Inheritance Tax thresholds

The Inheritance Tax threshold (or ‘nil rate band’) is the amount up to which an estate will have no Inheritance Tax to pay.
If the estate – including any assets held in trust and gifts made within seven years of death – is more than the threshold, Inheritance Tax will be due at 40 per […]

Farrah Fawcett’s last Will

The actress we all knew as Farrah Fawcett Majors, due to her marriage to the six million dollar man, Lee Majors, has left some interesting contents in her last will and testament.
Her estate is expected to total around £3.7 million. Firstly that appears to be less than expected because she did sell (not her personally) […]

Holding on to the benefits

Those ‘reservation of benefit’ clauses in Will writing are tricky individuals. The Inland Revenue won’t allow you to give something away and keep using it, in order to avoid taxation at some later stage.
Giving a gift with a reservation of benefit means that the person who gives a gift does so while retaining any further […]

Competition fails to shine

At LSUK, we’re pleased to have competition in the will writing, estate planning, funeral planning and probate market. It ensures we keep up our high standards and also helps our clients know that we charge market prices for our work.
A highly respected company has recently launched in competition against us. Except we’re almost embarrassed to […]

Deprivation of liberty safeguards (part two)

Once authorisation is granted for a person to be deprived of their liberty, the supervisory body will say how long the plan is to last. It shouldn’t be for longer than 12 months.
This is when family/friend support should come into place. You can have your say, you should be consulted and you should be […]

Deprivation of liberty safeguards (part one)

The Department of Health offer booklet number 294019 “Mental Capacity Act 2005 – Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.”
It’s a guide for family, friends and unpaid carers. It takes you through the following agenda:

1. About the booklet
This part explains why you may have been given the booklet. It’s likely you are thinking about changing the way […]

Legacy for your community

Clients often want to leave a legacy of money to a local community venture, but often don’t know which one to choose, especially as they don’t know if it will exist in years to come. So what’s the best way around this situation? You want to leave money to a worthy local cause, but don’t […]

Little girl’s courageous words for Daddy

The memorial service for Michael Jackson could have been extremely ‘tacky.’ Fortunately it wasn’t. The cameras didn’t focus on close ups of family members in their moments of grief, with half the world not at work or play, but watching. The cameras didn’t focus on the coffin. Probably the worst moment was when one singer […]

Living Funerals

This relatively new term is used and arranged for a person who is almost certainly terminally ill or who believes their time left is short.
This gives the person (or their family) time to arrange and manage a formal way to say goodbye and allows those attending to celebrate a life.
Living funerals are becoming more […]

Michael Jackson’s will

American wills are very different from UK wills, in the language that they use, although many clauses mean exactly the same as their UK counterpart.
Michael Jackson’s will is included here for reference and in particular for the references to one of his ex-wives. This type of clause can be used in the UK, but […]