Services

Lasting Powers of Attorney

These are documents that enable you to give legal authority to a person or persons who you trust, called Attorneys, to manage your affairs for you or make decisions on your behalf, when you are not in a position to do so yourself, for example following an accident, stroke or the onset of dementia.

There are two kinds of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA), one that deals with your Property & Financial Affairs and one that deals with your Health and Welfare.

The former would enable your Attorneys to do things like draw your pension or pay your bills or sell your property on your behalf. The latter would enable your Attorneys to make decisions related to your health and personal welfare, for example what sort of care you receive, but this type of LPA can only be used once you lose mental capacity.

Both types of LPA must be registered by the Office of the Public Guardian, before they can be used by your Attorneys.

Although we all tend to think of Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney documents as useful for later life it’s important to think what would happen now if you were unfortunate enough to have an accident or serious illness.

Trusts

Property Protection Trusts

For most people their most valuable asset is the family home.

One of the main concerns people in a relationship have is what would happen if you died and your surviving spouse or partner went on to meet someone new? It’s possible that instead of leaving the house to your children they could leave it to the new partner or spouse. Alternatively, you may have children from a previous relationship for whom you want to protect your half of the house.

We can incorporate a special type of trust in your will, which can ensure that your share of the family home is preserved for your children whilst still allowing your surviving spouse or partner to continue to live in it.

For more elderly people, this type of trust can also be very useful in protecting your house from being used to fund residential care home fees should you need to enter long term care.

Estate Planning Trusts

Flexible Life Interest Trusts

Property Protection Trust Wills are very useful if you are house-rich, but what if you also wanted to ensure your hard earned money passed to your children too, instead of going to any new partner of your surviving spouse or partner? 

Flexible Life Interest Trust Wills are a great way of ensuring that as well the share of the house you own, but also your capital, passes to your children, whilst not only allowing your partner to continue to live in your share of the house until they die, but also being able to use the income from any capital invested.

Again this type of trust is useful in care fees mitigation for those who are concerned about losing their wealth and house to funding their long term residential care.