Probate, Wills, Trusts And Lasting Powers Of Attorney Articles

A Will is a document that you create, and it details who is to benefit from your estate on your death. A Will is a document that should ideally be drawn up by a solicitor. This is due to the potential complications that can arise from homemade Wills. These include invalidity, unclear instructions and accidental beneficiaries. It is highly recommended that you see a solicitor, especially if you have more than one beneficiary in your Will.

A new Government scheme is managing partial refunds to people who were overcharged when paying the registration fee/s for Lasting Power of Attorneys (LPAs) between 1/4/2013 and 31/3/2017.

The Court of Protection and its powers is an area I am advising clients on more and more. I was recently asked to dispel some common urban myths surrounding the Court of Protection for the benefit of my colleagues, and I realised that there were no urban myths because the Court of Protection was not common knowledge.

The process of making a Will does not have to be as complicated as you may think. Don’t think of it as morbid instead think about it as another insurance policy or as making provision for the future.

Our team of Solicitors consists of dedicated specialists and lawyers who deal with Employment law, Family law, Wills and Probate, Residential Conveyancing, Commercial law and Dispute Resolution. Each team has vast experience collectively and have wide, in-depth knowledge of all possible matters and disputes.

Our team of Solicitors consists of dedicated specialists and lawyers who deal with Employment law, Family law, Wills and Probate, Residential Conveyancing, Commercial law and Dispute Resolution. Each team has vast experience collectively and have wide, in-depth knowledge of all possible matters and disputes.

The Purpose of a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is to give the legal authority to a person/s of your choice (called your Attorney(s)) allowing them to make important financial decisions on your behalf if you lose capacity and are unable to make these decisions yourself.

When the former dance partner of a 70 year old Berkshire woman passed away, she expected to receive a large pay out from his Will as they had lived together as ‘man and wife’ for over seven years.

Lawson-West Solicitors in Leicester, Market Harborough and Wigston prepare many Wills each year for clients. As part of our service we provide free Will registration with Certainty which is a national Will database endorsed by the Law Society.

Here is something I guarantee you have not previously considered - what happens to your social media accounts when you pass away? Making your Will is an ideal time to think about your ‘online self’ alongside your ‘real’ assets and preparing for times when you are no longer around.

I recently read an article entitled ‘you’d have to be mad to marry in later life’ where the author pointed out that marriage in your later years would most likely disinherit your children, cause family disputes and result in costly solicitor fees to sort out your estate. She cited ‘inheritance tax laws being so complicated’ as a reason not to remarry, and, after quoting all of these reasons, stated that later marriages are a ‘late-life lunacy’.

When thinking about our assets, most of us make a list of those things that we know are valuable: our homes, our bank accounts, perhaps our shares in companies and our pension pots, but do we think about those not so apparent assets?
Director Vicky Jones is nominated in the Businesswoman of the Year category and Trainee Solicitor Phoebe Tranter is up for the Apprentice of the Year award.

Newspaper stories published on Tuesday, report that the majority of his £17 million wealth has been left to his wife of 34 years in order to avoid Inheritance Tax. The reports have also said that current UK law states that spouses can hand over their assets without being taxed – something the Wills and Probate team at Lawson-West are keen to put into perspective.

We are aiming to raise vital funds for nine of the UK’s best loved charities, after signing up for Will Aid, the annual charity will writing campaign.

Ella also told us about the Canine Care Card, a card that a person registers that reflects their wishes for their dog to be rehomed by the Dogs Trust if they pass away first.
This scheme is so valuable and will hopefully encourage people who may have been reluctant about rehoming a dog (perhaps due to age) that it will continue to be cared for when they are no longer able to care for the dog themselves.

The daughter of a successful London businessman recently went to court to claim £300,000 of his estate after she was left out of his will...

Leicestershire Law Firm Lawson-West has appointed an experienced Chartered Legal Executive to its Planning, Protection and Probate department which is overseen by Director Vicky Jones.

