Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney
In most cases, making a Will is essential to ensure that your wishes are followed when you die. Whilst a Will can set out wishes for the distribution of assets on your death, it can also deal with many other important issues.
It is also important to consider setting up Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA). An LPA is a legal document that allows you to appoint people that you trust to help make decisions with you or on your behalf should you lose mental or physical capacity in the future.
Making a Will
A Will is the legal document outlining your wishes in the event of your death. This could include who cares for your children or pets, what your funeral wishes would be, whether you need to set up a trust arrangement to help any vulnerable family members and what ultimately happens to your property and financial assets.
What to consider when making a Will:
Executors – you can decide who you trust to carry out your wishes and deal with the administration of your estate.
Guardians – you can choose the people who you would like to care for your children until they reach the age of 18.c
Pets – you may want to specify who should look after your pet.
Gifts – you can choose who you would like to receive specific personal items or amounts of money and include any monies to charity.
Vulnerable people – you could make decisions in your Will to protect any vulnerable loved ones.
Main beneficiaries – you can decide who will benefit from your property and money.
Funeral – you can specify whether you would like to be buried or cremated and any specific wishes for what will happen to your ashes
Setting up an LPA
There are two different types of LPAs; one to cover Property and Financial affairs and one to cover Health and Welfare.
A Property and Finance LPA will allow your chosen Attorney(s) to manage your finances and property, for example, dealing with your bank accounts and investments, selling property if necessary and paying bills.
A Health and Welfare LPA will allow your chosen Attorney(s) to make decisions about your health and welfare only when you lack the capacity and are unable to make these decisions for yourself. Such decisions can include giving or refusing consent to medical or life sustaining treatment, choosing where you might live in the future and the type of care that you might receive.
What next?
If you do not have a Will or Lasting Powers of Attorney in place, give some thought to what you want to happen if you died or if you were unable to deal with your own affairs and consider putting these legal documents in place.
If you already have a Will in place, it is important to review this regularly to make sure that it still covers your wishes. Major life events, such as marriage, birth of children and grandchildren or receiving an inheritance can often lead to changing a Will.
If you would like to discuss making a Will or setting up LPAs, Claire Trueman at PFM Dental Legal would be happy to arrange an initial meeting to discuss your situation. Claire can be contacted on claire@pfmlegal.co.uk or 07598 487921.
