Regularly, we meet clients who have a long list of gifts (for long distant relatives) that they haven’t really given enough thought about.

‘What should I do?’ is the usual ask.

They don’t mean the ten thousand pounds or euros sat in a building society account (do you remember building societies?). They don’t mean their Porche or Jaguar. They mean their little tea pot set; their ‘I went to the end of Southend Pier’ memento.

There are several options.

1. List every single item in your will with who it’s going to and their address and any relationship, and if just a friend. This may extend your will by a few pages and give the executors a nightmare of a job, but if it’s your wish, then go ahead.
2. You can use a list clause; this means that we put a clause in your will that refers to a ‘list’. This is a clause that says that you’ve noted, on a separate piece of paper (or several pages) the items in question; who they’re going to, their addresses and relationships (if any). This means that as you add or break or lose pieces you can just simply update your list. This means you don’t have to update your will, having it signed and witnessed every time you want to make such a small change. You’ll need to sign and date your list.
3. You could put a sticker on the bottom of the pieces of treasure saying who it’s going to and then let your executors know what’s to happen.

While the latter may not be ‘legally binding’ it is often used. LSUK prefer that you use one of the first two methods so the law is behind you and acts for you. I believe the record is for 148 separate items added to the will in different legacies. You may know more?

One of the most frequent comments made by distant (and sometime much closer) relatives after the deceased has been buried or cremated, often occurs back at the funeral gathering, often at the deceased’s home, is – ‘she said she was going to leave me her milk jug, it’s worth quite a lot you know’. What that means is it’s probably Royal Doulton at £10 a time rather than a Tesco’s special at 85p.

It’s not the value that counts in financial terms, but what it means to the people involved. It’s nice to be able to look at, to have and to hold a treasured memory of the person long gone.

I have a small vase for that very purpose; it’s a treasure to me. It reminds me not just of the past, but of the person. It’ll never reach eBay.

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The average pay rise in the UK has now fallen to less than the rate of inflation. Wage increases are running at 3.2% while the consumer prices index has gone up by 3.3%, the highest rise since 1992. The figure is expected to go upwards and reach over 4% before the end of the year. An employee on the average income of £23,750, a 3.2% pay rise means take-home pay increasing by £500 a year. This is only half the £1,000 extra which a representative family faces on their annual demand for payment for food and drink only.

For all those of us in the real world we know that fixed rate mortgages and food bills, let alone petrol and diesel, have risen at figures that must be over the 10% mark; we know because we pay these bills every week!

So how can you plan ahead to try and beat inflation?

One way is to plan for and pay for your funeral now. ‘What?’ you say and ‘How does that save me money?’

Funeral costs are increasing at over 10% per annum, so unless your savings are doing better then the money would be better off in a funeral plan which will effectively reduce your costs in the long term. Essentially, your estate will be better off having purchased a pre-paid funeral plan.

When you pay for a funeral now, you won’t have to pay more later even if the cost increases, through careful management of your money and contracts with funeral directors that guarantee them future business!

‘Is that the only benefit’ you could also ask?

No, is the easy answer; pre-arranging your funeral in advance means you don’t have to leave your family being sold or miss sold by a funeral director because you say ‘yes’ to everything at your time of grief. Do you really want that top line coffin? Do you really want four limousines to follow your loved one to the crematorium? Are you likely to be in the right frame of mind to make sensible decisions then – even if you know what your dearly departed wanted? Did they want a cremation or a burial? Did they want flowers or donations to a favoured charity? Do they want hymns or popular Beatles songs? A Day In The Life? Sgt Pepper?

Take away the stress for your loved ones and organize your funeral today and benefit by saving money against inflation while you’re there!

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Businessman Jimmy Swanston assured his younger lover that she would be looked after, after he died, so his mistress knew something was wrong when his will provided her with nothing, when he died.

The man’s son is now in court accused of forging (he has denied this) his late father’s will and depriving Miss Powell of any money from the estate.

Miss Powell, 35 years younger than her former lover, found out that he was worth £26 million, during the start of the court drama. When Mr Swanston died at age 89, she wasn’t even mentioned in the will.

She claims that after she contacted solicitors, it was found that the witness signatures had been faked. Mr Swanston’s son, aged 55, is nominated as the executor of the will. One name is spelt incorrectly and an address is completely made up.

A witness has claimed that the testator (the deceased) wasn’t present when he signed the will.

The co-executor of the will, Derek Smith, an accountant, said the estate was valued nearer to £2.5 million.

This trial continues, but whatever the outcome, it does show that getting your will correctly signed and witnessed is extremely important. If it isn’t, the will, will almost certainly become invalid.

At LSUK, our legal services consultants will always attend every will signing to ensure that no wrong doing or accidental mistake prevents the will from becoming valid.

