Cremation business

We may not want to think of cremating people as a business, but it is. The running and finances of a crematorium are controlled as businesses.
There are 200+ crematoriums in the UK, with three quarters owned by local councils. Thirty are owned by Dignity, ten by Westerleigh and ten are privately owned. If you wanted […]

Michael Jackson: dead at aged 50

You never know when death can strike. Often without any warning whatsoever, another life is taken away.
Today, Britain will be waking up to hear that Michael Jackson died from a heart attack at his home, yesterday. No warning, no notice. Not even enough time to get him to a hospital for potential health support.
The world […]

Help when someone dies

Friends and family will always (hopefully) be around you when a close family, friend or colleague dies. You’ll need their support. Sometimes, though, you need to by yourself and reading about death and how to cope with it can be equally advantageous.
This website http://www.obituarieshelp.org/ was started after the owner realized that there wasn’t really […]

Not all Inheritance Tax is equal

While all UK domiciled people are entitled to the full tax free band, if your spouse or civil partner is domiciled outside of the UK, then the UK government only allows an exemption of UK inheritance tax on a band of up to £55,000.
For this lower figure to be effective, the transferor is domiciled in […]

No Will hits home

It’s not just the so called ‘regular’ person with moderate wealth who can make a hash of either not having a Will or not making it complete. Here’s a couple of examples, from a Daily Telegraph article, of how either not making your Will, or not having it witnessed can cause real family hardship, even […]

Revocation clause

What is it and why do we have them in Will Writing?
It is a clause that is almost always at the beginning of a will. It sets out the information for all to understand that this Will being written now, revokes (gets rid of) all former Wills. In other words, this is now the only […]

The attestation clause

This is the wording at the end of a last will and testament where the will is executed – in other words – signed by the testator (the person making the will) and the two witnesses.
The probate registry will need to know that this part of the will has been carried out correctly.
A will is […]

Correct execution is essential.

This has nothing to do with standing people up in front of a firing squad and shooting them properly, although if your Will hasn’t been executed correctly, it may become your wish.
Execution, in legal terms, is the signing and witnessing of your last will and testament – your Will. If it isn’t carried out correctly, […]

Can I contest a will?

All Wills can be contested, even if the will was correctly written and executed (signed and witnessed). This may comes as a surprise to you, but it’s a guiding principal under UK law that people can check to see if the will was written correctly and a judge will decide, even if he refuses the […]

Am I a Tenant or a home owner?

This isn’t a trick question. The answer would usually strike you as obvious, but a quirk of the law shows us that words we believe we know, mean something else in law.
You’d usually associate being a ‘tenant’ as being someone that pays rent on a property you don’t own. This is true. However you can […]