them.

Worse, if you die without a Will, the law will decide who will get your property. This often means that the people who you wish to benefit will not receive what you would like them to get. A wife or husband does not always inherit everything. Under the current law if you are not married but in a long term relationship your partner will not be entitled to anything. In some cases, all you own goes to the Government, or to distant relatives you may never have heard of.

Making a Will is a simple process for most of us. Besides ensuring that the people (or charities) you wish to benefit will do so, you can:-

Appoint an Executor who deals with all the paperwork on your family’s behalf.

Create trusts to hold money safely for your children until they are at an age when you want them to inherit.

Say who you want to look after your children should they be left without a parent.

Give particular items (such as jewellery) to individuals.

Make specific gifts of money to people or organisations.

Arrange for persons to be able to live in your house, and avoid possible homelessness of a relative or dependant after you have died.

Give your business to the persons you want.

Leave to people with a mental or physical disability in a way which will not affect any means tested benefits that they may receive.

In many cases, reduce or avoid tax.

Prevent your property from going to persons you would not like it to.

Why Use a Solicitor?
Even the simplest Will has to comply with legal formalities and therefore to ensure that it is correct you should make it through a Solicitor. A Solicitor can put into precise legal language your wishes so there can be no doubt as to what you mean.

We sometimes see Wills which are ambiguous, or produce results by their wording that we believe that the persons who made them would not have wanted.

We also see Wills which are not properly executed (although no doubt the persons who made them thought they were) and therefore have no legal validity. A great majority of these Wills are either home-made ones or ones that people have tried to make themselves using a commercial form.

Written instructions are no substitute for personal professional advice.

Making a Will with Mckeag & Co
Conrad Cairns, Head of our Wills and Probate department is a specialist in this field and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners since 1995.

We draft wills for clients all over the UK. We can discuss your needs with you over the telephone, in person at our offices or, if you live locally, at your home if necessary. We can also visit people in hospital if required.

Once you have told us what you want to do we will send a draft Will for you to look at. When you are completely satisfied that you will reflects your wishes we will prepare a final document for you to execute.

If you do not live locally we will give you instructions on how to execute your will.

Naturally, if you are living in or visiting the North East, we will be happy to see you in person at our office at 1/3 Lansdowne Terrace, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE3 1HN.

In urgent cases we are often able to provide same day service.

There has been a lot of publicity recently about the risk that if you are a house owner and you have to go into a residential or nursing home then you may be forced to sell your house to pay the home fees.

Since your assets include any savings, any Bank or Building Society accounts, National Savings, Premium Bonds, stock and shares, buildings and land, many elderly people are worried that they will be liable for hefty care bills, and that they may have to sell their family home just to cover the cost, depriving their children of the nest egg they have spent years building up.

What Can I Do?
There are sometimes ways of protecting your possessions to pass them to your children after you die, but simply giving your house or other assets to your children is no guarantee that they will be protected from being used to pay your care home fees.

We provide advice and practical help on dealing with these sorts of situations but the steps we recommend depend on your own circumstances. We would discuss your case with you, and then say what would be the best option. It is a good idea to contact us as soon as possible so we can plan ahead.

Personal representatives are the people named in the Will to act as the Executors, or the “next of kin” of somebody who has left no Will. Being a personal representative has heavy responsibilities and can be legally difficult. This is quite apart from the fact that after the loss of someone close to you, dealing with these matters may prove personally distressing.

With this in mind we can relieve you of the burden of “getting probate” to help you to ensure that the wishes of the deceased person are followed. We can give advice on all aspects of winding up a deceased person’s estate, including selling the house or transferring it to the persons entitled.

Dealing with a deceased person’s tax can be complicated and is often a specialist’s job. We can advise on the payment of Inheritance Tax, and deal with the Income Tax affairs of a person both before death and in the period of the administration of the estate.

We can offer professional advice to personal representatives so that they can be sure that they comply with their duty to all the people mentioned in the Will.

It is sometimes possible to save a considerable amount of Inheritance Tax after a person has died by means of changing the effect of the Will or the intestacy. This needs specialist advice which we are happy to provide.

Have you considered who would manage your affairs if you became physically or mentally incapable of handling things yourself?

Many clients have had the foresight and wisdom to ask us, as Solicitors, to prepare a Lasting Power of Attorney in order to minimise the problems should the situation arise.

It is a fairly simple document for which we charge very reasonable fees and with it you can be sure that the person or persons you want and trust will manage your affairs should you be unable to do so yourself, for whatever reason.

Such a document can save a lot of trouble and expense as without it, it may be difficult for your relatives to handle your affairs for you.

Should you know somebody who has become mentally incapable, say because of old age, you may yourself have to handle their affairs. If they have not made a Lasting Power of Attorney we can advise on the alternative, a Deputyship Order with the Court of Protection which will allow you to manage your friend or relative’s affairs for their own good. We give practical help in this sometimes complex area of law.

A number of our clients have come to us to ask whether they have a right to inherit when a relative has died, even though they have not been mentioned in that person’s Will (or he or she has not left a Will). We can help in several ways. We can advise whether the Will has been properly made and if it is not, say whether you might be able to challenge it on those grounds.

Certain relatives or people in specific relationships with the person who has died can claim part of that person’s estate if it is reasonable for them to do so in the circumstances. We can advise on your rights and how strong your case is.

If appropriate our litigation department will handle your case for you if you have been unfairly excluded from somebody’s estate.