Great 'Unpleasant issues of age chat' Hunt

airgead

I helped my Grandmother with her affairs when she developed dementia. Luckily we were able to have her grant me POA whilst she was still deemed by her doctor to have the capacity to do so, so her finacial affairs were "in order". However, what no-one warned me about (and I was quite angry about it, because she did have a social worker as well as all the medical professionals around her) was the issue of capacity in relation to welfare. When her condition worsened we had to make the difficult decision for her to move a home. But when it came to the time for her to go, we were told that she hadn't the capacity to make the decision, and no-one else had the legal authority to make it for her. This resulted in a 6 MONTH delay whilst a Guardianship order was granted to me. Most of this 6 months was spent in an ordinary hospital ward, completely unsuitable for her. I don't know if the Scottish system and English system differ on this issue, I am in Scotland. But I urge everyone not to take anything for granted, and check everything out before the situation arises.

mary-op

Errata - ref. Cancer research and wills..........when I contacted them last year they sent me a leaflet stating which soliicitors in my area did this -on the leaflet it was classed as 'Cancer Research UK's Freewill service for people over 55'. They hope something will be left to the charity which I did although there was no obligation to do that.
Maybe they don't provide this anymore.

VeeW

Funnily enough it was my Mum (aged 70) who advised me ( aged 50) to make a will. She'd been on at me for a while to do this so when I finished paying for the house I thought maybe it was time. My long term partner and remaining son are my executors but I have not done anything about financial & medical POA, probably as they think I'm crazy now (not a joke). I'm in Scotland so would be grateful if anyone on here could tell me the rules that apply in Scotland & maybe help me decide what's best for me & mine

John_Pierpoint

debtdesperado wrote: »

The other thing to be careful of with wills is that you don't inadvertently disinherit children if you make mirror wills.

Eg, a situation where partner A dies, they have a mirror will so everything goes to their spouse, partner B. The children of A&B expect to inherit when B dies.

Except, partner B remarries to partner C and doesn't make a new will (marriage invalidates existing wills).

Partner B then dies unexpectedly, without a will stating that their assets should go to the A&B children, so partner C inherits everything.

.

"YOU CANNOT TAKE IT WITH YOU"
is a motto that needs repeating.
The intestacy rules cut the children out of the first quarter of a million in favour of the spouse:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ihtmanual/IHTM12122.htm
Interestingly they then go on to give the spouse a life interest in half of the remainder so that on their death that half also goes to the children.
This situation is legally an interest in possession trust and counts for double nil rate band Inheritance Tax purposes, the same way as an outright gift ie the survivor of the couple still has the percentage of the nil rate band not used to be added to his/her nil rate band on the second death:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/intro/transfer-threshold.htm

As this wealth is now in a trust it does not count as an asset of the surviving spouse. So creditors such as the local council for care fees cannot legally claim against it. If the surviving spouse is one of the executors then they are a trustee as well as a beneficiary.

So give this arrangement some consideration when making a will.
The objective should be to live like a lord but die a pauper.

There is something very sad about an elderly person with failing abilities, refusing help and desperately hanging on to the ever increasing complexities of trying to (failing to) manage their own affairs.

Gers

VeeW wrote: »

Funnily enough it was my Mum (aged 70) who advised me ( aged 50) to make a will. She'd been on at me for a while to do this so when I finished paying for the house I thought maybe it was time. My long term partner and remaining son are my executors but I have not done anything about financial & medical POA, probably as they think I'm crazy now (not a joke). I'm in Scotland so would be grateful if anyone on here could tell me the rules that apply in Scotland & maybe help me decide what's best for me & mine

You can find all the info here:
http://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/

My mother is still in Scotland and now aged 83. We set up both financial and welfare papers last year which are now lodged with her solicitor for when the time comes.

It was a fairly simple process and cost about £200.00. I gather that was because the solicitor signed for her mental compentency and did the lodging, however it's possible to do it other ways which cost less.

Both her and I are now content that things are 'sorted' if/when ever she becomes incapacitated so well worth doing.

SEVENOFNINE_2

My situation is completely different to the above posters - I am single, 75 with no close relatives Though I have always had a will prepared and updated each time I go overseas, my problem now is finding executors I can trust. One previous executor (who was also a close, trusted friend) died, leaving me with the problem of finding a replacement. (I have one other executor.)

Can someone tell me where I can get guidance on this matter. Does the OPG administer wills and what percentage of the total estate does it take to do so.

[Deleted User]

I find the `speaking down to` one of the most unpleasant issues of age. I feel like saying `for goodness sake I have a physics degree and can trade the stock market and lok after my dh`s pension etc but I don`t. This apple cheeked grey haired grandmotherly person just thinks it in her mind and has a secret smile. If only THEY knew

dzug1

SEVENOFNINE wrote: »

My situation is completely different to the above posters - I am single, 75 with no close relatives Though I have always had a will prepared and updated each time I go overseas, my problem now is finding executors I can trust. One previous executor (who was also a close, trusted friend) died, leaving me with the problem of finding a replacement. (I have one other executor.)

Can someone tell me where I can get guidance on this matter. Does the OPG administer wills and what percentage of the total estate does it take to do so.

I don't believe the OPG administer wills but ICBW. If they do it may well be an hourly rate rather than a %.

Who are the beneficiaries of your will? One or more of them is a good choice.

Errata

The OPG is a government deparment and cannot execute wills.

alan1025

A previous post was accepted and briefly appeared, but has been removed since.

Possibly because I explained that I obtained the service of a will writer company for preparing a LPA for my mother-in-law,
and as a result of due process it was found that when she added a codicil to her will her local solicitor also sneaked in £100,000 charity aid gift. The will writer company at my request promptly took her instructions and wrote a new will exactly as she wanted.
Their executors were fully armed and prepared to deal with any probate objections from the previous solicitor

One other benefit of a will writer is they can come to the home.

A local will writer visited her 3 or 4 times for various stages of the LPA's and WILL. Had I been needed to drive her to a local solicitor then each time I would have suffered a long journey - she lived 200 miles away.

I wonder if this will get through moderation, or will I get banned !