Wills, Trusts & Legal Documents Defined

When a Foresight Consultant meets with you, a comprehensive questionnaire is completed and the details you give to Foresight form the ingredients of your Will. These details are translated by our legal team into ‘legal clauses’, providing your Executors with clear directives of your intentions. These technical clauses empower your Executors to act in the best interests of your beneficiaries.

Your completed Will is posted to you and, once you have verified that everything is correct, your Will must be signed, dated and witnessed (clear instructions are given for this process). Your Will is then returned to Foresight for validation and, normally, placed into Secure Storage with Foresight*. Once validated, a copy of your Will is sent to you, along with copies of any other legal documents you have authorised us to prepare. We also send letters to your Executors informing them of their duties and where your Will and other legal documents are stored.

*For the few choosing to store their own Will and legal documents, the originals are returned and Executors etc informed by the client personally.

N.B. For the added benefits of storing your Will with Foresight please see Secure Document Storage.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

If you have a serious accident or illness that prevents you signing any legal documents (anything from paying bills to selling property) who would deal with this? Would you prefer someone you choose or allow the courts to allocate a person for you along with a Court official placed in overall charge and incurring regular Court costs? Lasting Powers of Attorney are the only way to avoid this!

LPA’s come in two individual types, one for property and assets protection and one for personal welfare protection. Individually drafted and separate by design both are legally binding and extremely valuable. These priceless documents enable you to appoint the person or persons of your choice to take control of your financial affairs and personal welfare (even choices about life sustaining treatment) in the event of incapacity through illness, accident, stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s, loss of mental capacity, etc. This provides vital protection for you, your health and welfare, as well as your property (or properties) and all your assets. An LPA need not take effect immediately but, in the event of incapacity, for whatever reason, the LPA will provide you with peace of mind that a person or persons you have chosen, and not the courts are managing all your affairs.

If this document isn’t in place then bank accounts, assets, investments and even house sales can be frozen for many, many months bringing undue and unnecessary pressures. It is strange but true that unless you have a Power of Attorney in place you could require your partner or family to go to Court for permission to handle your financial affairs and even your personal welfare, with regular heavy Court costs involved, leaving you accountable to a designated court officer. LPA’s resolve these issues now and on into the future. To have the documents in place, even if they lie dormant, puts you in the driving seat, eliminates the Court’s charges and prevents a stranger overseeing your financial affairs and personal well being.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

Do you realise that your home could be required to be sold to pay for long-term care leaving your family members disinherited? However there is a way to protect at least half of the value of your home. What happens should there be a divorce or death followed by re-marriage – this could also lead to beneficiaries being disinherited!

LONG TERM CARE PROTECTION:

Most people purchase their property jointly and you would assume this is the most logical and very best way, but this is not the case! In order to protect at least half the value of the home from being legally used to pay for long- term care, Foresight arranges a Severance of Tenancy with The Land Registry whereby the owners then become Tenants in Common. This reduces the automatic ruling of 100% of your home being liable for care costs to a maximum of 50%. This wise planning only works to your advantage when a Property Protection Trust** is dovetailed into your Will to create this highly significant financial protection.

**PROPERTY PROTECTION TRUST:

Designed to be used with the Severance of Tenancy, the Property Protection Trust is written into the Will and is activated when the first spouse/partner dies. At this point the deceased’s 50% share of the property is placed into the Trust. The Will, through the Trust, has already nominated who the chosen beneficiaries of the property will be, usually the children. However, the Trust is there to protect the surviving spouse/partner, ensuring he/she can live in the property for the remainder of their lives before the children/beneficiaries can ever inherit. This Trust also allows the surviving spouse/partner to move home if they so wish. The Trust has great flexibility in how its assets can be used, initially for the benefit of the surviving spouse and ultimately for the children/beneficiaries.

DEATH OR RE-MARRIAGE PROTECTION:

The Property Protection Trust, alongside securing the above long term care protection, gives you peace of mind that your partner cannot be forced to leave the home before their death. The Trust also ensures that should your partner remarry, your own chosen beneficiaries won’t be disinherited.

N.B. This severing of the tenancy will not affect your mortgage should you have one.

HELPFUL EXPLANATION IN SAVING YOUR HOME FROM CARE COSTS

Should a person with assets in excess of around £20,000 go into care, that person is liable for their personal care costs. Having exhausted any cash available, the local authority could then look to recover its costs by forcing the sale of the family home.

