Wills and LPA's

A will is your only opportunity to set out your intentions for your property and assets when you die, but it is surprising how many people avoid and delay making these important decisions. 

At DS Legal, our experts guide you through the process of will making and are sensitive to all the issues of preparing and drafting a will. We pride ourselves on our personal approach. 

Your will needs to be kept up-to-date to reflect any changes in your personal circumstances and wishes for your estate, for example, if you decide to live with your partner, marry or get divorced, start a business, or inherit assets. At DS Legal, we are on hand to update your will to reflect any changes to your personal, financial and business circumstances.

Drafting a will is important because:  If you die without a will, there are certain rules which dictate how your assets may be apportioned.  This may not be the way that you would have wished your money and possessions to be distributed.

- Unmarried partners and partners who have not registered a civil partnership cannot inherit from each other unless there is a will, so the death of one partner may create serious financial problems for the remaining partner.

- If you have children, you will need to make a will so that arrangements for the children can be made if either one or both parents die.  There will be considerations such as who would care for your child, where will they live?   Decisions need to be considered about education and how that will be paid for.  

- It may be possible to reduce the amount of tax payable on the inheritance if advice is taken in advance and a will is made.  While we do not offer tax advice, we can advise you on the type of expert that would be able to assist.  

- If your circumstances have changed, it is important that you make a will to ensure that your money and possessions are distributed according to your wishes. For example, if you have separated and your ex-partner now lives with someone else, you may want to change your will. If you are married or enter into a registered civil partnership, this will make any previous will you have made invalid.

You should think carefully about who you would like to be as  Executors as these are the people who will be responsible for carrying out your wishes and for sorting out the estate.  They will have to collect together all the assets of the estate, deal with all the paperwork and pay all the debts, taxes, funeral and administration costs out of money in the estate. 

They will need to pay out the gifts and transfer any property to beneficiaries. 

It is not necessary to appoint more than 1 executor although it is advisable to do so.  

You should always approach anyone you are thinking of appointing as an executor to see if they will agree to take on the responsibility. If someone is appointed who is not willing to be an executor, they have a right to refuse.

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people you trust (known as ‘attorneys’) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf. This gives you more control over what happens to you if you have an accident or an illness and can’t make your own decisions (you ‘lack mental capacity’). 

The Donor must be 18 years or over and have mental capacity (the ability to make your own decisions) at the time of making the LPA. There are two types of LPA. 

There is a LPA which is designed to help or makes decisions on your behalf in relation to your health and welfare; and there is another LPA which is designed to help or makes decisions on your behalf in relation to property and financial affairs.

You can choose to make one type or both. First however, you need to choose who should take on this responsibility and whether there should be more than one “Attorney”.

When choosing more than one “Attorney” you will then need to decide whether the decisions they make on your behalf can be made “separately” or “jointly and together.” In the case of the latter they both/all need to agree on the decision. You can also choose to let them make some decisions ‘jointly’, and others ‘jointly and severally’. Subject to the above the “Attorney” can be: a friend, a relative, a professional or a spouse or partner. 

An Attorney cannot be someone:

Under 18 years of age 

Someone who is subject to a debt relief order 

Or is bankrupt; 

In brief you need to trust your Attorney completely as you are possibly handing over your assets and welfare to that person/s. 

Our costs Irrespective of time we spend with you, whether this is one hour or more, we will charge a Fixed fee of £375 plus vat plus registration fee for your LPA. In the event that you enter into LPAs for both health and finance then we will reduce our fee to £600 plus vat and registration fee

For most  standard wills we will consider providing a fixed fee charge of £275.00 plus vat for a single will or £500.00 plus vat for joint/mirror wills. 

In the event that your plans or requests are more complex then we will agree with you in advance, what our charges will be, based upon an assessment of how long it will take for us to ensure that your will fully reflects your intentions.  In these circumstances  such charges will be based upon our hourly charging rate, which is set out in our Terms and conditions.  We will of course discuss and agree likely costs at the start of our meeting and provide you with a range in which those costs will fall.

We always recommend that you register your will, and there may be a small charge by a third party for doing this, particularly if you use a commercial agency such as Wills Certainty.  You can of course register your will with JMCTS for a one-off charge of £22 to deposit a will or its codicil.