The Law Commission for England and Wales has said that current will writing methods need to be modernised, they have suggested that electronic communications such as text messages and emails could be used as a will in certain circumstances.

Recent surveys have discovered four out of five local authorities do not provide sufficient care for the older generations in their community, with the shortage affecting some of the most vulnerable in society...

Recent statistics show that 32% of British people are adding provisions to their Will to ensure that their social media pages are maintained and updated after they die...

There have been two stories in the media recently which relate to the subject of Wills and Probate – an area which Lawson-West are experts in.

There has been a story is the press recently about a daughter who was written out of her mother's Will. The older lady passed away in 2004 and had been estranged from her daughter since 1978 when they fell out over the daughter’s choice of boyfriend.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost its bid to charge inheritance tax on farmhouses where the farmland and farmhouse are not owned by the same person...
The Law Society recently announced that it would create an accreditation scheme for firms providing Will-writing, probate and estate administration services in order to differentiate solicitors from other providers...
By the time she died in 2011 at age 104, the daughter of America’s second-richest man, Huguette Clark had lived as a recluse for more than half a century, spending her last 20 years confined to a New York hospital room...
Under current legislation, children and cohabitees who find themselves excluded in someone’s will are unable to contest it if the deceased didn’t live in England or Wales...
Following a theme addressed in popular ITV drama Downton Abbey recently, The Law Society is advising the public about the importance of writing a will...
The Supreme Court has ruled that disputed Wills should be interpreted using the same rules at those that apply to the interpretation of contracts. The judgment was made in a case involving mirror Wills, where the husband and wife had signed each other’s Wills by mistake...
The Law Society has issued controversial guidance to solicitors which may mean they are able to write “Sharia compliant” Islamic wills that deny women an equal share of inheritances and exclude unbelievers altogether...
Figures released recently show that battles in Court where an executor of a Will is accused of mishandling an estate have multiplied threefold in the past 12 months...
Eirian Davies, a farmer's daughter who was nicknamed 'the Cowshed Cinderella', has now won the right to a larger share of her parents' farm following a decision by the Court of Appeal...
A man who swindled his brother out of a share of a £1.5 million inheritance has been found guilty of five counts of fraud...
Following complaints from clients across the country, the Legal Ombudsman has called on the government to consider making will writing a reserved legal activity. Currently, there is no regulatory body covering will writing and the Ombudsman faced over 1000 wills and probate related claims in 2013...
The Law Society has warned that over a million unmarried couples face the threat of inheriting nothing should their partner die without making a Will if they have dependent children. This applies equally to same sex couples who have not married or entered into a civil partnership...
The use of social media in our day to day lives can no longer be ignored. Unfortunately these accounts still need to be monitored after someone passes away...
A lawyer from the Midlands has helped a man to uphold his right to inherit under the will of his partner, the ecologist Elizabeth Walker, following a legal challenge by her daughters...
Families with holiday homes in Europe have been advised to update their Wills following a change to EU succession laws, which now make it easier for British families to bypass prescriptive inheritance laws in countries such as France and Spain...
Leicestershire law firm Lawson-West has received dozens of calls from HSBC customers who are worried about their Wills following the bank’s decision to pull out of probate services...
The worry of what will happen to your children when you pass away is something that concerns most parents. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that your children will be looked after by someone they are close to or indeed who you can trust when you pass away...
In a recent case heard at York Crown Court, a woman stole her sister's £50,000 inheritance by moving money out of their mother's bank account over a period of six years before she died. She is currently waiting to be sentenced for theft, and has been ordered to repay the money within six months...
The widely publicised case of a disinherited woman who successfully contested her mother’s will has led more people to check their own wills, reports a Leicestershire law firm...
One of the most frustrating moments as a probate lawyer is receiving a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) requesting a schedule of assets and liabilities as they are investigating payments made to the deceased. Often this process is drawn out and incredibly time consuming for all involved...
The well- known rule of forfeiture states that if you are responsible for the murder or manslaughter of a person, you cannot benefit from their estate...