Many think that by transferring the ownership of the home to the children provides an answer but this does not legally work and can result in disaster as outlined below:

1. Gifting the property, but continuing to live in it, is not a “true gift” in law unless you pay a full market rent – it’s called “reservation of benefit”.
2. From the date of the gift, it will not be the primary residence of the ‘new’ owner and it will therefore qualify for Capital Gains Tax on any increase in the value.
3. If your child becomes involved in divorce or bankruptcy, your house will be one of their assets to be claimed in the legal proceedings.
4. If your child dies before you, your house will be part of their estate and go to their beneficiaries.
5. If your relationship with your child breaks down, your ability to remain in your house would be prejudiced.
6. Income Tax on the rental value of your house will be payable every year.

Clearly these factors make gifting the house a very risky and expensive affair.

However by Severing the Tenancy and building into your Will Property Protection Trusts, which is perfectly legal, the amount that can be levied upon your property by the local authority becomes a maximum of 50% as previously outlined.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

Designed for those with significant investments, The FLIT offers all the benefits of the Property Protection Trust – and more!

The Flexible Life Interest Trust works alongside the Severance of Tenancy and is an alternative to the Property Protection Trust. As well as offering protection of property, this Trust also creates protection of further investments and liquid assets from long-term care costs or death and remarriage by placing both property and investments into the Trust.

By definition, this Trust has great flexibility to ensure the surviving spouse/partner can access the funds in a variety of ways for the remainder of his/her life after which the nominated beneficiaries, usually the children, will inherit. The flexible nature of this Trust allows, for example, assets in the Trust to be invested to earn interest for the surviving spouse/partner. Loans can be withdrawn but must be repaid before or on death and even non-repayable capital may be received from this Trust.

The FLIT can be converted into other types of Trusts should legal requirements in the future deem it necessary. Your Consultant will be pleased to explain the benefits of this Trust for those who have substantial investments and wish to ensure the maximum from their estate goes to their chosen beneficiaries and not to the State!

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

This information is essential for unmarried parents!

For children born prior to December 2003:
Where a father is not and has not been married to the mother of his child and does not appear on the birth certificate, the father has no parental responsibility for that child. Essentially this means that the natural father was not able to register the birth, or is able to make decisions over medical care, choose Guardians or have any other controls that a parent would take for granted. In effect, the father is not legally recognised as a parent. The father may sign a Parental Responsibility Agreement with the mother giving the father equal rights to those of the mother.

For children born after December 2003:
The law eventually changed for unmarried parents who register the birth of their child together, the law will now recognise the father’s right to parental responsibility for the child.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

If you live with your partner, are not married but wish to protect your combined and individual assets from Inheritance Tax, a Discretionary Trust within your Will may be the best option for you. Married Couples automatically experience the tax saving benefits that this Trust offers. Discretionary Trusts can be used in a variety of ways for Estate Planning for single, married and unmarried partners whilst still alive as well as within a Will upon death.

Discretionary Trusts have been a feature of UK Trust Law for many years and enable very real protection of the assets of the Estate. Trustees hold power of discretion to hold or distribute the assets, or the income from those assets for those beneficiaries named in the Trust Document. These beneficiaries may include individuals (e.g. a widow) or classes of people (e.g. children or grandchildren).

The Trustees have complete discretion on how the assets and the income are to be responsibly distributed amongst the beneficiaries. It is, therefore, important to choose the Trustees with care.

N.B. Discretionary Trusts can save substantial amounts of Inheritance Tax for partners.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

For many, there is no greater pleasure than ensuring the next generations are provided for!

These valuable Trust documents allow your nominated Trustees to take care of your children or grandchildren’s needs until they have reached maturity! You can decide at which age they inherit with a minimum age of 18.

Trustees have access to the Trust Funds and apply them to assist the beneficiaries. For example this may be to pay for education costs, a car, a deposit for their first property, etc. In other words, to do what the parents would have done, had they still been alive.

Foresight also offer Estate Planning whilst still alive to greatly benefit your children or grandchildren and to enable potential Inheritance Tax saving through the use of, for example, an Educational Trust.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

If you were unable to communicate your wishes to Doctors or family regarding life sustaining issues would it have been preferable to have made those wishes known whilst still able to express your desires?