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Lasting Power of Attorney (England & Wales)
Continuing & Welfare Power of Attorney (Scotland):

Who will manage your affairs should you become incapable due to an accident, stroke, dementia or Alzheimer’s? Who will sign cheques, documents and withdraw money from your account to pay the bills?

Unless you have a Power of Attorney in place you may end up with your partner going to court for permission to handle your affairs and the extra associated costs. All of these problems can be resolved through putting a Power of Attorney in place now.

Although an unpleasant thought, many people lose the ability to handle their own affairs during their lifetime. However, by signing a Power of Attorney you can ensure that if this should ever happen, someone you have chosen and trust will look after your affairs.

For whatever reason, it is often thought that your spouse or next of kin can handle matters and sign documents etc. on your behalf as a matter of course; this is not the case. Should you become incapacitated without a Power of Attorney in place, appointing someone to handle your affairs, which must be applied for through the courts, can become a long drawn out and very expensive matter to deal with.

A Power of Attorney document allows the client to give authority to someone they trust to handle their affairs and their financial or welfare requirements. The attorney can be your spouse, a son, a daughter, a friend or anyone you trust.

Your attorney can sign documents on your behalf, withdraw money to pay your accounts, arrange care and do the things that you would normally handle yourself, were you fit to do so.

To put a Power of Attorney in place a person must be of sound mind at the time of signing (a Doctor’s signature is required in Scotland only, stating that the person is compos mentis at the time of signing the document).

Should a person become incapacitated but later recover then that person would simply resume handling their own affairs, signing documents, withdrawing money etc.

Preparing for the future, whatever it may hold, is one of the most thoughtful things you can do. A Power of Attorney may save your family and friends both heartache and unnecessary expense and is therefore an extremely important document to have.

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Released recently, Life Trust Foundation research shows that women aged 55 now have a 25% chance of living until they are 95. That’s one in four will go all the way to 95.

It also shows that most of them will live unaccompanied or in care homes. Most of them will travel lonely from life into death at that age.

Figures show that over 300,000 women are currently over 90 in the UK. This figure is expected to grow to 600,000 in the next 30 years.

People at that age will have lived though the second world war and know all about the general strike. They’ll know all about Queen Elizabeth’s reign.

The statistics should send a bleak caution to people who are not prepared to deal with their longer lives.

Those in the finance world say that many will face a difficult future because of a lack of actual funds due to the rising cost of living, care homes and nursing care. Many will have to sell their home and spend their savings just to pay for these ‘treats’.

Planning these latter years will be imperative. Updating your will to account for what you have will be essential. Deciding what you can give away and when becomes more troublesome.

After all, your children may be in their early 70’s.

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There can’t be many who don’t know the phrase ‘Beam me up, Scotty.’ The actor who played the part of ‘Scotty’ in the long running television science fiction programme Star Trek was James Doohan; he lived to the age of 85.

His wife Wendy said she was going to have him cremated and then have his ashes sent into space. Yes, it would appear that almost anything is possible these days. Space Systems Inc, a Texas company, was put in charge of the rocket to take his ashes to deep space.

Wendy and James Doohan agreed that his ashes would be launched into the final frontier, but not from the Starship Enterprise, because it hasn’t been built yet as we’re not far enough in the future, yet.

Some people choose to spent around $4,000 to turn some of their loved one’s ashes into a diamond which can worn as a permanent reminder. It doesn’t take all of a person’s ashes, so a ‘normal’ cremation and scattering can take place as well. One American company now can make diamonds from hair, but they need sufficient from a standard haircut.

Ashes are subjected to immense temperatures using a distinctive technology to copy the development of what takes millions of years naturally to happen within the earth and speeds it up to create a certified, high-quality diamond in just a matter of months. Essentially, they’re extracting the carbon which goes on to form the diamond.

This is also becoming big business for animal lovers. Constant reminders of deceased pets can be changed in diamonds as well.

Our only worry here is if people take hair or ashes of a celebrity and put the resulting diamond on ebay? Some people always push the boat too far.

Of course, if you want to use someone’s hair (with permission) now, you don’t have to wait until they die. You could be wearing a custom made diamond in four months time and then leave it to someone special in your last will and testament.

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компютриWith recent regulations you’ll now have to go to the Land Registry, with your passport photograph, if you want to sell your home.

If you transfer part of all of your property (whether for money or as a gift), you get a new lease on a property, a new mortgage or if you lose your title deeds, you’ll need to complete a new identity form (each if there’s two of you) before you can have the Land Registry accept your paperwork.

When you’ve completed the paperwork you then have to either go to one of the following and pay a fee for them to say ‘yes you are who you say you are’:
1. Solicitor
2. Public notary (you try finding one near you!)
3. Legal executive (do you know any?)
4. A Licensed conveyancer
5. A Land Registry employee.

