Avoid Estate Planning Pitfalls: Protect Your Wishes
Which of these Disasters may befall you or yours?
1) Mum, Betty, was designated as without mental capacity by Social Services, so they moved her into a care home against her and the family's wishes. This is a specific true story and is partly due to the gross underfunding of Social Services and a lack of foresight by Betty and her family.
Result: The daughter ended up under arrest for looking after her mother as she would have wished (she took her out of the care home). Mother taken back to care home she did not wish to be in.
Contact Steve Pett on 01323 766766 to discuss Lasting Powers of Attorney.
More information on my website.
2) Johns’ Will was a superb and expensive Tax Planning Will with Nil Rate Band IOU trusts. But it hadn’t been reviewed in 15 years.
Result: not tax saving, just an extra tax bill of £140,000. Things change – tax, the Law, family circumstances.
Contact Steve Pett to discuss a FREE REVIEW – he recommends one every 3 years unless something significant happens in between. 01323 766766
3) A variation on 1) – Mum had an Enduring Power of Attorney but lost “mental capacity.”
Result: the family paid the Care Home fees but were not allowed to choose the care home, as Mum had not sorted out a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney.
4) James and Jenny had a seriously disabled son, Jerome, who inherited everything when they were killed in a car crash.
Social Services were relieved as this meant he was not entitled to any benefits until the £300,000 he inherited was pretty much gone. They applied to be his Deputy and took charge of everything,
Action point: special Wills needed, giving special tax benefits and appointing
5) Wendy and William had lived together in Williams house for 20 years. Everyone thought they were married, but they were not. William died without a Will.
Result: Wendy got nothing automatically, she had to employ a specialits contentious probate solicitor (fortunately, she had a few thousand in savings) to make a claim against his estate which would otherwise be wholly inherited by William's aged mother who suffered from dementia and was in a care home paid for by Social Services who were keenly looking forward to the sale of Williams house. Would she succeed?
Action point: unmarried couples really need to sort their legal planning out – contact Steve on 01323 766 766.
Book a FREE REVIEW and he will advise you what should ideally be done, and give you a quotation for any work he recommends, at very sensible fees. Then it is up to you.
The author has nothing against Social Services – they do a fine if underfunded job.
Stephen Pett has been a professional Will Writer since 2001, has been Chairman of the Sussex Region of the Society of Will Writers for more than a decade and is currently revising his book on Inheritance Tax Planning. He is based in Polegate.