The British Medical Council now recognises that personal medical preferences are important and recording these desires in an Advance Medical Directive (otherwise known as a Living Will) reinforces the wishes of the individual. The documents, usually addressed to the family physician alongside family members, contain a simple expression of the desires of the individual if medical intervention was required.

The Living Will only takes effect after you are unable to communicate your wishes verbally regarding treatment and you can therefore no longer engage in decisions concerning your life. These Wills are only valid if, at the time of request, you were deemed mentally capable and mindful of the consequences of your decision. Living Wills can be reversed at any stage if you are still mentally capable. We suggest you seek medical and family advice as you undertake these important and potentially life changing decisions.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

Understanding that disabled persons have individual requirements, this Trust offers peace of mind to families and carers that the very best future has been planned for.

This form of Discretionary Trust allows Trustees to attend to the particular needs of the individual and to handle the specialised requirements of a disabled person. These are written in such a way that any monies held within the Trust for the disabled person do not affect any Statutory Disability Benefits due to the individual, and will normally last for the whole lifetime of the beneficiary.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

Do you have family members who, for valid reasons, you do not wish to inherit from your estate? The Potential Claimant Exclusion is designed with this in mind…

The law states that certain people could have a right to benefit from your Estate. It is increasingly documented that people are exercising this right irrespective of the client’s wishes. The best way to safeguard against this is by taking out a Potential Claimant Exclusion (also referred to as a Family Provision Claim Form) and clearly stating that an individual has been deliberately excluded from the Will, or provided for separately outside the terms of the Will.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

Paying for your funeral ahead of time will ensure today’s prices are fixed and every detail is taken care of, ensuring your family are confident of your wishes.

Funeral costs continue to rise every year (70% in the last 10 years). It is advisable to save future expenses by prepaying for your funeral now. Foresight work alongside approved partners to give you the assurance that every finest detail of your funeral has been thought through and taken care of. There is a choice of 3 excellent Plans and payment is flexible.

All three levels of plan guarantee that the services of the funeral director will be provided as specified and there will never be more to pay for those services. The Funeral Plan carries with it the great advantage of fixing the price at today’s cost.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

You are one phone call away from all the details of your wishes being administered with dignity and care.

Normally you will need a Grant of Probate as an Executor before organisations holding the deceased’s assets will release them to you. The Grant acts as proof that you are the person entitled to deal with the Estate. Estate administration can be an extremely daunting task for someone who has recently lost a loved one and dealing with the Courts, the Banks and the Inland Revenue is time consuming, often confusing and emotionally draining. Foresight can take care of everything on your behalf, should you so wish, through our partnership with a highly professional and compassionate Probate Service provider.

Useful tips for those not wishing to use Foresight:

1. Collect the necessary forms from the Probate Registry.
2. Return the completed forms with the Will and Death Certificate to the Probate Registry.
3. An appointment will be set for you to swear an affidavit.
4. Once you have the Grant from The Probate Registry, you can begin cashing in all assets.
5. Keep the original Will safe and don’t staple or attach anything to it in any way.
6. Obtain several copies of the Grant from the Probate Registry so all claims can be dealt with at the same time. Photocopies are not valid.
7. Keep a diary of all visits, letters and phone calls.
8. Make photocopies of all letters and documents.
9. Open an Executor account to keep monies separate from your own.
10. Pay off any outstanding debts, funeral bills, etc.
11. Pay any legacies and give any gifts mentioned in the Will.
12. Distribute the residuary Estate.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.

Ensuring peace of mind and knowing that your most important documents are safe is of the highest priority.

A lost Will is the same as dying intestate (the whole circumstances created as a result of someone dying and not having a Will). To avoid taking the risk of these documents being lost, damaged or destroyed in which case trying to prove the contents becomes almost impossible, secure storage with Foresight comes highly recommended.

It is advised that Wills and other related legal documents be stored with Foresight. Your Will can be easily serviced, updated or amended for a small administrative charge and all your documents are only one phone call away from having them safely delivered to your Executors or for your Executors to instruct our Probate team to commence carrying out your wishes immediately. It is advisable for you, particularly in cases where there is Trust work to be carried out on first death, that you store your documents with us at Foresight. We are then in a position to advise the surviving spouse the best way forward to activate the requirements of the Trusts.

NB: Any other legal documents such as House Deeds etc may also be stored with your Will at no additional cost to you.

For further information please click here or telephone 01603 268 080.