Don’t forget to get yet another passport photograph that you’ll need to attach to your form.

The first four will cost you money while the latter means a personal trip for you (both) to your local Land Registry office – how many live close to one? They do say that they’ll come out to you (if they can) if you are disabled or have another particular reason to which they agree.

All this after you’ve given your ID to the mortgage company, the IFA and/or mortgage broker, the estate agent, the solicitor/conveyancer. Could they all have failed to get the correct ID before sending your paperwork to the Land Registry?

One wonders where this red tape will end.

Have you ever bought a property under a false name?

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This is the title of a film staring the great Jack Nicholson and the legendary Morgan Freeman. The Bucket List is brilliantly written; the screen play takes us through the last stages of two men’s lives. They are both dying and are into the last few months of their lives, although they don’t know exactly how long they have.

They talk about things they’d like to have done when they were younger, so they form a bucket list – things to do before they kick the bucket.

There’s sky diving; race track driving, climbing a large snow capped mountain – you get the picture.

Luckily, Jack’s character has the money to be able to take the two of them on their wonderful tour of the world.

Unluckily, Morgan’s character has a wife and family at home and after some attempts at ticking items off the bucket list, he calls it a day and goes back to his family.

What would you put on your bucket list?

Would they be sensible?

Would they be achievable; there’s no point in wanting to play centre forward for Manchester United in the European Cup Final if you’re already over 50. Wanting to be centre forward for Southend United will also be out of reach if you’re 50. However, centre forward for your local master’s team (for the over 40’s) is a good bet. It’s a good idea to stretch oneself, but then some stretches are a waste of time and maybe you don’t have that much time. Some will choose to waste it anyway.

How much time do you have? Are you going to use it or waste it? Do you just sit back in your comfortable chair and watch Eastenders back to back because you want to?

If that’s your choice, then it’s your choice. That’s the important part. It’s what we do with the time we have that sets us as different to each other.

In suggesting you get your legal documents up to date and out of the way first, your will, your power of attorney etc, will give you more time to spend with those you love, or those you want to love!

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Our non-caring government is to spend six months looking into social care to see how they can deal with the proposed £6billion shortfall in the system by 2028. They feel a radical shake up of the current system is required – as if the whole population if the UK didn’t know this already.

Personal and nursing care is free in Scotland, whereas Northern Ireland and Wales have the means-tested system that England has. This essentially means that if you own a house and/or have spent your life saving up, most of your assets will be taken by the local authority to pay for your care. If you haven’t bothered to do anything about savings, then the state will provide it for you.

Forecasters suggest that 25% of the UK’s population will be over 65 by 2030 and twice as many people will be over 85.

Gordon Brown said recently that the current means-tested system could seem unfair. The ‘could’ is an understatement; he should have said ‘is’. Ask anyone of the people who had their home taken away from them last year to pay for care in nursing homes.

“This is an issue at the heart of our ambition to create a fairer Britain. Of course, helping relatives is a challenge that most families rise to - however difficult it becomes,” he said.

“But that doesn’t make it any easier. Nor does it remove family worries about providing physical care that is needed - or take away people’s concerns that at some point in the future they may have to sell a treasured home to pay for their own care.

“It is essential that in future there is fairness for those who work hard and save for their retirement.”

As members of the general public we all hope that something can come out of the planned review. The previous prime minister conducted a similar review and then ignored its conclusions which stated that government should pay for care.

To see what you can do under the current rules, seek an appointment with an expert from LSUK who will carefully explain the options open to you. Action sooner rather than later will help you plan ahead of any government compulsory care tax.

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Southwark Council in South London has decided to charge more during busy funeral times of the year. They’re obviously not raising enough from speeding tickets or having one newspaper too many in your bin.

Their report suggested an increase in cremation and burial fees at the start of next January to “maximise the peak demand period”.

January is usually the busiest month of the year for cremations and burials mostly because of the cold period when more older people pass away as they’re most likely to be the weak people.

The council is proposing a 10% increase for cremations and 5% for burials People have already demonstrated outside the council offices due to this outrageous behaviour.

Even Help the Aged have described this latest idea as ‘incredible’.

The part of the funeral, the cremation, will go up from £360 to £396, while burial will go from £745 to £783. To this you need to add the undertaker’s costs, newspaper notices, flowers, cars – the list can on a long way.

To choose the best time to die isn’t really a priority. What is a main concern should be the purchase of a pre-paid funeral plan. The amount paid to the funeral director is agreed in advance and linked to inflation increases. That way you’ll know the task will be completed in the manner that you require it.

Talk to an expert from LSUK and they’ll arrange a meeting with you to go through a pre-paid funeral plan with you. They’ll show you how they work, how your money is kept safe in a trust, how the funeral director makes an agreement with you and you only pay at today’s prices for a funeral at any time in the future.

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