In this article we look at the self care that comes from having one’s personal finances in order, especially in the case of wills and probate.
There are lots of legal myths around which crop up from time to time, here…
This is a question which I am often asked by family members, friends and random…
This article highlight some of the main difficulties we have seen come to light in homemade, or online Wills.
Imagine this situation – a parent has written a Will leaving their estate to their 2 children in equal shares. Then after doing this, they make a gift of a substantial sum of money to the younger sibling to help them buy a house. If the parent then dies without making a similar gift to the older child, do we end up with an imbalance in the estate – would/should the older sibling expect to receive more from the estate to balance up the lifetime gift to their sibling? This is where the double portions rule is likely to be effective.
Imagine this situation – a parent has written a Will leaving their estate to their 2 children in equal shares. Then after doing this, they make a gift of a substantial sum of money to the younger sibling to help them buy a house. If the parent then dies without making a similar gift to the older child, do we end up with an imbalance in the estate – would/should the older sibling expect to receive more from the estate to balance up the lifetime gift to their sibling? This is where the double portions rule is likely to be effective.
It is a number that is at an all-time high. More than 31 million people in the UK now do not have a Will, a number that has been rising over the last decade. But if you fail to make a Will and keep it updated, all your legacy will be is stress and worry for your loved ones, and at a time they are grieving and least able to cope with it.
Dying intestate – without a Will – also means that your belongings may not be dealt with in a way that you would want.
As this area of law often sees people using legal services during an emotional time in their lives (being terminally ill or having lost a loved one for example) the importance of getting things right, and of being sensitive to the circumstances could not be higher for service providers.
Hiring corporate solicitors is often an overlooked priority on the never-ending, sleep depriving to-do list of a small business owner.
When time and money are the driver of everything that you do, it’s usually the money making activities that take precedence over everything else. It’s easy to feel that because your business is small you can’t run into big legal problems. Sadly, that is not the case.
A couple of weeks ago, our attention was drawn to a survey conducted by Exizent. The survey found that 23% of people die without a Will and most do not leave their affairs in order; 71% of solicitors said that at least half of their clients died without putting their affairs in order; and 95% of probate professionals rely either entirely or somewhat on information from their clients to verify assets and liabilities.